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I'm self-employed and would like to continue working in Dubai... since me and my gf create our own work and income ... is there a lot of problem then.

a) we would mary in belgium before living ther
b) we would buy an appartement ...
c) when you have real estate at dubai = permanent visum ? or also limited to 60 days visa
d) since me and my wife/gf work for our own company (2 people me and wife take the decissions... do i still need to proof my income and "sponsor" her
e) "sponsor" = proof that you (man) can support her ?

thanks for the first series of answers

aquabelgium wrote:I'm self-employed and would like to continue working in Dubai... since me and my gf create our own work and income ... is there a lot of problem then.

a) we would mary in belgium before living ther
b) we would buy an appartement ...
c) when you have real estate at dubai = permanent visum ? or also limited to 60 days visa
d) since me and my wife/gf work for our own company (2 people me and wife take the decissions... do i still need to proof my income and "sponsor" her
e) "sponsor" = proof that you (man) can support her ?

thanks for the first series of answers

firstly, you cannot simply work for yourself in dubai. you have to be sponsored by a company, or have to start a company in conjunction with a local sponsor. there are one or two other alternative, but it depends entirely what type of business/ work you are in. if it were that easy there would be hundreds of thousands of people all doing the same thing.

you could of course enter on a visit visa and work illegally, and have the visa renewed every 60 days. again whether this is a feasable option is entirly dependant on your type of work - for instance you couldn't be a free-lance doctor or achitect on a visit visa.

"sponsor" refers to you taking responsibility for the person (under your sponsorship) while they are in the country. you cannot sponsor your gf, you could only sponsor direct family members. it also means that you accept financial responsibility for their actions while in the uae.

in a business sense "sponsor" refers to your employer, here again the employer is responsible for your conduct and well being while in the country - they pay you a salary and guarentee the government that you will leave after your work obligations are complete.

point a). yes i would say it is easier if you get married before you come here - and want to live together. it's not impossible for unmarried people to stay together, but does create problems if they are not working and are entirely dependant on your support.

point b). yes again. you can buy an appartment without having a work visa, although as i said before you may need to have a work permit in order to invoice clients etc ....

point c). yes, a permanant residency visa, this does not entitle you to work though.

hope this helps a bit .....

dxbsoul i would disagree with your pionts. Lets say the guy has his own internet buisness and generates income online that gets transferred to his bank account. He moves to dubai and buys a property which gives him a permanent residency visa, why would he need a company established here ? or a sponsor ?

fair comment, but, my comment would be if he already had say an internet busines and was earning money on-line - then what is the point of coming to the uae? most people (myself included) come to dubai as there is no tax - any asstute internet business person will already be having his income routed to jersey or the grand caymen's.

my feeling is that he may run some kind of consultancy business from home and wants to set up shop in dubai - prehaps an architect..

while there are people who do run sucessful home business's here they are definitly "under the radar" (hair dressers, tailors etc..).
as such he will be limited to who he can work with or for; for instance if the company is not registered he may not legally invoice any other business, he could not apply for a bank account in the name of his business, he could not have a telephone or facimile listing in the business name, if he were an architect he would have to licensed etc....

did you know that handing out a business card in the uae which contains the name of a company that is not registered (or where the registration of the company has expired) actually constitues fraud and that you could be locked up or fined for it?

ya you are right dxbsoul, just wanted to clarify that point.

I think a good option for him if the scenario is what you mentioned, would be to setup shop in one of the freezones. I know Dubai Internet City has a "first steps" program where they will rent you something as small as a desk or two and that will cost you around 6,000-7,000 dirhams per month and with that you will get two work permits and a legal license to operate.

MaaaD wrote:dxbsoul i would disagree with your pionts. Lets say the guy has his own internet buisness and generates income online that gets transferred to his bank account. He moves to dubai and buys a property which gives him a permanent residency visa, why would he need a company established here ? or a sponsor ?

With respect Maaad - Soul was totally correct in his overall summary. He did quantify "one or 2 other alternatives".

The other alternative being if say for example he had an internet business he could obtain work in a freezone such as DIC. There are however strict rules with regards to setting up a business in any freezone in that it must "meet the criteria".

For example just doing web design or running an online web shop would not qualify. Furthermore there is a substantial deposit required to operate in a Freezone and this i believe is in excess of 300k Dhs. That is before, and over and above any other expenditure involved in setting up a business.

On the subject of buying a property like myself and residence, the law is very clear. I have an "investors visa". My visa clearly states i am NOT allowed to work in the UAE.

MaaaD wrote:dxbsoul i would disagree with your pionts. Lets say the guy has his own internet buisness and generates income online that gets transferred to his bank account. He moves to dubai and buys a property which gives him a permanent residency visa, why would he need a company established here ? or a sponsor ?

