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The United Arab Emirates will widen its Golden Visa system.This grants 10 year residency in the gulf state to certain professionals, specialized degree holders and others.

Details

• Foreigners in the UAE usually have renewable visas valid for only a few years tied to employment.
• The government in the past couple of years has made its visa policy more flexible, offering longer residencies for certain types of investors, students and professionals.

Eligibility

• All holders of doctorate degree and also computer, programming, mechanical, electrical and biotechnology engineers are eligible.
• Those with degrees in artificial intelligence, big data and epidemiology are also eligible.
• High school students living in the UAE who rank top in the country and students from certain universities who score 3.8 GPA or higher are also eligible.

Golden Visa

• The golden visa is a long-term residency programme that came into effect in May 2019.
• The visa class was originally drafted to be a permanent residency system however the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs later noted that it is actually a long-term, 10-year visa that is renewable.
• Typically, a golden visa is a type of grant issued to wealthy individuals looking to trade significant investment into a country for the opportunity to reside within it.
• The system has often been used by governments to broaden their tax base.
• The UAE has emerged as an attractive destination for investors and entrepreneurs particularly for its business-friendly and tax-free environment.

Benefits for India

• The Indian expatriate community is reportedly the largest ethnic community in the UAE, constituting roughly about 30 per cent of the country’s population of around nine million.
• Though most of the Indians living in the UAE are employed, about 10 per cent of the Indian population constitutes dependent family members, according to the Indian Embassy.