Moving to Dubai is not difficult, but the steps have a strict order and getting it wrong costs weeks. This is the sequence we run for relocating families.
Week one is entry and housing. Arrive on the correct entry permit, and view property with a shortlist already prepared. Rental contracts in Dubai are typically annual and paid in one to four cheques, so have funds accessible before you land.
Week one is entry and housing.
Week two is residency. The medical fitness test and biometrics feed into your Emirates ID. Almost nothing else — not a bank account, not a phone contract, not a school place — completes without that ID number.
Week three is banking and utilities. With the Emirates ID in progress you can open a current account, set up DEWA for water and electricity, connect internet, and register a vehicle or arrange a licence transfer if your country has a reciprocal agreement.
Week four is family infrastructure: school enrolment, health insurance (mandatory for every resident in Dubai), and registering with a clinic. School places in the strongest schools are the single most common bottleneck, so start those applications before you arrive, not after.
The mistake we see most often is arriving without the home-country documents attested — marriage certificates, birth certificates and degree certificates all need legalisation before they will be accepted here. Getting that done before departure saves a month of courier delays.
If any of the above applies to a decision you are weighing up right now, send us the details. We will model it against live stock and come back with the honest version — including the cases where the answer is “not this one”.
