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0% Tax in 6 Countries: How to Get Gulf Golden Visas · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Six countries, zero income tax and golden visa prices that run from$200,000 all the way up to 16 million.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Gulf Region now has six investor residency programs, and they compete on price, on how fast they move, and on how little time you have to spend on the ground.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: In this video, you'll learn about all six.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Cheapest first, then the catch that applies to every single one of them.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: For most of modern history, living in the Gulf meant working there.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Your residency was tied to an employer or a local sponsor, and it ended the day the job did.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: That changed in 2019 when the United Arab Emirates launched its Golden Visa, the first long-term permit in the region tied to your capital or talent instead of a paycheck.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It set the template.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And within a few years, every other member of the Gulf Cooperation Council had built one of its own.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: As of 2026, all six countries offer an investor path to residency: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: They go by different names.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Golden Visa in the Emirates, Premium Residency in Saudi Arabia, Investor Residency in Oman.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Golden Visa has become the umbrella term for the lot of them.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The appeal is easy to understand.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: None of the six jurisdictions levies a personal income tax today.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: None taxes individual capital gains or inheritance.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Their markets and economies are among the world's fastest growing, and the whole region is within a few hours' flight of Europe, Africa, and East Asia.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, which one fits your goals?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that depends on what you're optimizing for.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly the kind of question our members discuss inside IMI Sovereigns, our private community of investors and entrepreneurs building global portfolios.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Link and the founding member discount are in the description.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now to the cheapest way in.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar legislated the region's first permanent residency framework back in 2018, and it has allowed foreign property ownership since 2004.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today it offers two separate investor routes, and one of them has the lowest fixed property threshold anywhere in the Gulf.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Put 730,000 Qatari Reales into real estate in a designated freehold zone, that's roughly$200,000, and you get a sponsor-free residence permit.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: No employer, local sponsor, or annual salary required.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: There is a string attached, though.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Qatari property route requires that you spend at least 90 days a year in the country to maintain your residency.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Commit 3.65 million reales instead, about$1 million, and you can qualify for direct permanent residency, which comes with access to public health care and schooling.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar caps permanent residency grants at 100 a year.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, founders get cheaper access.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar's five-year renewable entrepreneur residency starts at$250,000 reales, around$70,000, and requires an endorsement from a recognized incubator and at least a 20% stake in the venture.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar makes permanent residency scarce.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Saudi Arabia does the opposite.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Kingdom's premium residency, often called the Saudi Green Card, is one of the few programs in the Gulf that grants permanent status rather than permit you to renew forever.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It anchors the residency side of Vision 2030, the plan to wean the economy off oil and into more diverse sectors.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The simplest route has nothing to do with property or business at all.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Pay a one-time 800,000 Saudi Reals, about$213,000, and you get direct permanent residency.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd rather not commit all that capital up front, there's an annual version at 100,000 reales a year.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Both require you to show you can support yourself and your family.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Prepared to put the money into assets?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Property investors need to purchase residential real estate worth at least 4 million reales, about$1.1 million, unmortgaged and independently appraised.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Business investors commit at least 7 million reals or$1.9 million and hire at least 10 people in the kingdom within two years.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Demand has been significant.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: The premium residency drew more than 40,000 applicants in the 18 months after its 2024 expansion.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: The property market itself is opening up too.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: In June 2026, the Saudi cabinet approved a zoning framework to replace the old case-by-case regime that mostly banned foreign buyers, steering foreign capital toward the mega projects while keeping Mecca and Medina open to Muslim buyers only.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Prices in this residency and citizenship market usually go down, and Bahrain proved as much.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: In late 2025, the Nationality Passports and Residence Affairs Authority cut the property threshold on its 10-year golden residence by 35%, from 200,000 Bahraini dinars down to 130,000, which works out to about$345,000.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: That undercuts the Emirati benchmark by roughly 37% for a comparable long-term property route.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Property is not the only way in, though.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Bahrain's Golden Residence also admits non-resident retirees with average monthly pension income of at least$400,000 dinars, long-serving resident employees, retirees drawing a Bahraini pension, and individuals nominated for exceptional talent.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you're going the property route in any of these countries, the listing has to qualify.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: IMI Real Estate is the internet's only property portal that filters exclusively for real estate eligible for residency and citizenship programs.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Oman competes on other metrics, and it may be the most interesting program in the region right now.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's Investor Residency launched in August 2025 as a single 10-year renewable permit.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Most routes require at least 250,000 Oman reales, around$650,000, covering real estate in tourism projects, government bonds, listed equities, or a fixed bank deposit.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: A stake in an operating Omani company qualifies from$200,000 reales, or about$520,000.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: The permit has no minimum physical presence requirement at all, so neither relocation nor a vacation is mandatory.