Can I move to the Middle East and just stay there for the rest of my life?

[inneedofaglowup]

Can I do that? Say me and my husband both got jobs in a place like the UAE/Kuwait or Qatar. Move over with the kids and not live in the UK? How does it work? What's the process? It's something we want to do but are unsure how it all works. We wouldn't mind living there until we grew old.

I’d ask your new employers and check the citizenship eligibility. I’m not sure if anyone on here can advise as there’s probably a lot dependant on your current citizenship/passports/ type of job you have etc. good luck, I hope you find the answers you need

When you find out let me know.

The uae do not give citizenship. So although you maybe able to stay for 30 years, you cannot retire or not work there.

Yes I know they don't hand out citizenships unfortunately. That puts me off a little I'll have to dig deeper because if I move there I don't want to be thinking for the next 30 years that I'll have to just move away and it won't ever be home :(

I work with a few people in that region. Not an expert but my understanding is your visa is tied to your employer so you lose your job you have x weeks to find a new sponsor employer. Your spouse, if not working has no right to remain. You will be unlikely to get citizenship so can only stay as long as you work for the company that hires you. Quite risky imho but an amazing opportunity to experience something different and a low tax income for a while.

UAE does 10 year visas now you qualify by way of profession/property investment (or some other criteria). They don't do citizenship but it no longer has to be 'lose your job, and leave'. They also do retirement visas if you can show a certain income in retirement (and that's realistically a minimal income you would need to retire). That said, the country has very very limited safety nets and no government funded healthcare (outside emergencies). You'd need a substantial non-employment income to live here without a job and I wouldn't retire here because the health insurance costs would be prohibitive.

House investment required for a 10 year visa is realistically an amount you'd probably be spending on a house anyway. The bar to planning a long term life here is medical insurance as you get older/have more pre-existing conditions.

Ditch your h and marry a rich Emerati?

Lalallalalalalaalla how much we talking for a non employment income

asking for a friend

So how does it work if you want to buy a property there and rent it out?

If you're not sure how visas work, you're probably best not leaving the UK.

How does what work?
It still doesn't give you any right to live there indefinitely

My siblings have lived in both Qatar and Kuwait on visas that were definitely tied to work - employers knew they had overseas employees on a knife edge so were fairly comfortable treating them poorly!

The worst is when anything goes wrong - one of their ex-pat colleagues driving a motorcycle was hit by a very large SUV driving dangerously, and quite badly injured and taken to hospital. Armed Qatari police visited him in his hospital bed threatening to pursue him for criminal charges relating to damaging the SUV - the official police position was that Qatari citizen was in the right and non-Qatari at fault, despite considerable evidence at the scene / witnesses to the contrary...

Siblings liked the lifestyle but would not have made it their home for that reason.

I knew someone who lived and worked in the Middle East for 30 years but as soon as they retired they had to leave. Their visa was tied to their employment.

@inneedofaglowup - have you actually been to these places? Appreciate we are all different but I didn't like Dubai at all - you may love it but surely that's the staring point- you didn't mention if you had been to any of these places

DH has a few ex military friends who worked and lived in Oman and Saudi, all but one of them have retired to Thailand. The other has a Russian wife and they have a house in Russia. Staying in the ME wasn’t an option.

Oh and ‘blame the foreigner/infidel’ is the default position in all of the ME when something goes wrong.

Here we fucking go.

Friendlyneighbourhoodaccountant

"How does what work?
It still doesn't give you any right to live there indefinitely"

Well that wasn't the question was it. The question was how does buying a property and renting it out work?

Oooh, VERY defensive aren't you OP😬

I asked a question about moving abroad you moved the post to infidels and shit. Yeh I'm defensive stop making everything into shit. Get a life breathe some fresh air

Is there any particular reason you want to go? You need a job or to be wealthy in your own right. You can buy a property for an extended visa. You need a decent income. Have you visited? Kuwait is pretty boring, not sure I would recommend it. Abu Dhabi is a nice balance, it’s a lot quieter and calmer than Dubai.

Also just be aware (I don’t know your background) some of the most disappointed people I’ve met in the region are muslims from a south asian background (exception being in Oman where most expats seem pretty happy). There is racism here, it’s not overt but it’s there and it will become noticeable to you at some point however nationality is one of the biggest determinants of how you are treated.

@inneedofaglowup
You seem very stressed and angry, I hope you find the peace that you need
🙏🏻🧡💚💛

Re UAE, Basically your right to be there is dependent on having a working visa ( sponsored by your employer), dependent visa ( a financial dependent of the person with the working visa) or various types of investment visa ( either having your own business there or basically being a high net worth and investing x amount in the country). There’s no permanent residency like (eg) Hong Kong where after 7 consecutive years you can stay forever if you want. Your right to remain is under periodic review.

As pp have mentioned you are there with zero recourse to the state so things like healthcare and pensions would need to be 100% self funded. It’s an expensive place to live on a fixed income although some people do retire there if they own property.

I used to live in Dubai and I don’t align with the general MN view on it but what pp said about how you will never come out on top in a dispute with an Emirati is 100% true. It’s a running joke that even if an Emirati T-boned you with their Ferrari while you were stationary at the lights, you’d still get the “red ticket” ( chit given by the police to show fault for instance purposes). Similarly if your neighbours are arseholes but they’re also local, police won’t do anything about noise etc. whereas if they’re expats they’ll be there in 0.5 seconds.

I'm not sure if it's just Dubai, or all the Emirates, but there is a retirement visa in at least one part of the UAE.
As things stand currently, I think all other countries in the middle east have visas linked to employment.
I'm not aware of anyone buying property. Why would you buy to rent? Where are you going to live?