Golden Visa for Business Owners and Partners in the UAE: AED 2 Million Company Share, Tax Route, Evidence, Steps and Fees

In short: As of October 2026, a business owner or partner gets the 10-year UAE Golden Visa as an investor in public investments: a company set up with at least AED 2 million in capital, a partner share worth at least AED 2 million, or at least AED 250,000 a year in federal tax. The capital must be your own, not a loan. In Dubai, GDRFA issues it on an audited share value.

This guide covers the Golden Visa for people who own or co-own a UAE company: what counts as a qualifying company investment, how partner shares are measured, whether loans count, mainland and free zone companies, the evidence pack, the steps in Dubai and the other emirates, the official fee lines, your family, what happens if you sell shares or cut capital, renewal, refusal reasons and four example profiles.

Sources behind this page, all read on 30 October 2026: the ICP Golden Residency guide; the ICP service cards for the nomination, the six-month entry permit and the residence itself; GDRFA Dubai’s card for investors; the Ministry of Economy’s answers on investment; and u.ae. When two of them describe a test in different words, you will see both versions and which authority’s wording governs your file.

What counts as a company investment for the Golden Visa?

The company route sits inside ICP’s “investors in public investments” category. You need one of four tests, and one is enough. The federal wording and GDRFA’s Dubai card describe the same routes in different terms, so we show both.

Read on 30 October 2026: GDRFA’s card titled “Issuing a golden residence permit (investors)”; the Ministry of Economy’s answer covering investors in public investments; ICP’s nomination card for Golden Residence (its page says it was last updated 25 February 2025); and ICP’s Golden Residency guide (page dated 10 September 2026).

Does a loan count, and what counts as your capital?

No. ICP’s guide says the invested capital must be fully owned by the investor and must not come from a loan, and the Ministry of Economy says the capital must be wholly owned by the investor, not a loan, with evidence provided. In practice the reviewer is asking two questions: is the money in the company really yours, and can you show where it came from?

• Bank finance for your share. If you borrowed to pay in your capital, that capital is loan-funded. Repay the loan or use another route before applying.
• Subscribed but unpaid capital. A memorandum can state AED 2 million while the accounts show only part of it paid. The audited report is what GDRFA reads, so the paid-up figure and the share value should both reach AED 2 million.
• Shareholder loans. Money you lent to the company is a debt the company owes you, not share capital. The cards do not say whether it counts, so do not build a file on it.
• Source of funds. Keep the trail: your personal bank statements, the transfer into the company account, and the company’s statement showing the capital received. If the funds came from a sale, savings or an inheritance abroad, the documents behind it usually need attestation and a legal translation.

The property route is different: ICP accepts property bought with finance from an approved local bank, and GDRFA accepts mortgaged property. That flexibility does not carry over to company capital.

Several partners in one company: can each of you qualify?

Yes, each partner applies on their own share. ICP and the Ministry of Economy describe a partner whose share in the company is at least AED 2,000,000, and GDRFA measures “the value of their share of the company’s assets”. None of the cards lets partners pool one company’s capital and split the Golden Visa between them. On our reading, a company’s total capital helps the partners only as far as each person’s own share reaches the line.

If you are close to the line, the fix is usually on the company side: a capital increase or a share transfer recorded on the licence and memorandum before you apply. Those amendments go through the licensing authority first; see our trade licence amendment guide. The new capital still has to be your own money and show up in the audited accounts.

Mainland or free zone company: does it matter?

Both count. ICP’s card asks for “a valid commercial or industrial license” with the memorandum, without limiting it to the mainland, and GDRFA’s card has a specific line for companies registered in a free zone. What changes is the paperwork:

• Mainland company: trade licence with the partners’ appendix, memorandum of association and the audited report.
• Free zone company: GDRFA asks for a certificate issued by the free zone proving the company’s capital and the investor’s share, together with the certified financial report. Ask your free zone authority for this certificate early; it is not part of the normal licence pack.
• The auditor: GDRFA also asks for the documents the audit office requires, namely the audit firm’s company licence and the auditor’s licence issued by the Ministry of Economy. A report from a firm that cannot show these will be questioned.

Holding a free zone package or an investor visa from the zone does not make you a Golden investor. Most free zone shareholders hold far less than AED 2 million, which is why the standard investor visa remains the common route for them.

The evidence pack for company owners and partners

Lines marked (GDRFA) or (ICP) are printed on those cards; the rest is what we prepare in practice so the reviewer does not have to ask.