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Amman is also tearing down the walls around its property market.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: A new real estate registry law, Royal Decree 56 of 2026, came into force in May and provides for nationwide property ownership by foreigners well beyond the old tourism projects, though the executive regulations that govern how it works in practice have not been issued yet.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: The following month, the Royal Amman Police created a sponsor-free owner residence permit tied to property ownership with no minimum investment.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It runs in short cycles of six to twelve months and renews for as long as you hold the asset.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sell the property, and the permit ends with it.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Take up has been brisk, 5,500 applications a month since the relaunch, although about 70% of applicants already live in the country, which reads more as residents formalizing their status than as fresh foreign investment.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oman is also the one Gulf state where the zero tax pitch has an expiry date.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Plans to introduce a 5% personal income tax on high earners from 2028, the first in the block, though the government says 99% of the population will fall below the threshold.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Corporate tax already sits at 15%.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Switzerland-based IMI pro, Vito Majajnino, reads the reforms as the logical output of a man's long diversification plan, describing a move that signals maturity rather than desperation.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the country that started all of this and the one every other program on this list is measured against.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Emirati Golden Visa grants a renewable five or ten-year residence permit.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: For the property route, you qualify for the 10-year permit by owning real estate worth at least two million dirams, about$545,000.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: That threshold survived the April 2026 reforms, and it applies whether you buy one property or combine several, with mortgaged and off-plan units accepted as long as the certified value clears the mark.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Investors aged 55 and over can take a shorter five-year permit at 1 million dirams.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurs need an approved project worth at least 500,000 dirhams, backed by an accredited local incubator.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: The specialized talent category admits doctors, scientists, artists, and athletes on credentials rather than a bank balance.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the country keeps inventing new niches.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Abu Dhabi's Golden Key initiative qualifies owners of super yachts measuring at least 40 meters, while Dubai's creators HQ, backed by a$40.8 million support fund, targets influencers, podcasters, and visual artists.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: One thing trips up applicants, though.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: In April 2026, Dubai scrapped the 750,000 dirham minimum for sole owners on its separate two-year property investor visa, which triggered a wave of no minimum property value headlines.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Joint owners still need 400,000 derams per share, and the change applies only to that two-year permit.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: The 10-year golden visa floor of 2 million dirhams did not move.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Processing is getting faster as well.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Under an agreement signed in 2026, Dubai is folding the Golden Visa, the property-linked visa, and the retiree route into a single channel, targeting under five working days for processing.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And volume backs the ambition.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Dubai issued more than 100,000 real estate investor family visas between 2021 and early 2026.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Q8 was the final holdout entering the market only in November 2025, and it went straight to the top of the price ladder.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: The headline durations are the longest in the block, up to 10 years for real estate investors and up to 15 years for those who establish a business.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: The real estate route is decided case by case with no fixed minimum.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: The business route operates through the QA Direct Investment Programme Authority and has a hard floor, unlike the business investment route.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: 5 million QAT dinars, about$16.3 million, plus at least 1 million dinars in paid-up capital deposited in a QAT bank.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: The authority also weighs job creation for QAT nationals, technology transfer, and export potential before it approves anything.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is 80 times the entry price in Qatar for a permit to live in the same tax-free neighborhood.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's line up all six.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar on the lowest fixed property threshold in the region, Bahrain close behind after it's cut.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you want permanent status instead of a permit you renew forever, only Saudi Arabia and Qatar grant it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you want banking depth, ecosystem and freedom from presence requirements, the United Arab Emirates is still the benchmark.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a maximum flexibility and no obligation to live anywhere, Oman gives you a ten-year permit and requires zero days on the ground.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Q8 offers the longest permits, albeit with the least predictability.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now for the reason you should think carefully before treating any of this as a passport strategy.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: No Gulf state runs a direct citizenship by investment program.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Where naturalization exists at all, it is discretionary in practice, which means the state can say no and never explain why.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Emirati law passed in 2021 lets the nation's leadership nominate select investors and talents, but you cannot apply for citizenship.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Qatar's statute demands at least 25 consecutive years of residence and Arabic proficiency, with the grant left to the Emir's discretion.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: The other four have naturalization laws on paper that come down to similar discretion methods.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Discretion can also run in reverse.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Over the same months that Kuwait opened its investor track, the government stripped citizenship from more than 70,000 nationals.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So treat golf residents for what it is.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: A stable, tax efficient base with strong family inclusion, and in most cases, no mandatory presence.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it is not a passport in waiting.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Which means that if a second nationality is your end game, the golf has to be one part of a greater strategy.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Latin America is where a lot of our audience goes looking for naturalization paths, because several countries offer citizenship in a time frame the Golf could only dream of.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Check out the video on your screen now where we compare Latin American residency programs and what each one leads to.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe and hit the bell if you want IMI's analysis on these programs as the rules change, because in this market they change constantly.