UAE to offer long-term visa for rich, educated foreigners

Agencies
November 25, 2018

Dubai, Nov 25: The United Arab Emirates will offer long-term visas to rich property investors, senior scientists and entrepreneurs in an effort to support its economy and real estate market, which have been hurt by low oil prices.

Until now, visas for foreigners to live in the Arab world's second biggest economy have generally been valid for only a few years, and have depended on the main visa holder in each family remaining employed. The government said in May it planned to ease that policy.

Detailed rules approved by the cabinet on Saturday offer five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams ($1.4 million), as long as ownership is not based on loans, state news agency WAM reported.

Renewable 10-year visas will be provided to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least 10 million dirhams, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 percent of the total. Investors can bring spouses and children into the country.

Other rules offer five-year visas to entrepreneurs and 10-year visas for scientists and researchers with top qualifications. Outstanding students can stay for five years.

The UAE is currently locked in a diplomatic dispute with Britain after a UK academic was jailed for life on spying charges.

Share prices of UAE property firms, beaten down by slumping real estate prices, moved little on Sunday in response to the new visa rules. Analysts said they were probably not enough on their own to change investment or employment trends.

Some parts of the economy that rely on white-collar professionals - a class of people who might buy homes in the UAE - are seeing stagnant or even falling employment.

Jean-Paul Pigat, head of research at Lighthouse Research in Dubai, said the new visas were a step in the right direction but: "In order to have a large impact on domestic demand and sectors such as real estate, the policies might need to be broadened so that larger numbers of residents can qualify."

Also, the visas do not provide a path to UAE citizenship, which would be a sensitive political issue in a country where well over two-thirds of the roughly 9.4 million residents are believed to be foreign.

Nishit Lakhotia, head of research at financial company SICO in Bahrain, said the new visa system was positive but unlikely to have any immediate material impact.

"There are much less stringent investment requirements in some of Eastern European countries or even Turkey to get citizenship, not just residency permits," he said.

In another step to aid the real estate market, the UAE government approved in September a law allowing expatriates to stay in the country after retirement if they own a property valued at about $545,000.

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News Network
May 4,2024

somasundar.jpg

Mangaluru, May 4: A tragic incident unfurled last evening in Subrahmanya of Kadaba taluk in Dakshina Kananda, where a young gentleman, who had recently entered the bonds of matrimony a mere ten days hence, met his untimely demise due to a lightning strike.

As twilight descended, a tempestuous thunderstorm, accompanied by billowing rain clouds, cast its shadow over the locale.

Somasundar was diligently engaged in the task of piling up dried nuts in the yard to shield them from the impending deluge, when fate cruelly intervened, subjecting him to the fatal force of a lightning bolt.

Despite the expeditious efforts to convey him to Kadaba Community Hospital subsequent to his sudden indisposition, he tragically succumbed to his injuries. 

Somasundar, who operated a car washing enterprise in proximity to Subrahmanya, is mourned by his mother, sister, and wife.

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News Network
May 2,2024

Bengaluru, May 2: Prajwal Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, was issued fresh summons on Thursday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is investigating the case of obscene videos involving the former JD(S) member, several news outlets reported.

The SIT also junked his appeal which sought seven days time to join the probe, as per these reports.

Prajwal and his father, H D Revanna, have sexual harassment and stalking cases filed against them over the matter. Gowda's son, H D Revanna, however, said that what took place '4-5 years ago' is now being turned into a legal case.

JD(S) in its core committee meeting suspended Prajwal from the party till the end of the probe. Prajwal, meanwhile, took to X to state he would join the probe in seven days time, asserting 'truth will prevail'.

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News Network
April 27,2024

The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces has said it has carried out new operations against American and British targets in retaliation for their aggression on the country.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Friday that Yemen’s naval forces struck a British oil tanker in the Red Sea with missiles.

Saree also said the military also shot down an American MQ-9 drone in Sa’ada province.

He added that the new operations were also a show of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, amid the Israeli genocide there. 

“The Yemeni Armed Forces salute all the people of Yemen for their faithful response to the call of the fighter leader Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr El-Din Al-Houthi, may Allah protect him, in their unprecedented large-scale interaction in support of our oppressed brothers in the Gaza Strip, affirming support for the Armed Forces in their military operations against the ‘Israeli’ enemy and against the American-British aggression supporting it in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Indian Ocean,” Saree said.

He stressed that the Yemeni armed forces will continue operations in the Red and Arabian Seas as well as the Indian Ocean until the Western-backed Israeli genocide comes to a halt.

Since the start of the brutal campaign in Gaza, the regime has killed more than 34,300 Palestinians and injured over 77,000 others. It has cut off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have been targeting Israeli vessels or those “associated” with the occupying regime in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea since October 7, 2023.

The regime ignited its bloody war machine in the besieged Palestinian territory on that October day in response to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm conducted by the resistance movement Hamas.

The maritime attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.

Tankers are instead adding thousands of miles to international shipping routes by sailing around the continent of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal.

The pro-Palestine maritime campaign has also prompted airstrikes by the US and its allies on Yemen – in violation of the Yemeni sovereignty and international law.

In consequence, Yemen’s armed forces have declared US and British vessels as legitimate targets.

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