Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Working in Dubai

I would like to know from past experiences how long it took you guys / girls to sponsor your spouse (with a work permit). I would like you to perhaps use the timeline from the moment you landed. I've been told you get your work permit / residency visa and then you can arrange the paper work for your spouse. Someone also told me its about 3 to 4 weeks by the time she can join me after I land.. Any thoughts on this? Ideally I would like her to come with me, however it doesn't seem possible from what i'm told.

Three to four weeks seems about right as first you need to get your residency stamped on your passport only then you can apply for your spouse.

Just get all your paper work pre attested which will cost you more time if you haven't already.

I am getting my marriage cert attested now in Washington DC. That's a quick process according to the embassy we site.

I think it was about 4 weeks for me.

Telegix wrote:I would like to know from past experiences how long it took you guys / girls to sponsor your spouse (with a work permit). I would like you to perhaps use the timeline from the moment you landed. I've been told you get your work permit / residency visa and then you can arrange the paper work for your spouse. Someone also told me its about 3 to 4 weeks by the time she can join me after I land.. Any thoughts on this? Ideally I would like her to come with me, however it doesn't seem possible from what i'm told.

If you really want her to come with you she can enter on a tourist visa. I pretty sure these now last 30 days (used to be 60-90).
By then she should have her residency approved.
To get it stamped into her passport she will most likely need to leave the country and re-enter (visa run).
You then have to deliver the residency visa to the airport so she can collect it at the visa counter before passport control. This costs about 20 dirhams.
You will also need to pay extra (about 500 dirhams from memory) to have the residency visa processed whilst she in in the country.
I think there may also be an option for you to have the visa residency stamped whilst she is in the country but not sure on this.
Otherwise you will obviously have to pay for the flight to and from Oman/Bahrain/Qatar (or maybe Kish Island if they havn't stopped this option yet).