UAE offers the ‘Green Visa’ and ‘Freelancer Visa’ schemes as part of its ‘Projects of the 50’

Following the announcement of ‘Golden Visa’ in 2019, the United Arab Emirates has recently announced the ‘Green Visa’ scheme. Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State of Foreign Trade, announced two new visa schemes on Sunday, September 5, 2021.

The country’s leadership announced these as a part of UAE’s ‘Projects of the 50’, a series of projects aimed at the economic development of the country. The project consists of 50 new economic initiatives to boost the country’s economic competitiveness and attract $150 billion (AED 550 billion) in foreign direct investment within the next nine years.

The Green Visa is granted to investors, entrepreneurs, highly skilled individuals, top students, and graduates. The visa scheme expands self-residency status, i.e., employer sponsorship is no longer required for holders of Green Visa hence, separating residence permits from work permits. The UAE grants the visa holders the benefits of sponsoring their parents and children up to 25 years of age. Earlier, if a resident visa holder lost their job, they had only 30 days to leave the country, but with the introduction of the new visa, the person has 90 – 180 days to leave the country. Certain humanitarian relaxations have also been made to accommodate widows/widowers and divorcees, for example.