How much does a Dubai investor visa cost in 2026?
AED 770 in government fees for a five-year Green visa filed from outside the UAE through GDRFA Dubai: AED 230 for the entry permit, AED 540 for the residence permit. It is the cheapest honest number on this page, and the one that matters least.
Before an officer looks at an investor file, the company behind it needs a trade licence and an establishment card — an immigration file in the company’s name. That card costs from AED 280 at GDRFA in Dubai and AED 2,300 at the federal authority, ICP, which charges AED 2,000 for a system subscription Dubai does not charge at all. Nothing in the visa moves by a factor of eight. The paperwork that lets you apply for it does.
Four lines decide your bill, and no guide we read publishes them together:
| The line | What it costs | Where it is published |
|---|---|---|
| Establishment card (the company’s immigration file) | from AED 280 (GDRFA) · AED 2,300 (ICP) | GDRFA and ICP service pages |
| “Fee inside the country”, charged twice at GDRFA | AED 500 × 2 = AED 1,000 | GDRFA entry and residence permit pages |
| Annual increase past the second year | + AED 100 a year, so + AED 300 on five years | GDRFA residence permit page |
| Medical fitness certificate, same test | AED 250 to AED 1,020 | DHA medical fitness catalogue |
Add them to the AED 770 and a file that looked like a few hundred dirhams is past AED 3,000 before the licence is paid for. The rest of this guide takes each line to its source.
Is there still a two-year investor visa in Dubai?
What the UAE publishes today is a five-year Green visa, not a two-year one. The federal portal calls it “a renewable residence visa valid for 5 years” and lists “Investors and business partners” among the categories it serves, with “the privilege of not needing a sponsor”. GDRFA Dubai’s own service, Issuing green residence permit (partner investor), says up to five years, renewable under the same terms.
Yet the three most visible English guides on this keyword, read on 16 September 2026, price a two-year or two-to-three-year visa.
Why the confusion is built into the fee table
They are not inventing it. GDRFA publishes one residence-permit fee, AED 200, then one sentence: the issuance fee increases by AED 100 annually whenever the residency is over two years. Two years is still the table’s baseline, so a two-year and a five-year permit share a headline price and differ by AED 300 in practice. A guide that reads the headline and stops is wrong about the fee and about three years of validity at once.
Which investor residence are you actually applying for?
There are four doors, and they are not interchangeable. Two are Green visas for people who own or part-own a UAE company; two are Golden visas for people putting serious capital in. The eligibility gap is AED 2 million, and the fee gap runs the other way.
| Route | Length | What you must show | Government fee, 16 Sept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green visa, investor or partner (GDRFA Dubai) | up to 5 years | Trade licence + partnership or investment contract | AED 770 from outside the country |
| Green visa, investor or partner (ICP, federal) | 5 years | Proof of investment + the relevant licences | no single total published |
| Golden visa, investor in public investments (ICP) | 10 years | AED 2,000,000 minimum capital | AED 247 |
| Golden residence, investors (GDRFA Dubai) | 10 years | AED 2,000,000 in a company, property or deposit, or AED 250,000 of annual tax | AED 1,640 with the domestic fee |
Read that twice. The ten-year Golden residence for an investor with AED 2 million costs AED 247 at ICP — less than half the five-year Green residence permit at GDRFA Dubai. The threshold is enormous; the fee is not. Our guide to how the Golden visa categories have changed goes through who now qualifies. The thresholds come from GDRFA and the federal portal; ICP’s Green Residence guide confirms the five-year term but publishes no fee table, which is why that cell is empty rather than estimated.
The rest of this guide stays on the investor and partner route — the one almost every founder in Dubai actually uses, and the one nobody prices properly.
What does the Green visa for investors cost, fee by fee?
AED 770 from outside the UAE, AED 1,770 from inside it. GDRFA Dubai cuts an investor file into two transactions — an entry permit first, then the residence permit — and publishes a fee table for each.
| Line, as GDRFA labels it | Entry permit | Residence permit, 5 years |
|---|---|---|
| Visa or residence permit fee | AED 200 | AED 200 |
| Value-added tax, 5% | AED 10 | — |
| Knowledge Dirham | AED 10 | AED 10 |
| Innovation Dirham | AED 10 | AED 10 |
| Delivery | — | AED 20 |
| Annual increase past two years (3 × AED 100) | — | AED 300 |
| From outside the country | AED 230 | AED 540 |
| “Fee inside the country” | AED 500 | AED 500 |
| From inside the country | AED 730 | AED 1,040 |
Both are quoted at 48 hours, and the entry permit “entitles the holder to remain in the country for (60) sixty days from entry until the necessary processes for issuing residency have been completed”. Four documents: a photograph, a passport valid six months, the partnership or investment contract, and the trade licence — that last one is the whole story.
