If you are sponsored and resident in Dubai you should be able to sponsor your family members, allowing them to stay in the country as long as you are here. It’s unlikely that your company will assist you with this. To apply for residency visas for your family, you’ll need to take your passport, a passport copy of the family member(s), and your labour contract to the Family Entry Permit counter at the Immigration Department.

After submitting all the documents, return after a couple of days to collect the visa. Send a copy by fax to the family member, then deposit the original at the visa counter in Arrivals at the airport. When they arrive they swap their copy for the original. Once in Dubai on the correct entry visa, your family member must apply for a health card and take the medical test to continue the process. With the medical test out of the way, you then return to the Immigration Department with all the essential documents as before, plus the medical test result and the attested birth certificate (if sponsoring a child) or attested marriage certificate (if sponsoring your spouse). For Dhs.300 (plus typing) the application will be processed and around five days later the passport – with the residency permit attached – will be ready for collection (for an additional Dhs.100, you can ask for the process to be completed on the same day).

If the family member is already here in Dubai on a visit visa you can still apply for the residency entry visa as above. Once it is processed, the family member either exits the country and re-enters with the correct visa, or you can pay Dhs.500 to have the visa swapped over. If you are resident under family sponsorship and then get a job, you won’t need to change onto your employer’s sponsorship, but your new company will need to apply for a labour card on your behalf.