Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum Dubai Visa

I am Canadian, my wife is Chinese. We are moving to Dubai in September. My employer will not provide my wife a spousal Visa, so we need to find some way to keep her in the Emirates with me. Is it possible for her to buy visiting Visas every month? We would be willing to do this. I used to live in Dubai and remember seeing many Chinese people traveling to Oman and back to renew their Visas. Does anyone know how Visas work for Chinese citizens? I've called the Emirate consulate here in China and in Canada, but neither are clear on the process for Chinese passport holders (weird). They've told us to contact travel companies, but here in China travel companies are very fraudulent.

Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

I know people used to do that a few years ago, but I don't know if it's still allowed. There were also different rules for different nationalities. When I first came here I drove my family over the Oman boarder and turned around and came back as we have Australian passports, but I understood East Asians had to stay overnight and come back the next day.

It doesn't sound like such a great arrangement. Maybe you should consider going to Canada instead.

--- Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:51 am ---

The local travel agents who arrange trips to Oman seem to know the details of how to renew a visa. Problem is that officially, there is no such mechanism in place to renew visas and the rules can change without notice. I recall a few years ago, many Asian workers were stranded for some time in Iran unable to re-enter the UAE as the rules had changed without notice.

Thank you very much for the info. Yes, I did the exact same thing for 3 years as a Canadian (in/out every 2 months, stamp, stamp). I've got good work in Dubai and do not have much to do in Canada, so going back to the motherland won't be an option for a while. According to Wikipedia, there are 200,000 Chinese people in the Emirates, so there must be a way.

Yes, I've heard the horror stories of East Asians getting booted without much warning. When I used to do Visa runs, there were many Chinese on the bus with me and I don't think they had to stay overnight (this was 6 years ago, though, so I am sure things have changed).

This is very frustrating. I hope we can find a way!

There are a lot of Chinese people in the UAE so your wife will be able to find people to talk to. I expect most of them are staying on work visas or family visas. Why doesn't your employer want to sponcer your wife's visa? It seems a bit unreasonable to expect you to leave your wife behind or make a visa run every month or two.

Actually, we were just told about something interesting. Apparently I can buy a trade licence in the free zone and put my wife on as a spouse. It is a little pricey (25K AED per year), but would save a lot of headache. Have you heard of this?