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19 March 2024

Tenancy contract required for visit visa in Dubai, but not Abu Dhabi

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

Do you need an attested tenancy contract when applying for a UAE visit visa?

In Dubai, it is mandatory, but Abu Dhabi says no need for now.

A call centre executive at the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs-Dubai told Emirates 24|7: “It is 'mandatory' to provide an attested tenancy contract even if one was applying for a visit visa.

“It’s a new rule. You have to provide us with a tenancy contract.

“It should be attested by the Land Department if you are staying in Dubai, or from the respective municipality if you are staying in any other emirate,” the executive said.

She added: “We just need the contract and we are not looking at the size of the apartment.”

A call centre executive from Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre told this website: “For now, you don’t require to produce an attested tenancy contract.”

Mahesh D, who went to apply for a visit visa, at the DNRD’s Jebel Ali branch on June 14, said: “On the phone they informed me to bring an attested copy of my tenancy contract, but at the immigration office I was never asked for one.

“When I enquired with the officer if he wanted to see my tenancy contract, he simply said ‘You don’t need to provide a tenancy contract for visit visa’.”

He adds: “It was not money but time spent in going to the Land Department and waiting in the queue to get my tenancy contract attested.

“If I had the right information, it could have saved my time.”

Mina Saheel, who works in Dubai, said she also wasn’t asked to provide the tenancy contract.

“I went to apply for a visa for my parents and I got it immediately. No official asked me for my tenancy contract.”

On June 17, Major General Nassir Al Minhali, the Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Naturalisation and Residency, was quoted by Al Khaleej, an Arabic language daily, saying that Abu Dhabi and all other emirates will soon be enforcing the new rules stipulating expatriates seeking to have their residence visas renewed to submit tenancy contract with their application.

Expat bachelors must present documents verifying their residence along with their visa renewal application even if they work in one emirate and reside in another.

The newspaper quoted the officer saying that the decision, which was temporarily suspended last week, does not target property firms or any other party, describing it as a “security, service and administrative” regulation aimed at serving the UAE’s interests.