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 hope you learn to not comment on things where you provide no relevance :)

That actually wasn't your question. You said "how does IT work if you want to buy a property and rent it out" which sounds like you're asking how does residency (your original OP) work if you want to buy a property. If you'd have said "how does buying a property and renting it out work" then that would have been much clearer.

Since you seem to have an almighty defensive attitude going on, I'll bow out because I have better things to do than try and give advice (having lived in Dubai) to someone who's responding like you are.

Thanks guys your posts have been helpful and given some things to look/think over! It wasn't an outright decision to go but something we had thought of looking into.

No, I dont think you can plan to live there indefinitely.

Going by the experience of friends

One of whom was chased to the airport, with his whole family in the car, by men firing guns at him after a dispute between the prince he was working for and a different prince.

Another of whom was put in the position of driving his young children to the airport and telling them to run like hell into the departure lounge and get on the plane, whether he was behind them or not.

Another who had to say goodbye to his family forever at the airport

And one who didn't make it to the airport at all

For a retirement visa it's AED 20k (~GBP 4k) a month (although you don't need additional income to then sponsor your spouse) or property investment. You need medical on top though (and good medical could easily cost 10k a month as you age). That's a 5 year visa, but renewable. And of course how much you need to live off is as long as a piece of string.

For the 10 year (golden) visa it's AED 2m (I think) in property, or qualifying through your profession. Then you need whatever you need to live off on top. I think for a golden visa based on salary you need to be making AED 30k (~GBP 6.5k) per month but there are other options.

Obviously check all that rather than relying on a stranger on the internet.

What do your friends do!! Most people I know who lived out there for a while were teachers/ finance

OP from my limited knowledge it sounds like a great place to spend a few years but not somewhere you can really live forever due to the visa's

One of these was a teacher - the rest were businessmen

I lived in Dubai for 5 years. What I noticed is that there were no elderly people. It’s not somewhere you move to make your forever home. It’s a very transient country. I moved on to Australia 9 years ago, zero regrets. Both counties have been amazing to me. I hope you find somewhere that makes you happy

Thanks guys super helpful! Yes it seems it's a good way to go out spend a few years working etc but not a forever home. I have visited all the countries I asked about (UAE Kuwait and Qatar). I actually lived in Dubai from ages 5-11 and went to school etc there. My father worked there hence the family moved out but then we came back to the UK. I knew it wouldn't be easy to move out. But the reason I posted on here was to collate everything I'd not thought about. Definitely seems you have to financially blessed on the very high end to actually enjoy life out there.

Nearly 20 years in the GCC and I've personally known one case vaguely like this (and that wasn't UAE). It's not common in reality. You have unlucky friends (and at least one in Saudi not the countries we're talking about which don't have Princes). Losing your job suddenly is not unusual (limited employment protection) and then historically people have had to leave suddenly, but I know many more people who have chosen to do a runner escaping debt, or have been arrested in situations that would lead to an arrest in the UK, than I do people who have been run out of the country unfairly.

If you're 'unlucky' enough to have a bit of extra melanin in your skin, stay away. The stories of being treated like a second class citizen is true. Third class if they know they can get away with it.

My Pakistani friend (Muslim and therefore not 'infidel' as stated above), came back depressed as a result of being treated so badly. They did end up putting down a massive deposit on a house when they got back but I'm not sure they'll agree their experiences were worth it.

Ps. I say that as someone who has an uncle in law who works very closely with the Kuwaiti Royal Family. He's given them 45 years of loyal service and he knows he'll have nothing other than what he's invested in the UK and Pakistan when he retires.

BIL and SIL moved out there (UAE) for his job. Home provided with the job. She wasn’t allowed to work. No kids.
He got made redundant a year or so before he retired and they had to leave.

We are in our 50s and live in UAE. We would not retire here - it is not the place to spend your retirement or old age. If you're not in employment you have to buy your own health insurance. It's too hot to do anything outside for 4-5 months of the year. Rents have skyrocketed (we pay >£40k a year for a 3 bed house) and petrol is the only thing that is cheap.

Four more years and we're out of here - I will be 60 then and DH 64.

What happened to the one that didn't make it to the airport? 😧

Yeah I lived in UAE for 7 years and it definitely wouldn’t be my place of choice. Things are getting better but when I was there there was a strict hierarchy based on race, sex and where you sat dictated what service you received.
I also lived in SE Asia and much preferred that, have you considered there

Also @BorgQueen comment about the foreigner being at fault in an accident was the standard line when I lived there , locals always got the Green tickets it was standard, not sure why you took offence at that comment. I think it’s a fair comment on what to expect with the culture if you lived there.

This must have been a very long time ago (maybe 30 years?!) if she wasn't allowed to work. I'm not sure if that was even the case 30 years ago as there have been female teachers in the UAE since schools started. Are you sure you have it correct that she wasn't allowed to work, rather than couldn't find suitable employment?

I assume the previous poster meant she couldn't work because of the visa type (linked to husband's job I expect) rather than the fact she was a woman.

That's not the case though. A woman on their husband's visa can work they just need his permission (as visa sponsor - my husband needed mine) and a work permit. These things aren't difficult to obtain. Alternatively she could just have an employer sponsor her directly, also not difficult. She might not have been able to find a job or be willing to accept the salary on offer, but her not being "allowed" to work doesn't make sense.

This is such a weird thread 👀

There's a minimum income floor in order to do so. It's possible the husband didn't meet that threshold. It used to be 4k AED from what I remember but that might have changed.

The minimum income floor is to sponsor your spouse. There's no minimum income floor for the spouse to then work.

Also no way that a British expat with a house provided was earning less than 4k! More likely 10x that.

For context AED4k is GBP 850 and it's a minimum per month. Plus it's AED3k (GBP 650) if housing is provided, which it was. Are you honestly suggesting in this scenario the DH was likely to be earning less than that?

In this scenario the wife wasn't working because she wasn't "allowed" as claimed. She may not have found a suitable job - that's very common - but it's a big difference between saying she couldn't find a job and she wasn't allowed to work.

Only example I could think of would be if she moved out with very limited experience in healthcare and then couldn't get licensed to do the same role. You need two years post qualification experience to get a license to be a nurse for example. That wouldn't have stopped her doing something else though.

And hopefully you will learn that people are more willing to offer advice when you are able to be polite and respectful to other posters.

You can move to Dubai without needing an employer sponsored visa, they now have something called remote working visa, you could have a business in the UK and work from Dubai, or have an employer in the UK who is happy for you to work remotely from Dubai.

https://www.visitdubai.com/en/invest-in-dubai/live-and-work/visas-and-entry/work-remotely-from-dubai

They also have a 10 year golden visa option, linked to property ownership.

Yes you can retire in Dubai, I don't know about other Emirates or the rest of the Gulf countries. Here is a link to how you can retire in Dubai, but things can change there overnight, so might not be applicable when it comes time to retire. Income is also tax free.

https://www.visitdubai.com/en/retire-in-dubai

I never think of Dubai as a retirement location, but I think more and more people are doing so now. My husband wants to retire there, he already works between there and our home country.