If you live in Dubai, you’ve had this conversation more times than you can count. Someone back home asks when it’s a good time to visit, and you realise you’re not actually sure what to tell them, because the answer depends on their passport, your salary, and how long they want to stay.
The good news is that inviting family and friends to visit Dubai is a lot more straightforward than it looks from the outside, especially now that Dubai’s General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA Dubai) has clarified exactly how the relatives and friends visit visa works. Here’s how to invite family and friends to visit Dubai without the guesswork, from figuring out whether they even need a visa to getting them settled once they land.
In a hurry?
✓ Many nationalities don’t need a visa at all, or can get one on arrival.
✓ If they do need one, you can sponsor them yourself through GDRFA Dubai.
✓ Your minimum salary to sponsor depends on who they are to you, not a flat number.
✓ Most applications are approved within 48 hours.
✓ They can stay up to 120 days a year in total, across one or more visits.
Does Your Guest Even Need a Visa?
Before you look into sponsorship, check whether your guest needs a visa at all. GCC nationals can enter freely with just a passport or national ID, no visa required.
Beyond that, citizens of a large number of countries, including most of the EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore among others, can enter the UAE visa-free for a set number of days depending on nationality, typically 30 to 90 days. Some other nationalities can get a visa on arrival, often on the condition that they already hold a valid visa or residence permit from a country like the US, UK, EU, Canada, or Japan.
The exact list shifts as the UAE adds nationalities to these programmes, so rather than quote a fixed list here that might be outdated by the time you read this, check your guest’s specific nationality against the official ICP or GDRFA portals before assuming they need sponsorship at all. A surprising number of residents go through the trouble of sponsoring a visa for a guest who could have just booked a flight.
This matters most for friends rather than close family, since the salary threshold for sponsoring a friend is considerably higher than for a parent or spouse. If your friend’s passport already qualifies for visa-free entry or a visa on arrival, you can skip the sponsorship process entirely and just help them book flights.
Sponsoring Them Yourself: The Relatives and Friends Visit Visa
If your guest’s nationality isn’t on the visa-free or visa-on-arrival lists, this is the route you’ll use, and it’s the one GDRFA Dubai just clarified in detail.
According to GDRFA Dubai’s July 2026 clarification, your minimum salary requirement depends on your relationship to the visitor, not a single flat figure:
• Parents, spouse, or children: minimum salary of AED 4,000 a month
• Siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, or cousins: minimum salary of AED 8,000 a month
• Friends: minimum salary of AED 15,000 a month
In every case you’ll need a valid UAE residence visa and Emirates ID of your own, and you’ll need to prove your income through a salary certificate, an attested labour contract, or partnership documents if you’re a business owner. If you’re not sure what type of residence visa you currently hold or whether it qualifies you to sponsor, our breakdown of Dubai Visa Types Explained covers the different categories.
You’ll also need to submit your passport and Emirates ID copies, your guest’s passport copy and a recent photo, proof of accommodation, and any attested marriage, birth, or family relationship certificates that establish how you’re connected. Your guest’s passport needs to be valid for at least six months from the date you apply.
Visa Types, Costs, and How Long They Can Stay
You’ll choose between a single-entry visa, good for one visit, or a multiple-entry visa, which lets your guest come and go several times during the validity period. Both are available for 30, 60, or 90 days.
Rough costs to budget for:
| Duration | Single-entry fee | Multiple-entry fee |
| 30 days | AED 200 | AED 300 |
| 60 days | AED 300 | AED 500 |
| 90 days | AED 400 | AED 700 |
These fees exclude VAT, medical insurance, and other service charges. You’ll also need a refundable security deposit of AED 1,000 for a single-entry visa or AED 2,000 for multiple-entry, which you get back as long as your guest doesn’t overstay.
Once issued, your guest needs to enter the UAE within 60 days, and their total stay can be extended from within the country, subject to approval, up to a combined cap of 120 days a year.
How and Where to Apply
You can apply through GDRFA Dubai’s Smart Services platform, the GDRFA mobile app, an Amer centre, a Customer Happiness Centre, or online through UAE Pass. Most applications are processed within 48 hours, which is fast enough that you don’t need to panic-apply the moment flights are booked, but it’s still worth building in a buffer in case your documents need a second look.
A Word on Overstaying
Don’t let a visit visa quietly expire while your guest is still in the country. Overstay fines apply per day past the visa’s validity, and the exact schedule has changed more than once in recent years, so check the current rate through GDRFA or Amer rather than going on what a friend told you last year. If your guest wants to stay longer than planned, apply for the extension before the visa lapses rather than after.
Where Should They Actually Stay?
Some guests will want to stay with you the entire trip, and others, especially larger families or friend groups, will want their own space nearby. There’s no wrong answer, but it’s worth deciding early since it affects how you fill in the proof of accommodation section of the visa application.