Why does the same establishment card cost AED 280 or AED 2,300?
Because ICP charges AED 2,000 for a system subscription GDRFA Dubai does not charge. An establishment card is the company’s immigration file: without it a company cannot sponsor anyone, including its own owner. It is the true first step of an investor visa, and it is missing from every cost breakdown we read.
| Line | GDRFA Dubai | ICP, federal |
|---|---|---|
| Application | — | AED 100 |
| Issuing fee | AED 200 + 5% VAT | AED 100 per year |
| Knowledge and Innovation Dirhams | AED 20 | — |
| Service fee | AED 50 | AED 100 (smart services) |
| Subscription to the electronic system for establishments | — | AED 2,000 |
| First year | from AED 280 | AED 2,300 |
GDRFA adds AED 100 for urgent handling and another AED 100 through an Amer centre, which is how most files go — AED 480 at worst. ICP’s AED 2,000 is a one-off, but it lands in the same first year.
What decides which one you pay
A Dubai mainland licence makes the establishment card a GDRFA matter and the AED 2,000 never appears; a free zone that files federally is the other case. Ask which authority your zone uses before you budget. It is the largest single swing in the exercise, and it is settled by where you incorporate.
What are the two fees that quietly double the bill?
The AED 500 “fee inside the country”, which GDRFA charges twice, and the AED 100 a year that starts at year three. Both are printed on the service page; neither appears in the totals guides publish. Together they are worth AED 1,300 on a five-year file.
The AED 500 that lands twice
GDRFA applies it when the sponsored person is already in the UAE, and because a Dubai investor file is cut in two, it falls on both transactions. Flying in on the entry permit costs AED 770; starting the same file on a tourist visa costs AED 1,770 — same permit, same officer, same 48 hours. The structure turns AED 470 into AED 1,470 on the remote work residency routes too, so the rule belongs to the authority, not the category.
The AED 100 a year that starts at year three
GDRFA’s note is one sentence: the issuance fee increases by AED 100 annually whenever the residency is over two years. On five years that is years three, four and five — AED 300 on top of the AED 200 base. We apply it that way throughout, and flag it as a reading of the note rather than a published price.
Renewal carries both lines and is by definition filed from inside the country: AED 200 + 10 + 10 + 500 + 20 before the increase, plus a fresh medical examination, the Emirates ID receipt and health insurance.
How much does the Golden visa route cost an investor?
AED 247 at ICP, or AED 1,640 at GDRFA Dubai — for the same ten years. ICP’s Issuance of a Residence Visa for an Investor in Public Investments lists three lines: application AED 100, issuance AED 47, smart services AED 100. GDRFA’s Issuing a golden residence permit (investors) starts at AED 1,100, plus AED 10 Knowledge, AED 10 Innovation, AED 500 domestic fee and AED 20 delivery.
Same category, same duration, two authorities, a factor of 6.6. The question is not which is right — both are — but which counter you are standing at. ICP quotes two working days, GDRFA five.
What AED 2 million actually commits you to
GDRFA lists four ways to clear it: AED 2,000,000 in a company or public investment, in property or on deposit, or AED 250,000 of annual tax. It attaches a condition the guides skip — the authority “reserves the right to take the necessary measures to ensure that individuals covered by the provisions of this resolution continue to meet the conditions stated therein throughout the validity period”. The property cannot be sold and the deposit cannot be withdrawn for the life of the permit. A ten-year visa with a ten-year lock on the capital is a different product, and AED 247 does not say so.
Why do three guides give three different totals?
Because each blends products the government prices separately. We opened the three best-ranked English guides on this keyword on 16 September 2026. No two agree, and none matches the five-year permit the federal portal publishes.
| Guide, read 16 Sept 2026 | Duration it prices | Total it gives | Establishment card? |
|---|---|---|---|
| takweenadvisory.ae | 2 years, business or partner | “roughly AED 2,000–6,500” | not itemised |
| spcfz.ae | 2 years, investor | “3,700–15,000+” | not itemised |
| businessandbeyond.ae | 2 years mainland, 2–3 years free zone | “4,000 – 8,000 AED” | not itemised |
| Government pages, this guide | up to 5 years | AED 770 visa + AED 280 or 2,300 card | itemised, both authorities |
The ranges are not dishonest. They are agency quotes — government fees plus typing, PRO handling and margin — presented as the cost of a visa. Useful if you are buying a service, useless if you are working out which line is the government’s and which disappears when you file in Dubai rather than federally. Only one names both authorities, and none itemises the establishment card every one of their clients has to buy.
