Free Zone

dubai mall open after coronavirus lock down

Dubai to launch new residence visa system for property owners

Dubai Property Visa

It was not long ago when investors across the globe were lured in to Dubai, tempted with life time residence visas for investing in the property market. After sucking billions of dollars worth of investments in unfinished, overrated projects, it was that there is no such thing as a free-lunch, that is, life time residence visa.

Obviously, investors were panicked, especially those who have moved to Dubai with their families, kids going to schools etc., and were trying to settle down. They were told that they have to renew their visas after every six months, going out and coming back to UAE.

Now, it is reported that the government of Dubai is studying the enforcement of a new residence visa system for property owners. Although the new legalities are unclear yet, it is said that property owners would be required to setup companies first and then register properties under them.

The costs associated with setting up a company to register the property under it could reach up to Dh40,000 a year.

If the property owner decided to sell their properties, they have to cancel the trade licence of the company and then cancel their residence too.

This new law may help Dubai government to generate more funds, but it certainly is not investor friendly and will discourage people from investing in the property sector.

dubai marina

Dubai shuts down three free zone universities

Knowledge Village Dubai

Three universities operating from free zones in Dubai have been closed, while six others are under scrutiny, a top official from Knowledge and Human Development Authority said.

Mohammed Darwish, head of the Systems and Control Section at the authority, said that they cancelled the commercial and academic licenses of UEIMS Medical Science University, Mahatma Gandhi University, and International Institute for Management and Technology, Emarat Al Youm reported.

He did not mention the number of students who were affected by these decisions. However, he said the universities were asked to help the students and transfer them to other universities.

“Some of the universities which were closed down or put under test have gone to operate in other emirates which do not follow strict procedures and rules,” he said.

He said the authority had to cancel the licenses of these universities as their programmes did not match the quality of education followed by their mother university.

“Also some of them did not belong to the original universities, and they were just using the names under special agreement with the original universities. This is against our rules as all the universities must be real branches of well-known universities in their mother country. This is a must as the students who graduated from these universities did not get their certificates attested by the mother university, and thus we acted to protect the rights of students.”

Currently, there are 16,000 students studying in 32 international universities and colleges in the free zone areas. Of these, 2,300 UAE national students are studying to get higher degrees.

From: Emirates-247