How To Apply For A Spouse Visa In UAE If You Are Living In A Hotel Apartment

Are you married and living in a hotel apartment in UAE? Do you want to sponsor a visa for your spouse in UAE? Here are things that you should know.

So before we start, here is something you need to know. There are things that you need to consider in order to qualify as a sponsor to your wife or husband. First thing, you need to have a salary that meets the standard of sponsoring a husband or a wife which will be the following:

1. Husband sponsoring his wife: the salary should be at least 4,000 aed or 3,000 aed with accommodation allowance provided by the company.
2. Wife sponsoring her husband: the wife should be under the category of the following professions which are Doctor, Teacher, or Engineer. The salary of the wife should be at least 4,000 aed or 3,000 aed with accommodation allowance provided by the company. However, if the wife did not meet the above requirements, the wife can appeal for a petition to the committee. In this case, the required basic salary should be 10,000 aed or 8000 aed with accommodation allowance from her company. But please take note that this is case to case basis as well. Just be sure to submit the proper requirements and documents in order to get a higher chance of getting the visa approved.

List of Documents We Presented For Application:

1. Application Form (Done at Typing Center)
2. Marriage Certificate Attested by Ministry of Foreign Affairs UAE
3. Salary Certificate (written in Arabic)
4. Photocopy of Passport (Sponsor)
5. Photocopy of Passport (Dependent)
6. Photocopy of Visa Page of Sponsor
7. Cancelled Visa Page of Dependent (if previously working and staying in UAE)
8. Passport Photo of Dependent
9. Tenancy Contract: TAKE NOTE, for this one, since you are living in a hotel apartment,  there is NO ejari that will be issued from the land department. As per our experience, we tried every single thing to get an ejari but it turned out that ejari is only applicable for tenants that are not living in a hotel apartment. I exchanged emails and phone calls from the Dubai Land Department and they specifically told me that ejari contracts are not applicable to people staying in a hotel apartment. So what are you going to do?

• Request a letter (No Objection Certificate to be exact) from the landlord or management of the hotel apartment stating that you are a tenant, the period of your tenancy contract (1 year and etc.), that they are not objecting you sponsoring your wife. The letter should be written in Arabic.
• Go to GDRFA (General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai) and ask the reception where you can go and let someone sign your NOC letter from the hotel apartment because you don’t hold any ejari. For our experience, they instructed us to the section located to the left side upon entering the GDRFA. We went there and explained the situation to the police officer, waited for our turn and then explained it again to the person who will sign it and then finally got the signature we needed.

After getting all of these, the entire journey starts. For my case, I don’t need to do the status change anymore. I had the visa on hand, then I exited the country because my tourist visa will expire soon and went back so I don’t need to do the status change. So what I am going to write down are the steps I experienced.

1. We went to a Karama Typing Centre, we chose this one because everything is in here.
2. We did the Emirates ID typing. Documents needed:

a. Passport copy of sponsor

b. Visa copy of the sponsor

c. Passport and Passport copy of applicant

d. Copy of the old emirates ID: applicable if the applicant stayed in UAE already

e. Passport size picture

f. Other documents if they still require any

*For my case, since I already had an emirates ID before, I did not do anything anymore after the typing. For those who are applying for the first time, the next step will be finger printing, they will be instructing you where to go and what to do.

3. After the emirates ID typing, the next thing is medical. We went to the medical section area where I did the typing and paid the VIP service (this is optional) and provided the following:

a. Passport of the sponsor

b. Passport of the applicant

c. Copy of visa of the sponsor

d. Passport size picture

e. Other documents if they ask any

4. Next is I went inside the medical area. I registered first and told them VIP so I don’t need to wait for any number. Then I went for blood specimen collection and chest x-ray. Results will be available after 4 hours.

5. I received a message from Emirates ID Authority and DHA with regards to my ID application and medical.

6. After 4 hours, they emailed the result to me. Everything looks fine and I am good to go for the next step which is the visa stamping. The result that they will be sending via email is the official result and all you need to do is print it.

7. We went to a typing centre near adjacent to Karama Typing Centre and asked them to do the visa stamping for us. They will ask for the following:

1. Passport of the sponsor
2. Passport of the applicant
3. Medical exam result
4. Letter from the insurance company of the sponsor (*For our case we tried going there and showing only the insurance card, although it is not allowed because it should be a letter from the insurance company but tehy accepted it and did the typing)

After the visa stamping application, there will be a text message sent to you stating about your application. For my case, I waited for an hour or two and then there was an email saying that my residence application has been approved. The next thing we did is to go to the Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 to stamp my visa. They have a GDRFA branch inside the airport which operates 24 hours. We did not pay anything, we just waited for the queue and then the officer just asked the name of the sponsor and the number of years of the visa and then printed the stamp to my passport.

After visa stamping, you can check the emirates ID status online and after 2-3 days if there is no message informing you about the status of it, try to follow up on their website and click ASK HAMAD and someone will chat with you and update you. For my case, I waited for 4 days to get my emirates ID.

To be honest, this entire procedure that we did after we had the entry visa was only one whole day and there’s no joke about that. The only advice I can give is research and don’t be shy to ask. Visa applications are case to case basis sometimes when it comes to typing centres, if the other doesn’t work, try the next one. Please be aware that Dubai laws are changing from time to time so there might be something on my blog that I mentioned that applies to my case but to yours it won’t. It is just how it is because when I researched as well there are some things that are not applicable to me but applicable to others.

So, good luck and have a happy application!