What does the trade licence itself cost?
More than the visa, and it varies far more. Dubai Economy and Tourism publishes the line items for a new trade licence rather than a total, because the total depends on your activity. The fixed lines are modest. The activity lines are not.
| Line, as DET labels it | Amount |
|---|---|
| Licence register fees | AED 600 |
| Trade name advertisements | AED 350 |
| Service request form | AED 50 |
| Knowledge and Innovation Dirhams | AED 20 |
| Launch fees | AED 1,070 |
| General trading activity | AED 15,000 |
| Investment activities | AED 15,000 |
A licence runs one year or two. The AED 15,000 lines apply to general trading and investment activities specifically — a consultancy licence is far smaller — but they are why a founder who budgeted “about AED 15,000 all in” can find the activity fee alone equal to the whole budget. Check it against your exact activity code before you commit to a company type. The order cannot be rearranged: trade licence, establishment card, entry permit, medical and Emirates ID, residence permit.
Does an investor visa need an Ejari address in Dubai?
The visa does not, the licence does — and the licence is a condition of the visa. GDRFA asks for the trade licence among the four documents in an investor file, and Dubai will not issue or renew a licence against an unregistered address. In Dubai a tenancy is not registered until it has gone through Ejari, the Dubai Land Department system run by RERA. The requirement reaches the visa by one step, which is why founders keep discovering it late.
What that costs, and what it does not have to cost
A small Downtown office rented only to satisfy a licence is roughly AED 80,000 a year. Our Virtual Office + Ejari is AED 8,000 a year, about AED 667 a month: a Downtown business address at Al Fattan, City Walk, an official Ejari registered within 24 working hours and valid for DET mainland licences and major free zones, mail received, scanned and forwarded, two hours of meeting room a month and lounge access — no setup fee, no deposit. Our complete guide to how Ejari works in Dubai covers the registration itself.
If the company will have people at desks, a private office starts at AED 6,000 a month and a coworking membership is AED 950 — meeting-room hours included, one a month on coworking and six on a private office, badge access 24/7, and reception staffed Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.
What do the medical test and the Emirates ID add?
Between AED 850 and AED 1,770, and the spread is about speed. Both are compulsory, and both sit between the two permits.
The medical test: the same certificate at four prices
| DHA service | Price | Turnaround, as published |
|---|---|---|
| Regular medical fitness | AED 250 | 24 working hours |
| Express medical fitness | AED 700 | 6 working hours |
| Smart Salem centre | AED 700 | 30 working minutes |
| VIP medical fitness | AED 1,020 | 2 working hours |
Same test, same certificate, read in DHA’s medical fitness catalogue: AED 250 or AED 1,020, a factor of 4.08, and “the mentioned fees do not include typing fees”. Note the oddity in the middle: Smart Salem costs the same AED 700 as the express service and returns the result in thirty minutes rather than six hours. That is the line to pay for.
The Emirates ID: a rate, not a price
ICP does publish an Emirates ID tariff, but per year: “Fees for issuing a new Identity Card for residents, per year of residence — 100 AED”, plus AED 100 of smart service fees, plus AED 150 to rush it at an ICP centre. A five-year Green visa is AED 600, typing fees on top. This is why agency totals diverge: two years puts it at AED 300, five at AED 600, and neither author says which they assumed. Health insurance is compulsory and is not a government fee at all — we broke that market down separately.
What does the first year cost, all in?
About AED 1,900 in government fees at the cheap end and about AED 5,800 at the expensive one — before the trade licence, health insurance and anyone’s service fee. Both columns are built only from the lines above.
| Line | Cheapest published route | Most expensive published route |
|---|---|---|
| Establishment card | AED 280 (GDRFA) | AED 2,300 (ICP) |
| Entry permit | AED 230 (from outside) | AED 730 (from inside) |
| Medical fitness | AED 250 (24 working hours) | AED 1,020 (VIP) |
| Emirates ID, 5 years | AED 600 | AED 750 (urgent) |
| Residence permit, 5 years | AED 540 (from outside) | AED 1,040 (from inside) |
| Government fees, first year | AED 1,900 | AED 5,840 |
A factor of just over three on identical paperwork, decided by three choices: which authority holds your establishment card, whether you file from inside or outside the UAE, and how fast you want the medical certificate. Two of the three are settled weeks earlier, when you choose where to incorporate.
