Sponsoring a spouse, child or parent in the UAE involves attestation, salary and tenancy checks, a medical test, biometrics and Emirates ID, all in a specific order. Benchmark manages the paperwork chain and books the appointments, so you only attend the ones the applicant must appear at in person.
Family visa services cover every step required to sponsor a dependent — entry permit or in-country status change, medical fitness test, biometrics, Emirates ID and visa stamping. A missed attestation step, the wrong tenancy contract, or an unregistered marriage certificate can restart the entire file from scratch, which is why getting the sequence right from day one matters more here than in most government processes.
We start by confirming your salary, accommodation and eligibility against the current sponsorship thresholds, because a file that starts without meeting these gets rejected regardless of how well the rest of the paperwork is prepared. We then attest the marriage or birth certificate through the correct MOFA/embassy chain, and our PROs submit the family visa file through GDRFA or ICP, book the medical test, collect the residence visa, and complete Emirates ID biometrics — with WhatsApp status updates at every stage. Typical timing runs 2–3 weeks from documents ready to visa stamped.
Spouse visa sponsorship needs an attested marriage certificate, a salary certificate and a tenancy contract, and this is the category where an unattested certificate causes the most delays. Children's residence visas need attested birth certificates and school records for GDRFA or ICP applications — timing matters here especially around school-term admission deadlines.
Parents' residence visas need a specific salary threshold met, medical insurance in place, and attested relationship proof, and this is generally the slowest of the three categories to process. Visa renewal and status change covers both renewing an expiring dependent visa and moving someone from a visit visa to family residence status while already inside the UAE.
Send scans first for a free eligibility check. From the sponsor we need Emirates ID, passport, an attested salary certificate, and a registered tenancy contract (Ejari) with a recent utility bill. From the dependent we need a passport, entry permit or visit visa, photos, and the attested relationship certificate — with a certified Arabic translation if that certificate isn't already in Arabic.
The most common cause of rejection is a sponsor's salary falling below the minimum threshold for the visa type — this threshold differs by emirate and by relationship, so we check it before anything is submitted, not after. An unattested marriage or birth certificate is the second most common cause; GDRFA and ICP reject these outright. A missing Ejari or recent utility bill stops the file at the tenancy verification stage. And a dependent's passport needs at least six months' validity at the time of application — this catches out more families than any other single requirement.
Most family visa delays actually trace back to the attestation stage, not to GDRFA itself — a certificate that isn't fully attested gets the entire visa file bounced regardless of how strong the rest of the application is. Because we handle both the attestation and the visa typing under one roof, we catch that gap before submission, instead of a family discovering it weeks later when GDRFA sends back a rejection.
This threshold is set by GDRFA/ICP and differs by emirate and relationship type — we confirm your exact eligibility before you commit to the process.
Yes, this is a status change application, handled slightly differently from a fresh entry permit — we manage both routes.
Typically 2–3 weeks for spouse and child visas from the point your documents are ready, and 3–4 weeks for parent sponsorship.
Yes — attestation is based on the certificate's current status for UAE use, not its age. We confirm whether your certificate has been attested before.
GDRFA requires the sponsor's name on a valid Ejari registration — we can advise on what's acceptable if the tenancy is shared or under a family member's name.
Requirements vary by age and visa category — we confirm exactly which family members need to attend the medical test as part of the eligibility check.