If they’re staying with you, that’s usually the simplest option for the paperwork, since your own tenancy contract or title deed typically covers it. If they need their own place, decide roughly which part of the city makes sense for them before you start browsing, since a hotel that’s convenient for you might mean a long commute back to wherever you actually spend your time.
If they’ll need a hotel for all or part of the stay, Booking.com is where I’d start, since it’s easy to filter by area and most listings offer free cancellation if travel dates shift.
Getting Them Connected the Moment They Land
One thing I always tell people to sort before their guests board the flight: connectivity. Airport wifi is patchy and roaming charges add up fast, so an eSIM they can activate before they even land means they can get a taxi, message you, and pull up directions the second they clear immigration.
I use Airalo for this, since your guest can buy a UAE data plan from their own phone before travelling, no physical SIM card or store visit required.
What to Actually Do With Them
Once the paperwork is sorted, the fun part is planning what they’ll actually do while they’re here. It depends heavily on who’s visiting and for how long, but a mix of one or two big-ticket attractions with slower days built in usually works better than trying to pack in everything Dubai has to offer in a week.
For attraction tickets, I compare prices on GetYourGuide before booking anything, especially for things like desert safaris or dhow dinner cruises where pricing shifts around by season. If kids are part of the group, our Best Things to Do with Kids in Dubai This Summer guide covers what’s worth the heat and what isn’t.
A Realistic Timeline
If you’re sponsoring a visa, give yourself at least two to three weeks before your guest’s planned arrival. That covers the 48-hour processing window with room to spare if documents need resubmitting, plus time to book flights once you know the visa is approved rather than gambling on both at once.
If your guest arrives between 20 July and 31 October 2026, it’s also worth checking whether Dubai’s current AED 3,000 resident rewards campaign is still running before they land. Our breakdown of How Dubai’s AED 3,000 Invite Program Works (2026) covers how to register them for that separately, and the nomination has to happen before they arrive, so it’s worth doing at the same time as everything else on this list.
Mistakes I See Residents Make
The most common one is assuming the salary threshold is the same for everyone. If you’re sponsoring a friend rather than a relative, the bar jumps to AED 15,000 a month, which catches people out when they’ve already promised a visit before checking.
The second is treating the relatives and friends visit visa and a standard tourist visa as interchangeable. If your guest’s nationality already gets visa-free entry or a visa on arrival, sponsoring them through GDRFA is unnecessary paperwork and cost. Check the free-entry route first.
The third is cutting it too close to the travel date. Even with 48-hour processing, documents occasionally need clarification, and a guest who’s already booked non-refundable flights around an unapproved visa is a stressful position for everyone.
Questions I’d Actually Ask Before Applying
Can I sponsor more than one guest at a time?
Yes. There’s no cap on how many relatives or friends you can sponsor, though each application is submitted and assessed individually, with its own documents and its own security deposit.
What if my guest’s passport doesn’t have six months of validity left?
Get it renewed before applying. GDRFA Dubai requires at least six months of remaining validity at the time you submit the application, and there’s no workaround for this one.
I changed jobs recently. Does that affect my ability to sponsor someone?
It can, since your proof of income needs to reflect your current employer. If you’ve just started a new role, make sure your salary certificate or labour contract is updated and attested before you apply, rather than relying on documents from your previous job.
Can my guest extend their visa once they’re already here?
Yes, extensions are possible from within the UAE, subject to approval and compliance with the standard regulations, up to the combined 120-day annual cap. Apply for the extension before the original visa expires rather than waiting until the last few days.
A Visit Visa Is Not the Same as Sponsoring Them to Live Here
Everything above is about short visits, not moving to Dubai permanently. If a parent or spouse is coming to actually live with you rather than just visit, that’s a separate residence visa process with its own salary thresholds, medical fitness tests, and Emirates ID application, and it isn’t something you apply for through the relatives and friends visit visa.
This distinction trips people up more than you’d expect. I’ve had friends apply for a short visit visa for a parent who was actually planning to stay indefinitely, only to run into the 120-day annual cap partway through the year. If there’s any chance the visit is really a trial run for a permanent move, it’s worth having that conversation honestly before you apply, since the paperwork forks in a completely different direction.
Bringing It All Together
Learning how to invite family and friends to visit Dubai really comes down to three questions: does your guest need a visa, can you meet the sponsorship requirements if they do, and have you sorted the practical side, accommodation, connectivity, and a rough plan, before they land.
Get those three right and the rest tends to take care of itself. Dubai is an easy place to host people once the paperwork is settled, and most of the guests I know who’ve visited residents here end up asking the same question on their way to the airport: when can we come back.
With love,
Dearest Dubai 🤍