Moving to Dubai from Pakistan, with FBR covered

01

Can you move to Dubai from Pakistan?

Yes. Pakistanis are one of the largest communities in the UAE, and a Pakistani passport holder can live, work and own a business in Dubai on a UAE residence visa. You need an employer, your own company or a self-sponsored route such as the Golden Visa.

A Pakistani passport gets no visa on arrival, which means a visit visa arranged in advance even for a scouting trip. A visit visa lets you look at homes, schools and banks, and it does not let you work.

For the move itself, the entry permit should come from the residence route.

What draws Pakistanis to Dubai

For most Pakistanis we meet, the reason is money that keeps its value. The rupee hit a record low near 307 to the US dollar in September 2023 and traded around 277 from January to October 2026. Inflation, 38% at its May 2023 peak, was back at 10.3% in September 2026. Dirham earnings, pegged to the dollar, protect savings and school fees.

Business is the other pull: Dubai Chamber registered 9,138 new Pakistani companies in 2025, the largest group after Indian firms. Family and community are already here, a short flight from home, and personal income is untaxed.

There are costs too. Savings held in Pakistan cannot simply be wired into a Dubai company, because SBP rules apply and UAE banks ask for a documented trail. FBR keeps its claim until its residence test says otherwise, and rents and school fees run far above Pakistani levels. The move pays off when the job or business would justify it even before tax.

Without a job, or permanently

You can move without a job. Every route in chapter 02 except employment allows it.

Permanently is harder. With almost no route to UAE citizenship, permanence means renewing a residence, and ten years on a Golden Visa is the longest single term.

The police character certificate

Expect to be asked for a Pakistani police character certificate. Pakistani authorities ask workers taking UAE employment visas for one, and some employers want it whatever the route. It comes from the provincial police and needs attestation, so it goes into the timeline early.

02

Dubai residence visas for Pakistani citizens

Pakistani nationals use the same residence categories as everyone else. What differs is the paperwork: attestation takes longer from Pakistan, and banks look harder at the money behind an investor or company route.

Employment visa

Sponsorship sits with the employer, who applies for you. If you take a UAE job, Pakistan's Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment requires Protector registration before you leave on that visa. If the job ends, the visa follows after a grace period.

Company owner or partner visa

With this route your own UAE company is the sponsor, and you hold the visa as investor or partner. It is the route our Pakistani clients usually take. Licence, workspace and visa renew together, so the company has to trade for real.

The Golden Visa for Pakistani nationals

Ten years, renewable and self-sponsored, on the same terms as for anyone else. For the property route you need an updated title deed showing AED 2 million or more. Investors, entrepreneurs, specialists and outstanding talent have routes of their own.

On the property route, look at the funding first. A flat bought with money sent through hundi is a weak base for a ten-year residence and the bank account beside it. The Golden Visa page sets out each route.

Green Visa and remote work visa

The Green Visa is a five-year, self-sponsored residence for skilled employees, freelancers and investors who meet its tests. The remote work visa is a one-year renewable residence for people whose employer or business is outside the UAE, on income of at least USD 3,500 a month.

Retirement from 55, and family

From 55, Dubai issues a five-year retirement visa on any one of three routes: property worth AED 1 million, a bank deposit of AED 1 million, or an income of AED 240,000 a year. Family sponsorship is covered in chapter 08.

How each route finishes

Each one closes with the entry permit, the medical test and your Emirates ID biometrics, and then the visa. A standard residence visa lapses after more than 180 days in a row abroad. Golden Visa holders are exempt, which suits anyone still spending long stretches in Pakistan, though those carry a tax consequence of their own (chapter 03).

03

Pakistan tax when you move to Dubai

Most of the tax at stake sits on the Pakistani side. FBR applies its own tests whatever visa you hold. A UAE residence visa and an Emirates ID are evidence; neither makes you non-resident in Pakistan by itself.

Section 82 and tax residence

Section 82 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 applies to each tax year on its own. There is no split year. You are resident or non-resident for all twelve months. Spending 183 days or more in Pakistan makes you resident.

The surprises come from the 2022 citizen test. To leave Pakistani residence, a citizen must now also spend over 182 days in another country and be tax resident there. Time split between Dubai, London and Lahore, none of it long enough in one place, can leave you resident in Pakistan.

The year you leave

Because the year is never split, the departure date matters. Leave late in the tax year and that whole year is almost certainly resident, with your UAE earnings from those months inside Pakistani tax.

