In news– Recently, the United Arab Emirates launched a Green Visa targeting highly skilled workers, students and graduates.
About UAEs Green Visas-
- Under the green visa, foreigners will be allowed to work in the UAE without being sponsored by an employer.
- This will be a marked change from the norm which requires a prospective worker to be sponsored via an employer, who, in turn, applies for a work permit from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.
- The Green Visa holders can sponsor their parents and children up to the age of 25 on their permits.
- The UAE government will allow people who lost their jobs to remain in the UAE for up to 6 months which is an incentive as most visas are tied to employment contacts.
- It has allowed hiring of temporary workers above the age of 15 in a bid to loosen the job market.
- Foreigners in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates are generally only given limited visas tied to their employment, and long-term residency is difficult to obtain.
- But those holding the new “green visa” will be able to work without company sponsorship.
- The coronavirus pandemic has also impacted tourism and businesses in the UAE, whose economy was already slumping in recent years due to low oil prices.
- The new category, referred to as “green visa”, comes as a part of a wider array of measures introduced by the Arab world to boost the economy and reduce reliance on oil.
- In 2019, the UAE launched the 10-year “Golden visa” to attract wealthy individuals and highly skilled workers, the first such scheme in the Gulf.
- Foreigners account for 90 percent of the 10 million population in the UAE, the Arab world’s second-largest economy after neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
- Similar programmes have since been launched in other resource-rich Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Federal freelancers visa
Another stream of visa that was announced was the federal freelancers visa for self-employed workers based in the UAE and overseas in specialised fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital currencies.
Source: Hindustan times
