More young professionals and start-ups are choosing Dubai as their home – with newly relaxed visa rules and a fast vaccine programme among the key drivers.
The National spoke to the founder of a German homeware brand, a British software company, and a Lithuanian travel agency, along with other digital remote workers who made the move.
Several visited during the height of Europe's winter lockdowns and have now decided to return.
“There were a lot of people who came here last autumn and stayed for several months because of the restrictions in their own countries," said Fred Roeder, managing director of London-based Consumer Choice Centre.
Dubai is experiencing a tectonic shift at the minute, with more highly skilled professionals starting to call it home
Fred Roeder, Consumer Choice Centre
“There was nowhere else to go that offered the same freedoms in Covid times.”
Now many of those visitors are making the move permanent.
"Dubai is experiencing a tectonic shift at the minute, with more and more highly skilled professionals starting to call it home," he said.
Mr Roeder, a respected health economist, produces a regular global resilience ranking of how well countries fared in the pandemic, which last week ranked the UAE second in the world.
It also recognised the Emirates for performing significantly better with its vaccination campaign than European Union countries.
The campaign, which delivers doses to people of all ages at the same time, means new arrivals can get the shots as soon as their visa residency documents are ready, which typically takes three or four weeks.
“Even though there is a lot of freedom you still see people sticking to the rules, you don't see as many people in other countries keeping their masks on," said Mr Roeder, a German who now too is based in Dubai.
The government's decision to grant resident visas for working remotely make it an even more desirable location, especially for younger people.
The most recent figures available, from Dubai Tourism in late March, show 1,700 people had applied for its remote working visa - the application link is here - with most accepted. For the first time, it allows people to live in the Emirates and work for a company abroad that has no base here.
In addition, 16,000 foreign travellers opted to take advantage of the city's free visa extension in January, Dubai Tourism's chief executive Issam Kazim told CNN Travel. Traditional visa routes working for domestic companies, self-employment and founding a start-up business are still popular.
German homeware founder finds a new home
Berlin resident Hanna Achilles-Auferoth, 34, plans to make the move to Dubai soon.
“I was there from February to April and now plan to move there permanently soon,” said the founder and chief executive of Achilles Berlin, a luxury lifestyle and homeware company.
“Dubai is an extremely attractive proposition for an e-commerce entrepreneur.
“When I was there I saw how easy it was to work remotely. I was impressed by how it was open for business meetings in restaurants, which was not something I could do in Germany.”
Ms Achilles-Auferoth already has one of the new remote work visas. The nature of her business means her employees do not need to be based in one location.
“We have a team of 10 but we all work remotely around the globe,” she said.
“It’s a very attractive prospect to be based in Dubai.”
Dubai's sunshine beats a Lithuanian winter
Edmundas Balcikonis relocated to Dubai in December to work temporarily while his home country, Lithuania, was under lockdown.
Mr Balcikonis, 34, runs a travel software firm called Eddy Travels, and despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, found his stint in Dubai was successful.
He plans to return to Lithuania soon to tie up loose ends before making the switch to Dubai permanent.
“Nothing was happening anywhere except in Dubai, so I decided to work from there instead of being in lockdown by myself at home,” he said.
“Being able to go to business meetings in person gave me great confidence in the market here.
“It made me decide to make the move to Dubai full-time.”
UK resident Edward Batrouni, 41, stayed in Dubai – working remotely – with his wife and two children, from December to April.
“We ended up staying longer than we first expected,” he said.
“My company has offices globally and Dubai is a perfect hub for me to operate from.”
He now plans to return and make it his family’s permanent home.
"I knew the UAE was at the forefront of innovation and were digitising as many processes as they could," said the founder of software company Zenitech.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Tips for taking the metro
- set out well ahead of time
- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines
- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on
- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers
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Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
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How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
- Research equivalent Airbnb homes in your location to ensure competitiveness.
- Post on all relevant platforms to reach the widest audience; whether you let personally or via an agency know your potential guest profile – aiming for the wrong demographic may leave your property empty.
- Factor in costs when working out if holiday letting is beneficial. The annual DCTM fee runs from Dh370 for a one-bedroom flat to Dh1,200. Tourism tax is Dh10-15 per bedroom, per night.
- Check your management company has a physical office, a valid DTCM licence and is licencing your property and paying tourism taxes. For transparency, regularly view your booking calendar.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer