Thursday, Jul 02, 2009

Gulf News

Abu Dhabi: Expatriate residents who want to bring their families into the country should now earn a minimum monthly salary of Dh10,000 and provide their family with independent accommodation, a senior official has said.

Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Menhali, director general of the Naturalisation and Residency Department (NRD), said the decision was made after a study by the Ministry of Interior on the negative effects of allowing residents to bring their families without sufficient income and a suitable place to stay.

The Ministry of LabourMinistry of Labour is not authorised to deal with the status of residents' relatives who come to the country on residents' sponsorships, he added.

Al Menhali said it is best for the minimum wage to be raised to cope with the cost of living, rents, school fees and health care.

A resident should be able to support his family and afford their living costs to enable them to live a decent life, in line with labour and residency laws, he said.

This change has become necessary because of increasing violations when relatives become a burden to their sponsors, he added.

Previously the minimum salary requirement was Dh3,000, because this was acceptable under previous conditions, he said. The amount was later raised to Dh4,000 and then Dh6,000 after rapid development and economic growth.

The new decision will come into effect after amending by-laws of the residency law, Al Menhali said, adding that the NRD will not allow any resident who does not rent an independent house or apartment to bring in family members.

However, he pointed out that the Interior Ministry does not mind studying the humanitarian situation of any resident and helping them bring their family, if there is an urgent humanitarian need.

By Abdullah Rasheed, Abu Dhabi Editor

© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.

 

Community Comments (17) - Comment on this article

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Salary by Shiraz M - 23-Jul-09
This is inhumane and insane..Then in that case the visa authority should not be giving visas to people who are married or even planning to get married and earning lower salary than 10,000 AED. How are people going to live without their families? Such a decision will off course have a negative effect on the economy since most of the people will leave the country. There will be only managers (as generally those people will be earning that much salary) & basically no one to manage…It is completely unjustified. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Re: Re: when will this be in effect by john A - 09-Jul-09
What do you mean indirectly, it is as direct as it can get, there is encouragement to go back pronto [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Re: when will this be in effect by Khan, Engineer, Airport - 08-Jul-09
I think it means to leave this country gentely , its indirect forceing to go out from here [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

when will this be in effect by mary mijoy, nurse - 08-Jul-09
how it will be if we dont have children and just husband to bring who also can get job there [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

salary by mujahid hamid, head of barista, ihg - 07-Jul-09
in which city of uae this rule has been implemented. can somebody answered me please. is it for the people with wife and children or only with wife. how it works. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Do not Educate neighbours by AV Dsouza, Sales, BTC - 07-Jul-09
Expatriates living in Neighbouring Country's were living Ecconomically Peacefull .By Hiking Real Estate at UAE and due to Media they everone were educated and realised that they are letting our thier Place for Penny and hence they started Hiking the Rent and Real Estate Rates.
But soon after the Recession, UAE might have reduced the Rtaes but the Neighbouring Country's rela estae owners have not done so Far. They Keep increasing the Housing Rates.And its very difficult to lead a good life to common Employee. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Its really Stupid to make 10,000 AED by Joquim Julius, SAP MM Consultant, Unilever - 07-Jul-09
Its really Stupid to make 10,000 AED as cut off mark & its a bad decision made by the Abu Dhabi Government (NRD). Hope they remove this rule & make it 5000 AED & rents also should me reduced to 40% . Hope they take decisions wise. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

by sakkel thekkepura, credit analysis - 07-Jul-09
…….Decision at very wrong time.
Dear all,
I think in Current economical scenario neither it will fruitful nor lead the result what they exactly wish for.
More over summer is the off-season for most of the gulf countries even in peak period.
Being spending is the major starting point to way out or balance the recessional affects; they want to send them all back. Even Real estate is the major sector victimizing due to this enactment, other supplement industry like Auto, FMCG etc also not free from its outcome. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

by Noman A - 05-Jul-09
10K Salary? How many of the exisiting employees who have sponsored thier family have more than 10K salary. If the new rule of sponsoring a family only if one has 10K plus salary is implemented, the whole of Dubai will soon become a GHOST CITY, even if each family is made compulsary to have an independent Appartment. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

by Destressed Expat - 05-Jul-09
If this rule becomes practicle, this rule will reduce the expat dependent population, as a ripple effect Dubai rents will fall further or even land lords has to pay maintanance cost from their pocket, the bottom line of the story is the property market recovery will take at lease 6 years instead of 3 years in dubai. All banks will have tough time ahead for many years. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Save Pride Thinking by jit singh, Auditor, OQTC - 04-Jul-09
Dubai is not comfortable with adverse remarks passed in international media related to the living standard of ex-patriate population. It is difficult to digest these adverse remarks.

Now agents at back home can not make people fool to have a dream life in Dubai so easily.

