The traditional golden visa formula was straightforward: money in exchange for residency. Affluent foreigners invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate or businesses, and governments granted them a foothold abroad. The United Arab Emirates, however, has pushed that model well beyond its origins.

When the Gulf state introduced its golden visa in 2019, it offered 10-year residency not only to people who could invest at least $545,000 in property, but also to researchers, teachers, and specialized talent. The program broadened again in 2020 and 2022, adding doctors, nurses, engineers, tech workers, and e-sports gamers to the eligible pool.

The initiative reflects the country's effort to channel talent into priority industries without fully assimilating foreigners as citizens—expatriates make up 90% of the UAE's population. Notably, that community has continued to grow even after Iran launched thousands of missiles and drones at the UAE during its war with the U.S.

In effect, the UAE transformed a visa status once associated almost exclusively with the rich and powerful into an umbrella program covering both capital and talent, blending labor policy with industrial policy, according to Kristin Surak, a professor of political sociology at the London School of Economics and author of The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires.

Targeting specific sectors

Dubai has deployed golden visas to cultivate particular industries. The city has granted them to more than 1,400 nurses and midwives, along with over 223 educators drawn from private schools, universities, and early childhood centers. Long-term residency has also become one element of Dubai's push to build up its gaming industry by 2033: e-sports professionals can apply for the golden visa as part of an effort to create 30,000 gaming jobs and add about $1 billion to GDP. The city is now home to more than 350 gaming companies.

“It's not a traditional golden visa,” Surak told Fortune. “Gold sounds cooler. You want a lead scientist? You call [the visa] gold.”

That branding taps into the language of a wider global market for second residences. Around 100 countries operate golden visa programs, including Portugal, Australia, Canada, and Greece—and, more recently, the U.S., which introduced Trump's “gold card” in 2025.

Golden visas are not the only route to putting down roots abroad. Golden passports go a step further by granting citizenship. Both have become for wealthy families seeking easier travel or a fallback if political and economic conditions worsen at home. Demand for both has climbed among Americans as well: investment migration firm Henley & Partners found in its 2026 report that applications from U.S. nationals doubled last year and remained elevated this year. In June, Apex Capital Partners, another citizenship-by-investment advisory firm, surveyed 1,733 Americans earning more than $200,000 and found that six in 10 would consider leaving the U.S. within five years.

Selling more than a visa

The UAE adds one more incentive for skilled workers and investors weighing a move—one that pairs with the visa's decade-long runway: the country does not levy income taxes, though some business activity is subject to a corporate tax.

Vladlena Baranova, head of legal at Immigrant Invest, a consulting firm that advises on citizenship-by-investment and golden visa programs, told Fortune that clients who choose the UAE over competing programs often do so for safety, lifestyle, and business reasons. “So many of them just want to live there,” Baranova said. She noted that her firm's clients from the Gulf region value Dubai's safety—it scored highly on perceptions of public safety and quality of life last year—while its European clients seek out its tax environment and real estate opportunities.

Since the Iran war, however, Dubai and the rest of the Gulf region are seen as less safe. Iranian missiles and drones struck several Gulf states repeatedly, including the UAE, hitting five-star hotels and Dubai's airport. Official figures cited by The National show Dubai lost 61,000 residents in March—a 1.3% drop that brought the population down to 4.65 million—though it rebounded to 4.74 million by the end of June, and the city has added 157,000 residents in the year to date. That recovery came despite the UAE revoking visas or residency permits for some Iranian expatriates during the conflict.

“We have certainly seen a slowdown in enquiries and applications for UAE residence in recent months, with geopolitical uncertainty influencing sentiment,” Dominic Volek, who advises wealthy families on residence and citizenship planning at Henley & Partners, told Fortune. “We see this as a moderation in rather than a fundamental shift in the UAE's appeal.”

The UAE has not publicly changed the golden visa's eligibility rules since the Iran war, but it did take steps to bring back foreign residents affected by the fighting. On March 15, authorities said they helped 500 golden visa holders and residents return after airspace closures and flight disruptions stranded them abroad. Immigration officials also allowed stranded residents whose permits expired while they were overseas to return without applying for a new entry visa, and waived overstay fines. At the end of March, Dubai approved a relief package worth roughly $272 million that included faster issuance and renewal of residency permits—measures the government said would make it “easier for talent to live and work in Dubai.” Population counts and application volumes will be the numbers to watch as the program moves beyond the conflict.

Surak said that before the golden visa program, foreigners relied on two-year, employment-linked visas. For a government overseeing a population dominated by mobile expatriates, that created significant uncertainty in establishing an economic base capable of supporting a welfare system and basic state infrastructure. The 10-year residency system changed that by issuing status directly to the person rather than the employer, making it possible for foreigners to stay without tying their presence to a single job.

Dubai's media and residency authorities, along with the UAE's federal immigration authority, did not respond to Fortune's multiple requests for comment.

A visa that doesn't belong to your boss

For Swanand Pagnis, co-founder of enterprise AI engineering firm Superlinear Insights, that independence from employer sponsorship was the golden visa's biggest attraction. Pagnis moved to the UAE in 2022 on an employer-sponsored visa before securing a golden visa in 2023. With a wife and daughter, he was weighed down by the possibility that losing his job could also jeopardize his family's ability to remain in the country.

“When you're in a foreign country, one of the levers a company has on you is the visa, and there's always a little bit of this tension where if you lose your job, you have to leave the country, leave everything behind,” Pagnis told Fortune. “The golden visa allows me to sponsor my family on my own.”

Iran's attacks on the UAE led his daughter's school to announce an early term break, and his family temporarily relocated to India, returning when flights to the UAE resumed and were declared safe, he said. Pagnis did not consider leaving the UAE altogether, citing his daughter's schooling. “We were in the middle of the school year and did not want to change in haste,” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.