A residency permit and a work permit are two different things. A residency permit does not entitle you to work here.

arniegang wrote:For example just doing web design or running an online web shop would not qualify. Furthermore there is a substantial deposit required to operate in a Freezone and this i believe is in excess of 300k Dhs. That is before, and over and above any other expenditure involved in setting up a business.

AFAIK it's 300k if you set up a company outside a free zone. In free zone the capital requirement is 50k or 100k depending on the zone. It may be less if you set up as a freelancer.

arniegang wrote:
With respect Maaad - Soul was totally correct in his overall summary. He did quantify "one or 2 other alternatives".

I didnt say he was wrong, i just wanted to show that there was another alternative

arniegang wrote:The other alternative being if say for example he had an internet business he could obtain work in a freezone such as DIC. There are however strict rules with regards to setting up a business in any freezone in that it must "meet the criteria".

For example just doing web design or running an online web shop would not qualify.

not true, Dubai Internet City would gladly host you if you are running an online webshop, and there are MANY web design companies in Dubai Media city.

arniegang wrote:Furthermore there is a substantial deposit required to operate in a Freezone and this i believe is in excess of 300k Dhs. That is before, and over and above any other expenditure involved in setting up a business.

Again not true, the 300k minimum capital is for companies outside the freezone. In the freezone there is no such requirment and there is a 60k fee you have to pay which covers registration, trade license and 3 residency visas + work permits.

arniegang wrote:On the subject of buying a property like myself and residence, the law is very clear. I have an "investors visa". My visa clearly states i am NOT allowed to work in the UAE.

yup your right here, but if his income is being generated offshore, he doesnt really need to have a work permit in the UAE. He is just living here.

MaaaD wrote:yup your right here, but if his income is being generated offshore, he doesnt really need to have a work permit in the UAE. He is just living here.

I'd say legally he probably still needs a work permit - if he sits in his apartment in Dubai and operates an internet business then he is working here, even if the work he does is for an overseas client and/or payments are made to an overseas bank account. Of course, if he sets up his internet business before coming here and only works on it when he's in another country then I suppose you could say he doesn't need a work permit. Might be an interesting one for a lawyer to mull over?

Realistically though, if he obtained a residence visa via apartment purchase then I doubt he'd have a problem unless he annoyed someone here who had a bit of wasta.

Maad
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Hello Maad, you are correct basicly i run a 'online company' selling adspace , domainnames & maintain & create sites for belgium sites

So I would still keep my mansion and address here at first to have the twilight zone... Nobody cares if I make the site in belgium or at dubai ...

Sharewadi
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You are also correct that it can be a very special case

IT would be very strange that you are allowed to live there and not allowed to work - like Soul said

Soul
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So I can create work and take it back to Belgium and write the invoice here. -actually all the business stays the same, but you can see on the internettraffic that I'm working there-..... thatz all + some parts of revenues are 'online'

The Cayman Carrousel Nope that would not work out very well with my country Belgium I guess.

dxbsoul i would disagree with your pionts. Lets say the guy has his own internet buisness and generates income online that gets transferred to his bank account. He moves to dubai and buys a property which gives him a permanent residency visa, why would he need a company established here ? or a sponsor ?
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indeed this i what i mean, but others say it is illegal,
it is already hard enough that we have to marry (easy to solve)

the sponsorship is not needed because i have the realestate they told me (last payment = 3y visa that needs renewal now&then)

+ there's a big chance or just not, that I come back now & then to my native country (family reasons) so... it's more like a 2nd place, place to take a break but I keep control on work over there...

Just vacation is no option for me so I thought this would be perfect possible (as long as nobody has a problem with it ?)

aquabelgium wrote:dxbsoul i would disagree with your pionts. Lets say the guy has his own internet buisness and generates income online that gets transferred to his bank account. He moves to dubai and buys a property which gives him a permanent residency visa, why would he need a company established here ? or a sponsor ?
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indeed this i what i mean, but others say it is illegal,
it is already hard enough that we have to marry (easy to solve)

well after reading through all the bits and pieces it almost comes together now if we had all the information to start with ...

1. yes you can buy property here and get a residency visa based on it, this does not allow you to work legally though, for this you need a work visa. hypothetically you could work from home conducting your internet business; however any "local/ uae" work you conducted you would have to invoice on your belgium companies letterhead. this type of work would still be considered illegal in the uae. as you would not have a locally registered company you would not be able to advertise, open a bank account, register a telephone number etc in the name of the company to conduct business in the uae. if you wanted to conduct business here you would have to do it by word of mouth.

2. if you wanted to get a work visa you would have to a) join a local company b) startup a company in dubai (in conjucntion with a local uae national) c) join a company in the freezone d) register a business in a freezone.

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+ there's a big chance or just not, that I come back now & then to my native country (family reasons) so... it's more like a 2nd place, place to take a break but I keep control on work over there... [/quote]

this all sounds very reasonable... and is what i suspect arnie does