Parents puzzled in effort to renew son's visa

“Dear Sumo1975 & Mallking,

Thank you so much for your KIND comments, comments by people who know the true facts and what they are talking about!!!

Sumo1975, your information is so helpful, I have provided the affection plan but it is showing the developers name on it and not the owners so it has been rejected and as you mentioned the title deeds are non existent at the moment. After a week+ of phoning & texting the landlord he finally replied saying he has requested for title deeds but that will take time and its out of his hands, so helpful I must say!!!

Can I ask which land department you went to? I will go there and beg, beg and cry if needed, somebody might help me.

I have been a resident of Dubai for 10 years, my husband resident here for 18 years and my son was born here. This is home & I love Dubai but its situations like this that push the expat community to seriously consider their future here. If families can't get or renew visa's for their children they have no choice but to leave.”

“It is true that the laws here are very frustrating but I cannot deny its been like it for years. In a modern world of computerisation you would expect such processes to be simple. I pray for the day Dubai has a more modern approach to such procedures. For now, dont stress, just do what is asked of you”

“Wow I'm shocked by the unpleasant comments.

I have submitted the documents requested for by Ejari as I have been running around to get the documents with no help from the landlord who should provide these documents to their tenants. I was informed that as the affection plan is in the developers name and not the owner they will not attest the contract. According to the developer there are no title deeds (shock).

So to the know it alls that have replied to this letter which is a very serious situation, what would you suggest now?

My son is 3 1/2 years old, so as a tenant do I have any rights? Or will I have to take him on a visa run every month?

I also get the impression by your reply that you think I have nothing better to do. My husband & I work full time & are full time parents, I would prefer to spend my time with my son rather than run around trying to sort this out.

This law has not be around for years, it only came into place in May 2012 & I wonder how many expats know about this.

I have always provided a tenancy contract but an attested tenancy contract is totally out of my hands if the landlord won't provide me the documents. I hope you are never put in this situation.

My son is the poor thing that suffers in this and that is wrong.”

“Hi, I would like to add some constructive comments as I recently had the same problem.

FYI previous commenters, this rule did spring up only last year, and I find it surprising how hard it is to find decent advice on how resolve the situation. From the queues of people in the land department today I can assure you this is a problem many people are having, especially tenants of freehold properties that have been rented but the landlord has not obtained the title deeds, either through his own fault, the developer delaying release of the project or in my case the bank losing the paperwork.

Having an attested lease or EJAARI is now a requirement for all residency visas, which was implemented last year and well documented in the news papers. The list of documents required to register your lease or EJARI are available online, and the attestation can be done in any typing centre. You seem to be missing the title deeds. You need to get a copy of this document asap. Contact your landlord and ask for a copy, or to confirm if he even has one. I am a tenant and a landlord. My landlord still does not have the title deeds. I only recieved the title deeds for the apartment which i own last month having bought the apartment in 2007. If your landlord sends you a copy of the title deeds, then you can register your lease quite easily at any typing centre and get your EJAARI within hours. If he does not, then you have a big problem. You need to get your plot confirmation number. This can be back tracked by taking you DEWA bill and the DEWA location code (you will find it on a plaque near your front door or electrc meter) down to the Land Dept. Find the RERA/EJAARI dept on 1st floor taking the staircase on the right side, then turn right again from the stairs and ask for help. They can track back from this code to get the plot confirmation number. From this point you are on your own as I found another solution, but if anyone can help you, it is the people in this dept. Get there before 8am as it gets busy.

One other alternative to consider if you cannot get your own lease attested, is to lease a hotel apartment for 1 year. Not sure how practical this is, but it may be an option.

Getting back to your other question, you do indeed have rights, as does your landlord. Withholding the rent may motivate him to do something about the title deeds. Firstly, nothing motivates faster than money. Secondly, he needs his title deeds in order to raise a case with the rent comittee in order to be able to evict you, which can take 3-6 months. It will take another 3 months to apply for and recieve the title deeds also. It wont help you with the situation with your son though. I only hope he can stay somehow on a visit visa or another way. I am very sorry for your situation, my family went through this in the summer and had to go back home for several months.”

“Did you try getting your tenancy contract attested? you didn't even ask how to get this done... For all you know it could be relatively straight forward. Thousands of people in Dubai have children and thousands of them are expats and thousands of them renew their children's visa in what I would assume is a straight forward way. I would suggest finding one of them and asking them. or you could simply add in your letter (Can any one who has done this before be able to tell me where I can get my rent contract attested). For all you know when they attested they could be simply saying you need to register it with RERA i.e. Ejari... Maybe just maybe...”

“Standard practice almost everywhere in the world. You need a tenancy contract to ensure you have a place to live, since your son is in school and does not have a job, a tenancy contract is there to make sure he has a place to live. You need an attested tenancy contract to ensure your documents are not fake.

What about this is so confusing? The stress is your fault, these laws didn't spring up yesterday, they have been there for years, so please don't blame the government for this.”