Check out www.creativezone.ae and www.vz.ae. I had a meeting with Virtuzone at their office in Dubai when I was thinking about living in Dubai and they seemed very professional. They will be able to answer all your questions.
Thanks robbo, I will check that out. The other option is to buy a property in Dubai and apply for the residence visa that way. But I'm not intending to live there full-time at the moment and I'm not too optimistic about the property prices going forward. The main advantage of going the property route would be that it's all legit in the eyes of the bank and brokerage. I'm not too sure how they will look at some company setup in a freezone and I really don't want to risk getting my accounts frozen.
Dear, If you have a Employeement visa, and you transfer your visa to new employeer (they give freelance visa ) and they charge you between 5000-1000 AED every year, and ofcourse Around $1000 expense for 2 years visa you have to pay yourself. If you add up in Duabi facebook gorup, and ask for it there are thousands of people who offering Free Lance visa. Y You making it sound to hard, it's so cheap to have residecny in dubai, that'st why you see so many unemployeed Indians and pakistanies there
Owning Property in Dubai can be a major headache. I wouldn't go down this route. I would get the freelancer visa and go from there.If you really like Dubai and want to live there for the longer term then look to buy a property.
Thanks for the input guys! I've worked in the ME for the last 15 years, so I'm well aware of the pros/cons. But I also can't think of many better places to use as a base for trading/investing when it comes to residence rules, taxes etc. The property route would be to ensure that I comply with broker KYC (proof of address etc) and to have some grounds for claiming "bona fide" residence in Dubai if I run in to tax issues in another country I spend time in. (I'm not a US citizen) But I totally agree that it most likely would be a major headache and the property market seems pretty shaky at the moment. Setting up a company in a freezone and paying myself a monthly salary from that might be a good option that I have to look into.
Hi, I'm in a similar situation, being a self-employed/retail trader analyzing options in Dubai. To obtain a visa via a freezone company, I confirm virtuzone is pretty good/professional based on the exchanged I had (might depend on the contact person). For some freezones there are no accounting/audit requirements, which means trading/investing is not needed in the FZ company itself. For the freelance visa though, isn't it necessary to be sponsored by a freezone authority, i.e submitting a file/business plan and showing proofs of the activity (typically not trading/investments related)? Business sponsorship is I think also possible (possibly more flexible/easier), but the dependency relationship with the sponsor might not be wishable, as it could be broken at any time and for any reason as far as I understand it. Happy to have your views on these three options/any suggestion of FB link or source you may have. My most important questions are actually these ones (for now I'm considering the freezone company for the visa) Is it allowed to invest/trade (securities/shares, forex, cryptos) as a self-employed/private person without license (unique source of revenue)? Is crypto trading/investing allowed for private persons in UAE (own capital, no clients/service, excluding regulated security/commodity tokens)? I've been interacting with legal consultants for a month now, without any success for a reasonable price. Do you have views on these basic points or any good lawyer contact? Thanks!
Any success? I've contacted several companies in Dubai for options, they say there are some ways to get a residence visa as well as personal bank account (not company account that you register). Costs of doing that are appropriate. If there are people here who have the same "problem", I'd be glad to discuss this issue, and maybe together we could find the best possible way. As for mine situation - I am a citizen of Kazakhstan where the taxation for sole traders is very complicated. I used to live on a work visa in UAE for more than a year, and I pretty much liked it. But the 0% tax is more important, of course. (I could pay taxes there of up to 15% - no big deal, if authorities require to do so). BTW, was thinking about Singapore, but it seems to be more complicated to get a permanent residence there. I've had a positive feedback from 1 firm, who said they would help to get Emirates ID and all other stuff to set up in Dubai. Local Consultancy DMCC - Emirabiz(dot)com Maybe this will help you too. Anyways, my plan to move there is Autumn 2021, so for now I can only research and make conclusions. Thanks to all for all their posts above! Let's try to figure this out.
I'm actually in Dubai, but feel place is too boring, artificial for my taste, wanna get away for long holiday but can't yet.