Dubai's five-year multiple-entry visa changes the maths for regional travellers
A self-sponsored five-year multiple-entry visa allows unlimited entries with stays of up to 90 days per trip, removing the repeated sponsor-based visit visa for regional sales, audit and engineering staff.
Photo: Ravi Kumar (CC BY 3.0)
Dubai's residency authority has formalised a five-year, self-sponsored multiple-entry tourist visa open to all nationalities. It allows unlimited entries across the five years, with stays of up to 90 days per trip that can be extended to a maximum of 180 days in any year.
Applicants show a six-month bank balance of at least US$4,000, hold valid health insurance and upload documents through the authority's smart services portal. The total cost is around AED 3,700 including a refundable bond, with approval issued digitally within days.
For companies, the value is administrative. Regional sales staff, auditors and project engineers who fly in repeatedly no longer need a fresh sponsor-based visit visa each time, and resident employees can host visiting relatives without arranging local sponsorship.
The obligation that follows is tracking. The 180-day annual ceiling is cumulative, so mobility teams need a count of days in country per traveller rather than a per-trip check.
What it means for employers
- Move frequent regional travellers onto the five-year visa and retire repeated visit-visa processing.
- Track cumulative days in country per person; the 180-day annual cap is where overstay fines start.
- Update mobility handbooks with the financial-proof requirement, especially for staff paid outside AED or USD.
Related pages
Summarised by the Horizon GCC team. Original reporting: VisaHQ News
This briefing is general information, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before acting.
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