UAE announces citizenship for investors and skilled professionals

In a first, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced amendments to its laws which will allow citizenship to investors and other professionals including, scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families.

The change in UAE citizenship law was announced with the aim of attracting new talent that will contribute to the development of the country, according to Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a Twitter post.

“The UAE cabinet, local Emiri courts and executive councils will nominate those eligible for the citizenship under clear criteria set for each category,” Dubai’s ruler and UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said in a Twitter post.

“The law allows receivers of the UAE passport to keep their existing citizenship” Shiekh Mohammed added in his Twitter post.

Requirements

The new UAE citizenship law states the terms and conditions on each category upon which citizenship will be granted to foreigners, according to Gulf News.

Investors

The one conditional requirement for investors is that they must own a property in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Medical doctors and skilled professionals

These individuals will be required to specialize in a unique scientific field that is need the UAE, while having contributed to studies and research with scientific value in their field.

In addition they are required to possess 10 years of experience as well as a membership in a prestigious professional organization in their field.

Scientists

These individuals must be active researcher in their field at a university, a research institute or the private sector while having 10 years of experience with scientific contributions, which may include a prestigious scientific award or having secured a significant funding for their research for 10 years.

In addition they must have a recommendation letter from a credited scientific institute in the UAE.

Talented people

This field is divided into two separate categories as mentioned below:

Firstly, it mentions investors who are required to have at least one patent certified by the UAE Ministry of Economy or any accredited relevant international body, which has real value to the UAE economy, in addition to a recommendation letter from the UAE Ministry of Economy.

Secondly, the intellectuals and artists are required to be pioneers in culture, arts and other talents with at least one international award in those talents and a recommendation letter from the UAE relevant body.

Conditions

The new law requires the recipients of the UAE citizenship to swear allegiance to the UAE and a pledge to uphold and respect the laws of the country, informing the relevant authority if they get a new citizenship or lost one.

Furthermore, the new law mentions the rights of those who are granted UAE nationality moving forward, including the right to establish companies in the country, buy and own land and real estate property as well as any other right to extended to them by the federal bodies, with the approval of the Cabinet, or by local government bodies.

Moreover, the UAE citizenship can be stripped from those who violate any legal commitment or lose at least one of the conditions upon which the person was granted citizenship in the first place.

Mechanism

The new law states that all those eligible for citizenship would be nominated through the Emirates’ rulers court, the courts of the crown princes, the executive council in an emirate or the cabinet.

This is a historic move by the country and the first major change to the UAE nationality law No.17 of 1972 on Nationality and Passports, which earlier restricted citizenship to a very limited number of cases and did not allow dual nationality.

UAE has taken these steps to ensure the social stability of long time residents in the country and those who contribute to the wellbeing and development of the Emirates through the introduction of the permanent residency scheme in 2019.

The UAE has been making a lot of changes to its laws and regulations to attract tourism and foreigners to the country, including revising its laws and legalizing alcohol for foreigners and allowing them to live together without marriage.

Read more: UAE legalizes alcohol, living together without marriage.

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