Capital or partner share route

• Passport copy and personal photo (GDRFA; ICP).
• Valid trade licence with the partners’ appendix (GDRFA), and the memorandum of association showing capital of at least AED 2,000,000 or your contribution (ICP).
• Certified financial report proving the value, issued by an accredited audit firm in the UAE (GDRFA). Ask the auditor to state your share and its value in plain terms.
• Company bank statement (GDRFA). A bank letter confirming the capital deposit helps when the capital was paid in recently.
• Tax registration with tax receipts for the last year (GDRFA), and the company’s Federal Tax Authority registration certificates where relevant.
• For free zone companies: the free zone certificate of capital and shareholding (GDRFA).
• The audit firm’s licence and the auditor’s Ministry of Economy licence (GDRFA).
• Source-of-funds trail for your capital (ICP and the Ministry ask for evidence that it is yours and not a loan).
• Where the share value rests on assets rather than cash, a valuation the auditor relies on, such as a property valuation for company-owned real estate.

Tax route

• Passport copy (GDRFA).
• Federal Tax Authority letter stating that you are a partner in one or more establishments with a tax contribution of at least AED 250,000 a year (GDRFA; ICP card wording is similar for owners and for partners’ shares).
• Trade licence with the partners’ appendix (GDRFA).
• The tax returns behind the figure, in case the reviewer asks how the AED 250,000 was reached. The cards do not list which federal taxes count, so the FTA letter’s own figure is what matters.

Everyone

• Medical insurance in force on the day you apply, covering you and every family member you plan to add (ICP; Ministry of Economy).
• If you already live here, copies of your residence visa and Emirates ID, plus a note of any past refusal and its date.
• Documents issued abroad, such as a sale deed for the funds, attested and legally translated. If you are setting up from abroad, our guide for founders abroad covers the attestation chain.

Step by step: from company documents to Emirates ID

Dubai company (GDRFA)

1. Check the numbers first. Confirm your share value with the auditor and your ownership on the licence. For a quick first view, try our Golden Visa eligibility checker.
2. Fix the company file if needed: capital increase, share transfer or a missing partners’ appendix, before anything goes to GDRFA.
3. Apply for “Issuing a golden residence permit (investors)” on the GDRFA website (UAE PASS or username) or at an Amer centre, with the evidence pack, and pay the fees. No separate nomination letter is listed for investors on GDRFA’s card.
4. GDRFA reviews the file. The card’s expected completion time is five working days.
5. Medical and fingerprints. Take the fitness test at a Dubai Health centre, then go for Emirates ID biometrics once you receive the appointment.
6. Your Golden residence arrives in digital form, attached to the Emirates ID record. Family files can be opened from that point.

Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates (ICP)

1. Run ICP’s eligibility check on its smart services portal first.
2. Submit ICP’s “Nomination Request for Golden Residence” in the investors in public investments category, attaching the licence and memorandum plus either your partner proof or the FTA letter. It costs AED 150; ICP quotes one working day if you file at a Customer Happiness Centre and two on its smart channels.
3. Outside the UAE? Ask ICP for the six-month multiple-entry permit that lets you come in and complete the Golden steps; its card names investors in public investments as eligible. Budget AED 1,250 and two working days.
4. Request the residence itself through ICP’s Issuing Residency Permit service, choosing the “Resident: Golden Residence” category: AED 1,200 covers the full 10 years, and ICP’s stated time is two days.
5. Finish the medical and biometrics in the emirate where you live; once the residence is out, your spouse and children can be added.

Already resident here on a partner or employment visa? Then the Golden permit is issued without you leaving, and in Dubai that triggers GDRFA’s AED 500 inside-country charge. Do not let the old visa lapse in the meantime; cancel it through your company only once the new residence shows on your record.

Official fees for the company investor route

Only government charges appear below. Insurance, the auditor’s and valuer’s bills, licence amendments, attestation and typing or service-centre charges are extra. Our Golden Visa cost calculator builds a total for your own file, and the Golden Visa cost guide explains each line.

How long does it take?

The official stages are short. The slow part is the company paperwork: an auditor’s report that states your share value, a free zone certificate or an FTA letter that names you. Start those first.

Your family, and your partner’s family

A company investor’s Golden residence carries the same family rights as any other Golden category. Under ICP’s guide you can bring your husband or wife, your children of any age and your parents, and you can employ domestic workers on the normal rules; if you die, their permits stay valid until they expire. Insurance for the whole family has to be in place at the application stage (ICP; Ministry of Economy).

For Dubai, budget AED 210 once to open your sponsor file with GDRFA (AED 200 plus 5% VAT), then per relative AED 210 for the entry permit and AED 1,000 for the 10-year residence, with a medical where one applies and an Emirates ID each. Our Golden Visa family sponsorship guide owns this topic: documents, filing order and the parents’ rules are all there.

