UAE Golden Visa: Dubai issues over 150,000 long-term residencies

Over 151,600 Golden Visas were issued in Dubai between 2019 and 2022.

This came in an annual report issued by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai. The long-term residence visa that is issued for 10 years enables eligible expats to live, work or study in the UAE while enjoying exclusive benefits.

The GDRFA also said that 15,542,384 entry and residency permits were issued, and that there has been an increase of 43 per cent in terms of work volume in comparison to 2020-2021. The report added that several initiatives and innovative services were launched, which led to increasing the level of happiness amongst users of GDRFA services to reach (96 per cent), and their partners (100 per cent).

Another initiative launched to achieve the paperless strategy and to decrease the use of papers by 100 per cent was a call service centre. It was introduced, as a trial, in 60 Amer centres and several tourism companies in the third quarter of this year. The service was launched on the official website and was made available in both the morning and evening; all front-desk employees will be trained on the service and on all plans to roll out the project around the clock.

In the first phase of the project, 2,868 transactions were completed. The second phase will be rolled out in the first quarter of 2023. The entry permits sector achieved nearly 99 per cent when it comes to the implementation of its operational plan, and nearly 94.6 per cent improvement in their main operations – while also achieving 100 per cent of digital transformation for entry and residency permits.

It also achieved 82.2 percent for innovation readiness and the rates of employee happiness and corporate flexibility ranged between 93 per cent and 100 per cent during the last year. “These results are due to the hard work of all employees working in the department,” said Major General Mohamed Ahmed Al Marri, Director General of GDRFA.

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