Visas & immigration
Green Visa for skilled employees
AED 15,000 a month, a bachelor's degree and MOHRE skill level 1 to 3 buys a five-year residence you own rather than your employer. Most people who qualify are on a two-year employer visa instead.
What it is
Who this is actually for.
The Green Visa for skilled employees is a five-year renewable residence held by the employee rather than the employer. The conditions are precise: a valid employment contract in the UAE, classification in MOHRE professional skill levels one to three, a bachelor's degree or equivalent as a minimum, and a monthly salary of not less than AED 15,000. Meet all four and you can hold your own residence, sponsor your own family, and change jobs without your right to remain in the country being cancelled and reissued.
The gap between eligibility and take-up here is the widest in the whole immigration system. A very large number of mid-career professionals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi meet every one of these conditions and are on a standard two-year employment visa, because that is what the employer's PRO processes and nobody in that chain has any reason to mention the alternative. The practical difference appears at the worst possible moment: on an employer-sponsored visa, resignation or redundancy starts a grace period during which your family's residence is also running out. On a Green Visa it does not, and that is what you are actually buying.
The conditions, precisely
- Salary
- AED 15,000 per month minimum
- Skill level
- MOHRE classification levels 1–3
- Education
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent, attested
- Contract
- Valid UAE employment contract required
- Duration
- 5 years, renewable
- Sponsor
- None — self-sponsored, family may be added
How long it takes
The sequence
How it runs, in order.
- Check your MOHRE skill classificationIt follows the job title on the work permit, not on the business card. Levels one to three cover managerial, professional and technical roles.
- Check how the salary is statedThe threshold reads monthly salary. A package weighted towards allowances can fall short on the figure that is actually assessed.
- Attest the degreeIn the issuing country. This is the step that determines the timeline for most applicants.
- Apply through ICP or the emirate's GDRFAWith the contract, the attested degree and the salary evidence.
- Cancel the old visa and complete the new oneUsually done as a status change without leaving the country.
Related
Questions
The condition is expressed as monthly salary. Because packages here are often structured with a low basic and large allowances, check how yours will be read before applying rather than after.
Yes — that is the main advantage. Your residence is not cancelled when the employment ends, so a job change is an employment matter rather than an immigration one.
The residence continues to its expiry. Compare that with an employer-sponsored visa, which is cancelled and starts a grace period.
Yes, spouse and children under your own file, subject to the usual conditions on accommodation and salary for family sponsorship.
One question
Who is going to sponsor this residence?
Then most of this is out of your hands and that is usually fine — the employer holds the quota, files the permit and carries the cost. What is worth checking before you sign is the job title going on the permit, because it decides your skill classification, and that in turn decides whether you can sponsor a family later.
How the employment route runsOr just ask usThen the visa and the company are one decision. Quota comes from the licence and the premises, so a package chosen on price can quietly cap you at one or two visas — which is discovered at the point you want to bring your spouse or your first hire.
Compare the 40 authoritiesOr just ask usThen you are looking at the Golden Visa, the Green Visa, or the remote work permit, and they are not interchangeable. The Green Visa needs a freelance permit and an income history; the Golden Visa needs an asset, an endorsement or a nomination; the remote work permit needs a foreign employer and lasts a year.
The three self-sponsored routesOr just ask us