UAE Retirement Visa at 55: Five Years, and an Income Test Set by the Emirate

The UAE gives a retired foreigner a five-year residence permit of their own, with no employer and no family member as sponsor. Four official bodies publish its terms: the federal government portal u.ae, the federal immigration authority ICP, Dubai’s residency directorate GDRFA, and the Dubai Land Department for the property route. They agree on the shape of the permit and on the AED 1 million figure. They disagree on the income test, which is the one most retirees will apply on.

Everything below was read on those four bodies’ own pages on 9 October 2026. Where they differ, the page that says each thing is named, because the difference decides which test you have to pass.

Who publishes which figure

Income: AED 180,000 or AED 240,000

u.ae sets the general figure at AED 180,000 a year, which is AED 15,000 a month. It then adds a Dubai rule: “To apply for a visa from Dubai, the annual fixed income must not be less than AED 240,000”, or AED 20,000 a month. GDRFA Dubai’s service page states the same AED 240,000, so for a Dubai application the two agree.

Outside Dubai, the federal authority’s pages contradict each other. The service cards inside ICP’s application system, where the application is made, say “The annual fixed income for retirees must not be less than (180,000)” dirhams. The retiree category on ICP’s main website, under “Issuing Residency Permit”, says “Annual income must not be less than AED 240,000”. Both were live on 9 October. If you plan to live in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah or another emirate and your income sits between the two figures, ask ICP before you pay anything. Its call centre is 600522222 from inside the UAE.

Both tests count income “whether the source of the income is inside or outside the country”, in GDRFA’s words, and both want a bank statement for the last six months. GDRFA also asks for “a letter from an official body indicating the source of income”. Neither page defines income as a pension specifically; GDRFA’s term is the retiree’s “fixed annual income”. If your income is paid in a currency other than dirhams, the conversion question is the one set out in how the exchange rate sits inside a pension test.

Property, a deposit, or both

The wording slips on the property and savings route.

u.ae lists one condition as owning property of no less than AED 1 million “and have financial savings of no less than AED 1 million”, which reads as AED 2 million in total. GDRFA’s conditions, in English and Arabic alike, also join the property clause and the deposit clause with “and”. Yet GDRFA’s own document list splits into three separate applicants: a “Foreign retired real estate owner”, a pensioner “who owns a deposit”, and a pensioner “with an annual income”. ICP’s website says property “or a financial deposit of the same value”. The Dubai Land Department runs a retiree service on property alone, with no deposit and no income test.

So in Dubai the land department publishes the property-only route as a service in its own right. GDRFA’s documents and ICP’s website list the deposit-only route, but the wording on u.ae contradicts it. If you mean to qualify on savings alone, get that route confirmed by the authority in your emirate first.

The deposit has a deadline. A deposit held abroad counts, provided it is “transferred and deposited in any financial institution in the country within (60) sixty days from the date of issuance of the residency”, unless the money is invested in the UAE instead. GDRFA also wants “an acknowledgment of transferring the deposit to the country” when you apply.

Valuation. The property can be valued at purchase or market price, and can be one property or several. GDRFA accepts either value “provided that the competent authority in the emirate carries out the evaluation”.

Mortgages. A mortgage does not rule you out. GDRFA accepts a mortgaged title deed “provided that the value paid to release the mortgage from the total value of the mortgage is not less than (1,000,000) million Dirhams”, and ICP’s website asks for a mortgaged deed “showing payment of AED 1 million to release the mortgage”. The Dubai Land Department sets the default as “paid in full, unmortgaged”. It accepts a mortgaged property where AED 1 million has been paid, or a bank letter addressed to GDRFA stating the paid amount and that “the deposit cannot be released within 3 years”. A married couple may share one property on the land department’s route if they provide a certified copy of the marriage contract.

Fifteen years of work, or 55, or both

The pages also disagree on what makes you a retiree. GDRFA requires service before retirement of at least 15 years, inside or outside the UAE, “and he has completed (55) fifty-five Gregorian years of age”. u.ae also says “and”. ICP’s website says “or”: 15 years of service “or the individual must have reached the age of 55 years”. The Dubai Land Department mentions age only: “The applicant must be over 55 years old”.

Most readers will meet both conditions. If you are under 55 with a long career behind you, ICP’s wording is the only one that opens the door, and only outside Dubai.

Five years, no sponsor, same terms at renewal

GDRFA describes the permit as issued “without a sponsor or host within the country for five years, renewable under the same terms as when first granted.” Its renewal page repeats the conditions, so the income, property or deposit has to hold at each renewal, not only at the first application. The land department’s page records the same arrangement from the other side: on its property route “The sponsor is the owner”.