• Spouse who is also a partner: if their own share reaches AED 2 million, they can hold their own Golden Visa. If not, they join as your family member.
• Couples splitting a share: two spouses with AED 1 million each do not add up to one AED 2 million share on the cards we read. One spouse holding AED 2 million and sponsoring the other is the cleaner file.
• Your business partner’s family is sponsored by that partner on their own Golden or standard residence, never through yours.

Selling shares, cutting capital and renewal

The Golden Visa is tied to the investment staying in place. GDRFA says it may take the necessary measures to make sure holders keep meeting the conditions throughout the 10 years, and gives property sales and deposit refunds as examples. Company shares are not named in that sentence, but the logic is the same, so treat your share as a commitment for the life of the permit.

• Selling part of your share so that it falls below AED 2 million, or the tax share below AED 250,000, removes the basis of the visa. Expect the renewal to fail, and do not assume the authority will wait until then.
• Reducing capital or closing the company has the same effect. If you plan an exit, look at the property or deposit routes before the change, not after.
• Renewal: GDRFA will extend the permit as long as you still meet the original conditions, and the Ministry of Economy confirms renewal needs no sponsor, only the same prerequisites met again. Keep each year’s audited accounts, licence and FTA letter ready.
• Time abroad: Golden holders sit outside the 180-day rule, according to GDRFA; absence voids the residence only when it expires while you are abroad.
• Self-support: GDRFA’s conditions for keeping the permit include providing for yourself and your family with no government support.
• After cancellation or expiry, Golden holders get a longer grace period than most residents (180 days in the tiers we apply); the exact period is printed on your cancellation.

Standard partner visa, Golden company investor, entrepreneur or property?

Owners below the Golden thresholds can also look at the 5-year Green residence for partners and investors, which GDRFA issues on the partnership contract or memorandum and the licence without a printed minimum. The two are set side by side in our Golden Visa vs Green Visa guide.

Why company investor files are refused, and how to fix yours

ICP is not obliged to explain a refusal. Only a rejection of the main application brings back the issuance fees, health insurance fees and deposits. Already refused or returned once? Our Golden Visa rejected guide covers what to fix before a second attempt.

Example profiles (fictional, for illustration)

The four owners below are made up to show the routes at work; none is a client of ours, and in a real file the authority makes the call.

(a) A sole owner of a Dubai mainland company

He owns 100% of a Dubai trading company with AED 2 million capital in the memorandum, and the audited accounts certify his share at AED 2.6 million. He meets the capital route on both wordings. He files with GDRFA with the licence, partners’ appendix, audited report, company bank statement and tax registration. What he pays the government: AED 1,900 to GDRFA (1,100 plus 800), another AED 500 as he already lives in Dubai, AED 1,100 for a 10-year Emirates ID, then the medical and his insurance.

(b) Three partners in a Sharjah free zone company

Their company has AED 3 million capital split 40%, 30% and 30%, so their shares are worth AED 1.2 million, AED 900,000 and AED 900,000. None of them meets the share route alone. Their options are a capital increase recorded on the licence, the entrepreneur route if the company earns AED 1 million a year, or the 5-year Green residence.

(c) Two equal partners in a growing Dubai company

Their memorandum shows AED 300,000 capital, but after years of retained profit the audited accounts certify each 50% share at AED 2.5 million. On GDRFA’s wording, which measures the value of the share of the company’s assets, each partner may meet the Dubai test; on ICP’s capital wording they would not. Because GDRFA also weighs solvency and activity, they confirm the auditor’s wording and file in Dubai.

(d) A minority partner on the tax route in Abu Dhabi

She owns 25% of an Abu Dhabi group that pays AED 1.2 million a year in federal tax, so her share corresponds to AED 300,000. She asks the Federal Tax Authority for a letter naming her as a partner with that annual contribution, files ICP’s nomination request under investors in public investments, then the Golden residence.

How MIRDXB PRO helps

Our part: we test your documents against each company route, get the auditor’s report, the free zone certificate or the FTA letter worded so the reviewer can use it, then file the nomination (where one applies) and the residence with GDRFA, with ICP, or at an Amer or typing centre. The medical, the Emirates ID and your family’s permits follow under the same file. Our fees page lists the Golden Visa service from AED 2,000 (5% VAT included); your exact fee is put in writing once we see the file. A routine file goes straight to that written quote, while a refused or returned one begins with the AED 100 file check, which is then credited to your fee. More on the service: Golden and investor visa service.

Who we are, and who we are not. We are a private PRO and visa services company. GDRFA, ICP, the Ministry of Economy, the Federal Tax Authority and the free zone authorities are government bodies we file with; we do not act as a partner or agent for any of them. Whether a residence is granted is their decision, so no outcome is promised.

Frequently asked questions