UAE Golden Visa Survives Iran War as Dubai Courts Tech Talent

Dubai lost 61,000 residents in March after Iranian missiles and drones struck the United Arab Emirates. By June, the population had climbed back to 4.74 million. The rebound tracks directly with emergency measures authorities deployed to protect a specific demographic: holders of the UAE golden visa.

When airspace closures stranded foreign workers abroad during the conflict, immigration officials prioritized their return. On March 15, authorities announced they had helped 500 golden visa holders and residents reenter the country. They waived overstay fines for those whose permits expired overseas and let them back without applying for new entry visas. At the end of March, Dubai approved a roughly $272 million relief package that included faster issuance and renewal of residency permits, which the government said would make it “easier for talent to live and work in Dubai.”

The response exposed what the program actually functions as. Launched in 2019 requiring at least $545,000 in property investment, the UAE golden visa expanded in 2020 and 2022 to cover doctors, nurses, engineers, tech workers, and e-sports gamers. It issues 10-year residency directly to the person instead of the employer.

“It’s not a traditional golden visa,” Kristin Surak, a professor of political sociology at the London School of Economics and author of The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires, told Fortune. “Gold sounds cooler. You want a lead scientist? You call [the visa] gold.”

Expats make up 90% of the UAE’s population. Before this system, foreigners relied on two-year, employment-linked visas. Losing a job meant losing legal status. For a government trying to build an economic base capable of supporting state infrastructure, that churn was a liability.

Dubai has used the 10-year residency to staff targeted industries. The city gave more than 1,400 nurses and midwives golden visas and over 223 educators from private schools, universities, and early childhood centers. It is also using long-term residency to push its gaming industry by 2033, giving e-sports professionals a chance to apply in an effort to create 30,000 gaming jobs and add about $1 billion to GDP. The emirate is now home to over 350 gaming companies.

Swanand Pagnis, co-founder of enterprise AI engineering firm Superlinear Insights, moved to the UAE in 2022 on an employer-sponsored visa before securing a golden visa in 2023.

“When you’re in a foreign country, one of the levers a company has on you is the visa, and there’s always a little bit of this tension where if you lose your job, you have to leave the country, leave everything behind,” Pagnis told Fortune. “The golden visa allows me to sponsor my family on my own.”

Iranian attacks forced his daughter’s school to announce an early term break. His family temporarily relocated to India, then returned when flights resumed. He did not consider leaving permanently because of his daughter’s schooling.

Vladlena Baranova, head of legal at Immigrant Invest, a consulting firm that advises on citizenship-by-investment and golden visa programs, told Fortune that clients who choose the UAE over competing programs often do so for safety, lifestyle, and business reasons. European clients seek out its tax environment—the country doesn’t levy income taxes—and real estate opportunities.

The strikes altered that calculation temporarily. Iranian projectiles hit five-star hotels and Dubai’s airport. The UAE revoked visas or residency permits for some Iranian expats during the conflict.

“We have certainly seen a slowdown in enquiries and applications for UAE residence in recent months, with geopolitical uncertainty influencing sentiment,” Dominic Volek, who advises wealthy families on residence and citizenship planning at Henley & Partners, told Fortune. “We see this as a moderation in demand rather than a fundamental shift in the UAE’s appeal.”

Demand from Americans remains high. Investment migration firm Henley & Partners found in its 2026 report that applications from U.S. nationals doubled last year and stayed elevated this year. In June, Apex Capital Partners, another citizenship-by-investment advisory firm, surveyed 1,733 Americans earning more than $200,000 and found that six in 10 would consider leaving the U.S. within five years. Around 100 countries now run similar programs, including Portugal, Australia, Canada, Greece and, more recently, the U.S. with Trump’s “gold card” in 2025.

Dubai’s media and residency authorities and the UAE’s federal immigration authority did not respond to Fortune’s multiple requests for comment.

The population added 157,000 residents in the year to date.