Time limits:

• ICP requires a foreigner entering to complete residence procedures to do so within “sixty (60) days from the date of entry”, or overstay fines start, at AED 50 a day.
• After the permit expires or is cancelled, GDRFA allows a 60-day grace period to remain in the country.
• u.ae’s general rule is that a resident who lives outside the UAE “for more than 180 days continuously” loses their residence visa automatically. Golden visa and green residency holders are exempt. The exceptions u.ae lists do not name retirees, and none of the retiree pages addresses the point, so treat a long absence as a risk to the permit until an authority tells you otherwise. This matters if you plan to split the year.

None of the pages says whether a retiree on this permit may work.

Medical test, Emirates ID and health insurance

The retiree pages say little about these, so the general residence rules fill the gap. u.ae states that a residence visa requires applicants aged 18 and over to “undergo a medical test to prove that they are medically fit”, pass a security check, and apply for an Emirates ID card. ICP describes its residence service as “linked to an Emirates ID card application”, with the card delivered by courier once residence is issued. On the Dubai Land Department’s route, the medical examination is carried out at the service centre as the third step.

Health insurance appears in some places and not others:

• ICP’s website lists “Valid health insurance” among the retiree category’s documents.
• GDRFA Dubai’s retiree page does not mention insurance.
• The Dubai Land Department lists health insurance for a sponsored spouse, children and parents, and names insurance companies among its partners for the service.

None of these pages sets a minimum level of cover.

Spouse, children and parents

The Dubai Land Department says that on its route “The husband or wife and children can be sponsored”, and it publishes a separate five-year permit for the retiree’s parents. Its family document list includes proof of marital status from Dubai Courts for daughters over 18 and a study certificate for sons over 18. ICP runs dedicated services to issue entry permits and residence to “the family members of a foreign retiree guarantor”, but those service cards do not list which relatives qualify. ICP’s general rule for a foreign resident’s family names a spouse, unmarried daughters, sons under 25 and children with special needs. u.ae adds that a dependant’s residence visa will not outlast the sponsor’s.

GDRFA’s retiree page does not mention dependants at all.

Where to apply, and the fees each authority prints

Dubai, through GDRFA. Apply on GDRFA’s website or app with a UAE Pass login, at a Customer Happiness Centre, or at an Amer service centre. The page gives an expected completion time of 48 hours. Its fee list starts at a residence permit fee of AED 200, plus AED 10 each for the Knowledge Dirham and Innovation Dirham, AED 500 if you apply from inside the country, and AED 20 for delivery, with the note that “The issuance fee increases by AED100 for each year whenever the residency is more than two years.” The same box then prints a note on five-year golden residency, at AED 2,280 in residence fees and AED 575 for the identity card, without saying whether it applies to retirees. Ask at the counter which list you are being charged on.

Dubai, on property, through the Dubai Land Department. This is the only page that publishes a full itemised total for the retiree:

A spouse’s or child’s five-year permit is listed at AED 4,968.50, with a family sponsorship file costing AED 318.75 to open, and the same again for a parent. The stated service time is seven to ten business days. The land department, which titles the page “Golden Visa Application - Retiree”, adds that “Only the applicant is required to attend”.

Other emirates, through ICP. Apply on ICP’s Smart Services platform or the UAEICP app with UAE Pass, at a Customer Happiness Centre, or at an ICP-accredited typing centre. ICP gives two working days online. Its entry permit card for a retired foreigner lists a request fee of AED 100, an issue fee of AED 100, an e-services fee of AED 28, an ICP fee of AED 22 and a smart services fee of AED 100, and says the fees “may vary depending on the data entered in the application.” Those are the entry permit’s fees, not the full cost of the residence and the ID.

None of these totals includes the health insurance ICP asks for.

Older figures still in circulation

ICP’s newsroom still carries the Cabinet’s 2018 announcement of the scheme, which described a retiree needing “an investment in a property worth two million dirhams”, savings of AED 1 million, or income of AED 20,000 a month. The AED 2 million property figure appears on none of the current service pages, all of which use AED 1 million. A guide that quotes AED 2 million is probably working from that release.

Related guides

For a visit rather than a move, the visitor rules are in the UAE’s 90-day entry rules for US passports. For comparison with routes further east, Thailand’s LTR for wealthy pensioners tests income at US$80,000 a year, and Malaysia’s MM2H makes a home purchase compulsory where the UAE treats property as one route among several.