Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Folks, have a peculiar problem and any help would be greatly appreciated (as always).

I am arriving in Dubai next week to join work there. Plan was to have my residence visa (from Sharjah) in place and then sponsor my wife.

In the meantime, my wife has been looking for a job as well and a company based out of Dubai has called her for an interview on 22 July. They are willing to get her a visit visa so she can travel for the interview.

The dilema is that I had planned on applying for her residence visa as soon as my residence/work visa came through - by 10 July (I've been told). However, now that her interviewer is getting her a visit visa for later in July, I was wondering if I can parallely apply for and process her residence visa before she enters the UAE? Or do I have to wait for her to enter the UAE in July (on her visit visa from the interviewer) and then leave the UAE before I can apply for and process her visit visa?

She plans to be in UAE just for a day on her visit visa for the interview.

Any thoughts?

syiem wrote:Folks, have a peculiar problem and any help would be greatly appreciated (as always).

I am arriving in Dubai next week to join work there. Plan was to have my residence visa (from Sharjah) in place and then sponsor my wife.

In the meantime, my wife has been looking for a job as well and a company based out of Dubai has called her for an interview on 22 July. They are willing to get her a visit visa so she can travel for the interview.

The dilema is that I had planned on applying for her residence visa as soon as my residence/work visa came through - by 10 July (I've been told). However, now that her interviewer is getting her a visit visa for later in July, I was wondering if I can parallely apply for and process her residence visa before she enters the UAE? Or do I have to wait for her to enter the UAE in July (on her visit visa from the interviewer) and then leave the UAE before I can apply for and process her visit visa?

She plans to be in UAE just for a day on her visit visa for the interview.

Any thoughts?

Which nationality are you guys?

We're both Indian.

From what i see you are in sharjah, i dunno about their policies, But if on Dubai Visa you can get your wife on your sponsorship in 3 days flat if shes in the country. Will have to spend 500 +100AED for urgent visa charges more to get her visa stamped without exiting. So if you are able to do that, i guess she doesnt have to come on a visit by the company provided she is already with you when u come to Dubai(on a visit ofcourse).

Orelse the other option is get her visa and send it to India and get it stamped on entry, shud take about seven- 10 days(again if u pay the urgent visa fees).

All the above are time lines for Dubai including the medicals.

DP sorry

thanks jeevan. should work. also, since I have a sharjah visa (but work in Dubai) and if she gets the job, her employer will be in Dubai, does it make sense for her to get her employer to sponsor her visa or for me to sponsor her visa and she can then work on it?

It would be better of course if her work sponsored her Visa, but she hasn't got the job yet.

like Ian said its always better to have her on her own visa, that way you can be independent of each other. tomorrow if you decide to change your job, she will not be affected as she is on her own visa, also people on their own visa normally get more benefits than people on husbands sponsorship.

But then on the flip side, she wont be able to jump jobs:), womwn on husbands visa are usually known for changing jobs faster than u can say hey.


cheers,

J

Look here for more info:

http://www.dubaiforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=8212

hi there, just one point.
you cannot have two applications for the same person in the immigration system at the same time. you need to make a decision one or the other. i'd opt for the residency visa - to save you time and money, and that is your final objective in anycase.

good point dbxsoul. Problem is that wife's dubai travel date is fixed and I may not be able to get her residence visa organised by then. so would be best to let the company arranging her travel sponsor her visit visa as well. Once she exits Dubai after her meeting, I will start processing her residence visa.

If she gets the job, I suppose she can enter Dubai on her residence visa (sponsored by me) and then change over to a visa sponsored by her employer?

dbxsoul wrote:hi there, just one point.
you cannot have two applications for the same person in the immigration system at the same time. you need to make a decision one or the other. i'd opt for the residency visa - to save you time and money, and that is your final objective in anycase.

I'm confused (not a rare event) how does the residency visa thru husband save time and money? If she get a visa true the Employer it will cost her nothing! The Employer does the works and pays, etc. Arguably the salary given takes that into account but there is no outlay of cash by the employee.

syiem wrote:good point dbxsoul. Problem is that wife's dubai travel date is fixed and I may not be able to get her residence visa organised by then. so would be best to let the company arranging her travel sponsor her visit visa as well. Once she exits Dubai after her meeting, I will start processing her residence visa.?

think this may be the most expediant way of doing it.

If she gets the job, I suppose she can enter Dubai on her residence visa (sponsored by me) and then change over to a visa sponsored by her employer

most married (employed) women i know prefer to remain on their husbands residency visa, and only have their labour card sponsored by the company. there is an issue here as it costs more to process the labour application this way, and if i'm not mistaken it has to be renewed every year not every 3 as with a normal labour sponsorship. this includes a yearly medical (not 3 yearly).

the reason many of them did this was the old double ban that used to exist - residency ban as well as a labour ban - under the old system if they were employed totally under the employers sponsorship they could actually be banned and forced to leave the country (married or not), remaining under their husbands sponsorship circumnavigated this.

with the new 6 month labour ban they get to stay in the country, but not work for 6 months - my wife actually went through this process!

as the old double ban has fallen away i can't see any real reason/ advantage to staying under a spouses residency sponsorship - the actual advantage to moving directly under the employers sponsorship may be that the employee is not a "dependant" an may be eligible for a housing subsidy in her own right. previously in many cases women working under thier husbands sponsorship were penalised and not paid some of the full perks that a single person may ... housing being the main issue.

always bear in mind that the dubai labour law is very fickle, there may only be a 6 month labour ban today, but tomorrow without warning they may institue a double ban system again... it's happend in the past and no doubt will happen in the future ...

I'm confused (not a rare event) how does the residency visa thru husband save time and money? If she get a visa true the Employer it will cost her nothing! The Employer does the works and pays, etc. Arguably the salary given takes that into account but there is no outlay of cash by the employee.

concord, my humblest appologies... you are 100% right ... i must have been daydreaming when i wrote that... i must have miss-read the post and thought that the husband was sponsoring the visit visa ..