AED 10,000 is very average and everyone should accept that it is very difficult to have a quality life in Dubai less than that.

Outcomes of the decision will definitely be regularly monitored and time relaxations can not be ignored whenever exigencies required. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

new rule by mujahid hamid, SUPERVISOR, IHG-DFC - 03-Jul-09
hi guys, i think the best way to conform this issue is to call dubai immigration office which can give you proper information as i applied residence visa for my wife yesterday and nothing is changed every thing is same . alothough i had tough time there because of some documents but nothing is changed so far and inquiry said that it is a fake news.

let see what will happen in the future.
GOD BLESS ALL OF US. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

No comparison!!! by S S - 02-Jul-09
Dear Mr. Krish,
How can you even start to compare the rights and facilities countries like the US etc have till date extended to all expats with the ' you-did-no-favor-by-working-for-us' philosophy the UAE has always followed?

If you insist on calling this shortsightedness, protectionalism, then UAE has been a victim of this -ism since ages!!

You have never been allowed to call this place your home even if you have spent the whole of your childhood, your youth and half of your old age here. Why?

This is not a new phenomenon. Its just a projection of the existing one.

UAE has never been 'liberal' in allowing people to settle here.
Their outlook towards the expats has always been that of a generous master, never a benevolent host.

Keeping emotions aside, I do not see how this step will help the UAE economy , now or ever!! [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Message sent loud and Clear; by santhosh krish, M& A Business Analyst , Mannai Corporation - 02-Jul-09
Everyone venting out on the issue , is purely emotional and looking at things happening over the past 6 months ; i am not surprised at this news ;

UAE has gone through drastic economic changes in the past 1 year and the impact has been unfortunately painful in terms of crisis and construction burst, Huge Expat population repatriating , GDP contraction so on and so forth;

What is a country to do then ?: try to protect their own interest and say enough is enough , lets protect what we have now and start the painful clean up process;

Allow ppl only with enough salary (ateast 20,000 DHs) to survive so that they dont mind spending on luxury, eating out and using the goods and services of the country (government would make them use it ) and sustain the growth for a time being ;

The Reason being that UAE has been liberal in terms of allowing ppl to settle themselves because it was helping them build up a proper infrastructure for the country, once the job is done you go home ,

The developing part is over my friends and to protect whats left , i think the UAE has taken the right move but it will liberalize it once again after 2-4 years when they realize the downside risk of protectionism ;

So seeing how US and global economies are going into their shell and adopting protectionism which would make this painful recovery process much longer , I am not suprised UAE is also following the footsteps,

cheers [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

by Muahmmad Imran, Credit Analyst - 02-Jul-09
Decision should be reviewed in respect to current circumstances came on surface due to recession [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Faulty Planning! by S S - 02-Jul-09
I hope someone up there at the higher level of UAE governemnt realizes sooner than later that all the small income businesses like salons, groceries, cafeterias and many many other small shops run because of the families of expats who earn less than AED 10,000/- the ripple effect of this deicsion will be disastrous for UAE. Timing is awafully bad.
Also who with any brains can justify that even AED 10,000/- would be enough for a family to ''a decent life''? With a two bedroom chikcen coop available for not less than AED 80K to 85K, health and education turned into lucrative inductries, a decent life for a family with only one kid will cost a man at least AED 200,000/-!!!
Besides have they even taken a look at the pay scales being offered in the UAE? How many expatriates do they think are earning more than AED 10,000/-????
If they have been unreasonable to calculate the combined salaries of couples then they ought to relaize that a family where both the parents have to stay away from their children the whole day to earn an income of at least AED 15,000/- per month, can never ever live a' decent life'!!!!!!!!

I hope they hire as advisors such people who have long term vision instead of a short term one!!! [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

Truth Up right by M.Ali Rauf, Finance, -- - 02-Jul-09
What they are trying to do is, that large vloume of remittances sent by expatriates to their homeland should be somehow stopped. Because according to their concealed thinking, they think that if so much money remains in their country will be beneficial for them and generate jobs for nationals

On the top of that one thinks that more good thing is, if this money is earned by our nationals only then it will remain in the country and not going any where.

The problem with the thinking is that rather looking inwards they should look outwards where more oppotunites lies to create income and generate assets. They go out side to do the business and take contracts for management like DP world takes the contract to manage ports there if one says that no we will only gove the business to our in this way the world will hardly make any development, the essence of globalization will also finish.

Moreover, according to them, if majority of nationals only earn over here they will spend and the big multinational copanies will earn and take the money to their homeland. There is a clear emperically proved that Big Multinaionals which earn from the socities do not reinvest in that society rather take it to their homeland. Be it Unilever, Nestle, P&g, Cadbury etc.................. you name it and check out their pattern of reinvestment in the society. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

 

 

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