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UAE to offer citizenship to select expats in rare move for Gulf

  • investors
  • specialized
  • talents,
  • doctors
  • engineers
  • artists

The citizenship beneficiaries will once again be the richest and the highly qualified people that can even get the citizenship of any country of the world. The labor workers and other blue-collar jobholders who have long served the countries for decades will have no chance of getting even closer to citizenship benefits. They have played a huge role in building the economy, providing manpower for the construction, hospitality, retail, and travel sectors, with their earnings often helping to support families back home. However, the Golden Visa program (10-years long-stay residency) has last year been further extended to certain professionals such as doctors, scientists, and students too. The big questions here come the requirements for applying for citizenship. The citizenship of the Gulf state will be based on the nomination system. There is no set-aside way to apply for naturalization or citizenship. Instead, the Emirati cabinet, local Emiri courts, and executive councils will nominate those eligible for citizenship under clear criteria set for each category. As per a statement on UAE’s state news agency WAM, the conditions that must be met to secure citizenship are:  

For Doctors

The United Arab Emirates is to offer citizenship to selected foreigners. The country has approved amendments to the Executive Regulation of the Federal Law concerning Nationality and Passports. This will be dual citizenship which means the citizenship receivers will be able to retain their first citizenship. This is being considered a big move from the Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Rashed Al Maktoum on Saturday 30, January. According to official resources, the following people alongside their families (children and spouses) will be able to get citizenship of the UAE:

This category does not allow all the doctors to be nominated. Eligible are only the Doctors and specialists that have specialization in a unique scientific discipline or any other scientific principles that are highly required in the UAE.  

For Scientists

Experienced and in-service Scientists will benefit from this stream too. It is important that a Scientist is an active researcher in a university or research center or in the private sector, with a practical experience of not less than 10 years in the same field. They also should have contributions in the scientific field such as winning a prestigious scientific award or securing substantial funding for their research during the past ten years, it is also mandatory to obtain a recommendation letter from recognized scientific institutions in the UAE.  

For Investors

Investors must own a property in the UAE. They must obtain one or more patents that are approved by the UAE Ministry of Economy or any other reputable international body, in addition to a recommendation letter from the Economy Ministry  

For Intellectuals and Artists

Intellectuals such as authors or artists with creative talents should be pioneers in the culture and art fields and winners of one or more international awards. Along with a nomination from the Emirati cabinet, local Emiri courts, or executive councils, a recommendation letter from related government entities is mandatory as well.

HH Sheikh Rashed Al Maktoum said on Saturday 30, “We adopted law amendments that allow granting the UAE citizenship to investors, specialized talents & professionals including scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors, and their families. The new directives aim to attract talents that contribute to our development journey”.

UAE citizenship offers a wide range of benefits includes the right to establish or own commercial entities and properties, in addition to any other benefits granted by federal authorities after the approval of the Cabinet or local authorities. Will the successful persons are also able to enjoy the social benefits systems on which UAE spends billions of dollars each year for its 1.4 million citizens, nothing has been cleared yet. Acquiring Emirati citizenship will be done through Rulers and Crown Princes Courts, Executive Councils, and the Cabinet based on federal entities nominations. Citizenship can be withdrawn due to a breach of conditions associated with the laws. UAE widened 10-year residency ‘golden’ visa eligibility last year in November. More professionals will be able to apply for UAE’s 10 years “Golden Visa” residency. The UAE’s vice president announced that the Golden Visa residency will now be open for more professionals such as:

  • doctorate degrees
  • medical doctors
  • computer engineers
  • electronics engineers
  • programming engineers
  • electrical engineers
  • biotechnology engineers
  • artificial intelligence (specialized degree)
  • big data epidemiology (specialized degree)
  • and also high school students living in the UAE who rank top in the country and students from certain universities with a GPA of 3.8 or higher

UAE initially launched the new 10 years long-term visa residency program in May 2019 for five different categories of investors, real estate investors, entrepreneurs, talented people like doctors, researchers and innovators, and outstanding students.

Source: International News Agencies