UAE’s golden visa programme an open goal for the IPMI market?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expanding its ‘golden visa’ system, which grants overseas professionals 10-year residency
Up until recently, foreign workers living in the UAE needed to renew their visas every few years, but the government has been working to enhance the flexibility of its policies regarding overseas workers, having launched a permanent residency scheme for expatriates in 2019.
“Today we approved the granting of the 10-year golden visa to all PhD holders, all doctors, engineers in the fields of computer engineering, electronics, programming, electricity and biotechnology, as well as graduates from accredited universities who score 3.8 and above,” the Dubai Media Office said in a tweet.
The new 10-year golden visa programme will no doubt attract a great number of high-income professionals. This will, in turn, boost the local economy – the Dubai department of economic development commented: “When all stages of granting golden residency to different groups are completed, economic growth rate in Dubai is likely to increase between 0.25 per cent and one per cent, driven largely by domestic demand and investment.”
And, at a time when Kuwait, further up the Persian Gulf, is planning to cut expat numbers, this appears to be a timely opportunity for some of these individuals (supposing they have the right credentials) to cross borders and settle down in the UAE.
This is also bound to be good news for insurers – a wider pool of foreign workers and their families will enhance the potential growth of the international private medical insurance market.