Is UAE salary taxable in Pakistan?

Not for a non-resident, who is taxed only on Pakistan-source income. A resident's foreign salary is exempt only where foreign tax was paid on it, and Dubai levies none. So a Pakistani who stays resident while drawing a Dubai salary can owe Pakistani tax on all of it.

FBR filing as a non-resident

Your NTN, the National Tax Number, survives the move. With Pakistan-source income such as rent, profit on deposits or dividends, you keep filing with FBR as a non-resident. Filing on time keeps you on the Active Taxpayer List, which is what makes you a filer. Non-filers pay higher withholding tax on banking and property deals, and banks usually check filer status before sending money abroad for an investment.

Property tax back in Pakistan

Rent from Pakistani property remains taxable in Pakistan after you move. So are gains on selling it. Both seller and buyer pay advance tax at transfer, at rates that turn on filer status and that recent Finance Acts have changed.

Roshan Digital and foreign currency accounts

A Roshan Digital Account is the State Bank's account for non-resident Pakistanis and NICOP or POC holders, funded from abroad and repatriable. A dollar balance held by a resident in a foreign currency account gives no permission to invest abroad. Funds moved through hundi or hawala breach Pakistani foreign exchange law and leave no record a UAE bank will accept.

EOBI and your pension record

An EOBI old-age pension needs at least fifteen years of contributions through insured employment in Pakistan, so the record is worth securing before you go.

The Pakistan and UAE treaty

Pakistan and the UAE signed an income tax convention in 1993, in force since November 1994. If both countries claim you, its tie-breaker rules apply, and a UAE Tax Residency Certificate becomes your evidence. Pakistan keeps its right to tax income and gains from Pakistani property.

A Pakistan-qualified tax adviser should confirm every point against your own facts. You take our list of questions to that meeting, and the UAE side then follows their advice.

04

How Pakistanis become UAE tax resident

Since March 2023 the UAE has tested individuals for tax residence on its own terms. Meet one test and you qualify. That can be 183 days in Dubai over 12 months, or 90 days with a residence permit plus a home or work here, or a life centred in the UAE.

Day to day it changes little. For a Pakistani its value is proof, because FBR, your Pakistani bank and the 1993 treaty all ask where you live. A Tax Residency Certificate from the Federal Tax Authority shows it. The records behind it start in your first week; a certificate for the year FBR asks about is much harder to assemble later.

05

Setting up a company from Pakistan

Business setup in Dubai from Pakistan can largely be done before you fly. Two things need more care for a Pakistani founder. One is the structure, since it fixes who you may invoice and how many visas the company holds. The other is the money, because a UAE bank opens the account only when it can follow it.

Free zone or mainland

A free zone company suits consultancy, IT, marketing and trading businesses whose clients are mainly outside the UAE, and it is where many Pakistani freelancers and software houses start. A Lahore software house billing US clients is typical. Selling directly to UAE customers usually needs a mainland licence from DET, or a mainland channel alongside the free zone entity.

Mainland companies trade anywhere in the UAE with full foreign ownership for most activities. Regulated financial businesses usually belong in DIFC or ADGM, and offshore companies hold assets but cannot trade here or sponsor a visa. The mainland and free zone comparison goes deeper.

Setting up, stage by stage

Setting up runs from activity approval to the licence, the establishment card, the visas and the bank account. Expect the establishment card a couple of working days after the licence.

SBP rules on investing abroad

Pakistan controls money leaving the country, and the State Bank's rules for residents investing abroad expect legitimate, tax-paid funds. A resident's general permission covers buying listed shares abroad; it stops short of capitalising your own private company in Dubai, which needs State Bank approval through your bank. Pakistani companies investing abroad have separate rules.

That changes once you are non-resident. Money earned in the UAE, or already held outside Pakistan, can usually fund the company without Pakistani approval, so many founders move, earn, then fund. Your Pakistani adviser and bank confirm which rules apply before the licence is issued.

The source-of-funds file

For a Pakistani-owned company, the bank wants to see how the money was earned, that it was taxed and how it reached the UAE. That file is ours to prepare, along with the choice of banks whose appetite fits your profile.

Read how UAE banks assess a company.

Corporate tax registration

All UAE companies register with the FTA for corporate tax, even those expecting to pay nothing. Late registration brings a penalty whatever the profit.

