UAE Investor Visa Minimum Share Capital Requirements by Emirate

The minimum share capital or investment figure needed to qualify for a UAE investor or partner visa isn't governed by a single, uniform federal number the way some other visa thresholds are; it can vary depending on which emirate the company is registered in and which specific licensing authority processes the application, a detail that trips up investors comparing setup options across different emirates.

Dubai's Department of Economic Development, along with equivalent authorities in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and the other emirates, each maintain their own guidance on minimum share capital for mainland company formation, and while many standard commercial activities don't require depositing a large capital sum upfront the way some jurisdictions demand, certain activities and legal structures do carry specific minimum capital requirements that differ from one emirate's authority to another. Free zones layer an additional dimension onto this, since each individual free zone, rather than the emirate as a whole, sets its own minimum share capital figure for company formation within its jurisdiction, meaning two free zones in the same emirate can have meaningfully different minimum capital requirements from each other.

For visa eligibility specifically, rather than just company formation, the investor or partner visa generally ties back to the underlying company's registered capital and the individual's ownership percentage in it, with the specific minimum ownership stake or capital contribution needed for visa eligibility varying by jurisdiction and, in some cases, by the specific activity the company is licensed for. This makes a direct one-figure answer to "what's the minimum" genuinely dependent on where and how the company is being set up, rather than a single number applying uniformly everywhere in the UAE.

Given how much this varies by emirate, free zone, and business activity, and how minimum capital and ownership requirements have been adjusted as individual authorities update their own policies, investors comparing setup options across different emirates or free zones specifically to optimize for visa eligibility generally benefit from getting current, jurisdiction-specific figures directly from the relevant Department of Economic Development or free zone authority, rather than assuming a figure quoted for one emirate or free zone applies elsewhere.