What we could not verify
ICP publishes no single total for the Green visa investor route the way GDRFA does, and typing-office fees are not published as a tariff anywhere we could reach. A figure we could not read on a government page is not in this guide.
FAQ: 10 quick answers
These questions come from the official service pages and from the points on which the three competing guides contradict each other. Search Console records no question-shaped query on the investor visa for this site — which is why the ground was free.
1. How much does an investor visa cost in Dubai in 2026? AED 770 in government fees for a five-year Green visa filed from outside the UAE — AED 230 for the entry permit, AED 540 for the residence permit, on GDRFA Dubai’s tariffs read on 16 September 2026. Filing from inside the country takes it to AED 1,770. The establishment card, medical test, Emirates ID and trade licence are separate.
2. Is the Dubai investor visa two years or five years? Five. The federal portal publishes the Green visa as “a renewable residence visa valid for 5 years”, and GDRFA Dubai’s investor-partner service says up to five years, renewable. Guides pricing a two-year investor visa use the baseline GDRFA’s fee table still assumes — which is why it carries an increase “whenever residency exceeds two years”.
3. What is an establishment card and do I need one? It is the company’s immigration file, and yes: without it a company cannot sponsor anyone, including its owner. GDRFA Dubai charges from AED 280; ICP charges AED 2,300, of which AED 2,000 is a subscription to its electronic system for establishments. It is the biggest single swing in the budget.
4. How much must I invest to get a Dubai investor visa? For the Green visa route no capital figure is published: GDRFA asks for a trade licence and a partnership or investment contract, not a minimum. For the ten-year Golden visa as an investor in public investments, the federal portal states a “minimum capital of AED 2 million”, and GDRFA lists the same AED 2,000,000 in a company, property or deposit.
5. Does an investor visa require an office or an Ejari in Dubai? The visa file asks for a trade licence, and Dubai will not issue or renew a licence against an address that is not registered through Ejari — so the requirement reaches you one step removed. Oh My Desk’s Virtual Office + Ejari is AED 8,000 a year, registered within 24 working hours and valid for DET mainland licences and major free zones.
6. Why is applying from inside the UAE more expensive? Because GDRFA charges an AED 500 “fee inside the country” when the sponsored person is already here, and a Dubai investor file is split into two transactions — entry permit, then residence permit — so it falls twice. That is AED 1,000 on an identical file, and renewals always carry it.
7. How long does a Dubai investor visa take? GDRFA quotes 48 hours for the entry permit and 48 for the residence permit, and the entry permit allows 60 days from entry while the residence is processed. ICP quotes two working days for the Golden investor residence, GDRFA five. The real calendar is set by the licence and the establishment card, which come first.
8. How much is the medical test for a Dubai residence visa? AED 250 for the regular service in 24 working hours, AED 700 express in six, AED 700 at a Smart Salem centre in thirty working minutes, and AED 1,020 for the VIP service in two hours — DHA’s own catalogue. Same certificate, a factor of 4.08, typing fees excluded from all four.
9. What does the Emirates ID cost on an investor visa? AED 100 per year of residence plus AED 100 of smart service fees, so AED 600 for a five-year Green visa, and AED 150 more to rush it at an ICP centre. ICP publishes a rate, not a price, which is why guides quoting a flat figure rarely say how many years they assumed.
10. Is an investor visa better than a freelance visa in Dubai? They answer different questions: an investor visa follows from owning a company, a freelance visa from a permit issued to you as an individual. The investor route brings a trade licence, an establishment card and the ability to sponsor staff and family; the freelance route is lighter and cheaper to start, and we priced it in our guide to the freelance visa route in Dubai.
What to do next
An investor visa in Dubai is a cheap document at the end of an expensive sequence — the trade licence, the establishment card, the registered address the licence has to name. Get those three right and the AED 770 takes care of itself.
The address is the piece we can settle today. Virtual Office + Ejari is AED 8,000 a year, registered in 24 working hours; if the company needs desks rather than an address, Business Bay has private offices from AED 6,000 a month and meeting rooms from AED 120 an hour for the day you sign. Our Dubai Design District address opens on 1 October 2026. Book a free tour, or ask the team — they answer within two working hours, in English, French or Arabic. Once the company earns, read what UAE corporate tax asks of it.