06

Running your Pakistani company from Dubai

Many founders keep a Pakistani private limited company for local clients and staff while a UAE entity takes the rest. The tax follows two things: where each company is run, and who owns what.

A Pakistani company stays Pakistani

A company incorporated in Pakistan is resident there wherever its directors live. Your move leaves its status unchanged: it keeps filing, paying tax and withholding as before, and its SECP filings continue.

Managed from Dubai, taxed here too

A foreign company effectively managed and controlled in the UAE is a UAE resident person for corporate tax. A Pakistani company you run from Dubai can therefore fall within UAE corporate tax too, or have a permanent establishment here.

A UAE company run from Pakistan

A company incorporated abroad becomes resident in Pakistan if its control and management sit wholly in Pakistan at any time in the year. That is the risk for a Dubai company run entirely from Karachi.

Pakistan's controlled foreign company rules

Pakistan's controlled foreign company rule can tax a resident shareholder on the income of a low-taxed foreign company that residents control. A UAE company usually meets the low-tax condition. Once you are non-resident it stops reaching you personally, but it still reaches a Pakistani company that owns the UAE entity.

The safe pattern is simple. Each company is run, with its decisions minuted, where it says it is, and your Pakistani adviser confirms the Pakistani company's position before you go.

07

Tax in Dubai for Pakistani expats

Individuals working in Dubai pay very little tax. Salary is untaxed, personal gains are untaxed, and there is no inheritance tax. The taxes a Pakistani founder meets here are corporate tax and VAT, both federal.

Free zone companies reach 0% only as a Qualifying Free Zone Person, on qualifying income, meeting every condition each year. A breach costs the relief for that period and the four after it. See the QFZP guide and corporate tax and VAT.

Your personal gains on shares or UAE property are untaxed here, though Pakistan still taxes gains on Pakistani property.

08

Moving to Dubai with family from Pakistan

Families move on paperwork. A spouse visa needs an attested marriage certificate, a child's visa an attested birth certificate, and some jobs an attested degree.

Attesting Pakistani documents for the UAE

Pakistan joined the Apostille Convention in March 2023, but the UAE has not, so Pakistani certificates need attestation in Pakistan and then UAE attestation. It is the step that most often delays family visas, so we start it as soon as you commit to the move. Different spellings on the passport, CNIC and certificate are the commonest cause of delay.

Your spouse and children's visas

With your own residence, income of AED 4,000 a month (or AED 3,000 with housing) and a suitable home, you can sponsor your spouse and children, and in some cases parents. Each of them goes through the entry permit, biometrics and a visa.

Pakistani and British curriculum schools

A small number of Dubai schools teach the Pakistani national curriculum, which suits families who expect to return. Many Pakistani families choose British curriculum schools, following the Cambridge IGCSE and A level path familiar from private schools at home. Schools are regulated by the KHDA, and popular ones fill early for September.

Health insurance

Dubai residents must hold health insurance. Employers cover their staff; the self-employed and family sponsors buy their own.

09

Your first weeks in Dubai

Housing and Ejari

Landlords usually take rent in one to four cheques a year, plus a deposit, and the tenancy must be registered with Ejari. That registration becomes your official address for banks, schools, DEWA and family visas, so a tenancy that cannot be registered is worth walking away from.

Where Pakistani families tend to live

Long-established Pakistani areas include Bur Dubai, Karama, Al Qusais and Al Nahda, and many families live in Sharjah, where rents are lower. Families at British curriculum schools often look at Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Silicon Oasis or Mirdif.

Personal banking

A personal UAE account needs your Emirates ID, so it follows the residence visa. Telling your Pakistani bank about the move keeps the record consistent with what you tell FBR.

Pakistani driving licence in Dubai

Pakistan is not on the RTA's licence exchange list, so a Pakistani licence cannot be converted directly. Drivers train with an RTA-approved driving institute and pass the theory and road tests.

Wills and guardianship

Non-Muslim residents can register a UAE will. For Muslim families, Islamic inheritance rules apply to a UAE estate, and a will still matters for guardianship of children.

10

Time and cost of the move

Moving to Dubai from Pakistan takes a few weeks for an employment or company move once documents are attested. The Pakistani steps set the pace, chiefly attestation, the police certificate and any SBP approval.

The cost of moving to Dubai from Pakistan is built from lines that change with your choices. They include licence and registrations, a visa for each person, workspace, rent and deposit, school fees, insurance, attestation in Pakistan, and advice on both sides.