Residence visas
Live in the UAE legally — investor, employment, freelance and other routes, with package-level market data.
- 6 residence routes compared
- Costs, quota and documents per route
- Family sponsorship and bank steps
Direction · UAE
Visas in and from the UAE
Two visa routes meet in one section: the residence visa you obtain through a UAE company, and the travel visas residents file to leave it. Both get the same treatment as the rest of the platform — fees, steps and documents with a checked snapshot date.
What's included
Every visa guide on the platform includes
- ✓ Residence visas: investor and employment tracks with package-level market data
- ✓ Travel visas from the UAE: Schengen destinations, Turkey, Serbia and Oman
- ✓ Fees, processing windows and document checklists, verified against the September 2026 snapshot
- ✓ The bridge between the two routes: when a recurring trip should become a residence visa
Two routes
Which visa route do you need?
Travel visas from the UAE
Leave legally and come back — travel visas residents file for trips abroad, with fee and appointment detail.
- Schengen guide + 29 country pages
- Turkey, Serbia, Oman and more
- Fees, appointments, document checklists
Appointment guides
VFS & visa appointment guides
Step-by-step appointment guides for the major VFS destinations from Dubai — restored from our archive and covering the current booking flow, documents and centre visit.
FAQ
Visas: questions
What is the difference between a residence visa and a travel visa in the UAE context?
A residence visa ties you to the UAE — through your own company (investor visa) or an employer (employment visa). A travel visa is the entry document another country issues to a UAE resident. The platform covers both: the first under Residence visas, the second under Travel visas from the UAE.
Which travel-visa destinations are covered?
The section covers the full Schengen area plus Europe beyond it, the GCC, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania — every destination with proven demand from UAE residents, including all 29 Schengen members. Schengen rules are one base — each page adds the country's missions, seasonality and local practice.
Where do the fees and rules on these pages come from?
Visa fees are government-set and shown in the issuing currency with an AED reference; processing windows follow the published rules of the missions and application centres. Everything is checked against the September 2026 snapshot and dated — confirm the live number before you book.
How do I know whether a trip should become a residence visa instead?
A working heuristic: if you make the same trip four or more times a year, or you want banking, family sponsorship and tax residency in the UAE, the residence route beats repeated tourist filings. The investor visa page breaks down the cost against a license package.
Do UAE citizens need any of these visas?
Mostly no — UAE passport holders are visa-waived across Schengen, Turkey and Serbia, and cross to Oman on the Emirates ID alone. The travel-visa guides are written for residents on other passports, and each page says who falls where.
Other platform directions
Building a visa plan for your team?
We match the license package to your visa needs — quota, family sponsorship and bank account in one scope.