How to Get a Residence Visa for Your Free Zone Company in UAE
In this blog, we would be focusing on how to get a residence visa for your free zone business in the UAE. Once you get your Free Zone business license the next step would be applying for residence visas of the company shareholders. Because for you to get a bank account for your business it is mandatory that all the shareholders of your business should hold valid residence visas.
Read our previous post to know the benefits of free zone business formation: Why Choose UAE Free Zones for Your Business?
First, you are only allowed to apply for a residence visa through the free zone where your business was formed and only under the name of your business. For an instance, if you start your business in Sharjah Airport International Free Zone, you are only allowed to apply for a visa from the Sharjah Airport International Authority from your established company.
Before proceeding with the visa, your company should be registered under the immigration department of the UAE. Meantime some free zones run a quick security measure on the investors of the company. This process is generally known as security approval.
Once your company is registered with immigration and passes the security approval, you can proceed to get visas for your company.
Generally, there are two ways of obtaining a visa; an Investor Visa and an Employment Visa. To obtain an investor visa you should be a shareholder of the business or else you’ll have to get an employment visa. Some of the Free zones request the business to keep a salary deposit plus air ticket on behalf of each employee. The salary deposit will be refunded to you once the visa is canceled Then the3 for that particular employee.
The process of obtaining a visa is almost similar for both shareholders and employees. Given below are the steps involved to get your residence visa.
Step 01 – Visa Application
The first step is to prepare the documents requested by the Free Zone authority for applying for the visa. Once you prepare the documents you must submit the documents to the relevant department of the Free Zone and make the payment for the visa. Next, the entry permit will be issued after the approval.
Step 02 –Change your Visa Status
Once you have completed step one, you need to proceed with changing your visa status. This means you need to change from the current visa status to the company residence visa. To complete this step, you may need to provide another set of documents to the relevant department of the free zone along with the status change payment.
Step 03 – Medical Fitness Test
After you apply for the change of status of your visa you could apply for the medical fitness test. In this test, they will take a blood sample and run a quick x-ray of your body. Generally, once your medical test is done you would get the results within 1-2 days.
Step 04 –Emirates ID Typing
Meanwhile waiting for the medical fitness results you could apply for your Emirates ID. Usually, you need to get the Emirates ID application typed by an authorized typing center inside UAE. Soon after you get the final document from the typing center you can make an appointment to go for provide biometrics for your Emirates ID.
Step 05 – Biometrics for Emirates ID
If you are new to the UAE and it’s your first time getting a residence visa you should complete the biometrics session from the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (FAIC). You may have to visit there with the relevant documents and provide the biometrics for the Emirates ID.
Step 06 – Visa Stamping on your Passport
The last step would be to get your visa stamped on your passport. You have to prepare the documents (depending on the free zone requirement for visa stamping) and submit them to the Free Zone along with your original passport to complete the visa stamping process. At last, you will receive the passport back with the visa stamped on it.
Congratulation now you are holding a residence visa in the UAE. Your Emirates ID will arrive in the post office or at the mentioned location in your Emirates ID typing document. However, you will receive an SMS for your provided phone number about the arrival of your Emirates ID.
These are the main phases of obtaining a residence visa in the UAE. If you need further guidance and more information, please feel free to contact us and our team would take care of the business requirements for you. We are there to support your business.
