Dubai has announced that wives and children of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals with foreign passports are eligible for a residence permit in the emirate, with no additional conditions.
The service is announced on the official website of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFAD) and will take effect in 2026.
It is aimed at family members of GCC citizens traveling on non-GCC passports, offering them a path to legal residency in Dubai.
The Gulf Cooperation Council is a political and economic alliance formed by six Arab countries in the Gulf region. Member states are:
- Saudi Arabia.
- United Arab Emirates.
- Kuwait.
- Qatar.
- Bahrain.
- Oman.
The residence permit service covers citizens from all six countries and their families.
This means that if a GCC national’s wife or children have a foreign passport rather than a GCC-member passport, they can still apply for a Dubai residence permit using this dedicated service.
How the Dubai Residence Permit service works
The permit is issued specifically by the GDRFAD, which oversees all residency and immigration matters in Dubai.
The service is intended to make the process easier for mixed-nationality families in which the GCC national head of household holds citizenship in a member state, but their dependents have passports from outside the GCC bloc.
By providing this route without additional requirements based on the foreign passport’s country ofe origin, Dubai effectively opens the residence pathway to a wide range of nationalities, as long as the sponsoring family member is a verified GCC national.
Families who qualify can view the full details and start their application on the GDRFAD service page.
