What is the green residence and who is it for?

An employment residence is tied to the employer's file and ends with that job. A Green Residence is tied to the holder's own category: a degree and a AED 15,000 salary, a freelance permit and income record, or an investment.

That matters to a consultant, or to a founder who may restructure the company that employs them, because the residence does not move with the company file. The evidence is about you. ICP also lets the holder sponsor a spouse and children, and its family-residence terms add first-degree relatives for Green holders.

ICP's residency-permit service publishes fee panels per application category, and the only Green category with a panel there is Green Residence Investor. There is no panel for skilled workers and none for freelancers and the self-employed.

A figure quoted for the investor category must not be read across to the other two. ICP's Green Residence guide prints no fee figures at all. For freelancers, Dubai's GDRFA publishes an entry-visa fee list for the self-employment green visa: a work visa fee of AED 200 plus 5% VAT, and AED 500 more if the applicant is already inside the country. That is an entry-stage fee, so an all-in price quoted for a skilled-worker or freelancer residence needs a source behind each line.

On the employment path, ICP does publish one Green-specific line on the entry-visa service: an entry visa for employment purposes to obtain the Green Residence, at AED 100, on the sponsoring-entity route.

The freelance or self-employment permit is issued by MoHRE and authorises the work. Green Residence is issued through ICP and authorises you to live here. For freelancers the permit comes first: Dubai's GDRFA lists it as step one of the self-employment green visa.

Holding the permit does not satisfy the residence test. The freelancer category separately asks for a degree or specialised diploma and for annual freelance income of at least AED 360,000 over the previous two years. A permit alone proves neither.