Opening personal bank account in Dubai – UAE

Opening a bank account is not a lengthy or complicated procedure. The required documents are more or less standard among most UAE banks.

Documents required for the opening of a bank account for an Expatriate:

• the original passport
• a valid residence visa
• an additional piece of official identification, such as a labour card or driver’s licence
• a salary certificate from the employer.

Salary transfer

Those who wish to open a salary transfer account will require a no-objection letter from the employer addressed to the appropriate branch.

Documents required for the opening of a bank account for dependents on a husband’s or father’s visa:

• their the original passports which verify the sponsorship of the father or husband.

Banks will also be willing to offer accounts to those newcomers whose residence permits are under processing provided that they either provide a letter from an employer certifying their employment, or a letter of introduction or verification from a bank with which the applicant has an account in his or her home country.

To be introduced to the bank may help your application time and success: you might find advantages in banking with your employer/father/husband’s bank, such as fast salary transfers and quick loan approvals. In any case an introduction will help the application time.

If you don’t have any “sponsor” do not hesitate to contact us.

Banks often offer special packages to those employed including the waiving of minimum balance requirements, special interest rates and free credit cards for the first year.

Foreign currency

Most major banks offer customers the option to open accounts in major currencies such as US dollars $, British pounds £, Euros € and even other more currencies. It depends on your need: if you have to send regularly money other where, it would be better to have foreign currency accounts at local banks. If you travel frequently or buy things/services on internet, it would be better to open US dollar or Euro credit card accounts.

Those who have recently moved to the UAE might be surprised to find themselves being regularly contacted by banks offering loans and credit cards in their first months of employment.

For any further information or any assistance/consultancy on the procedure, do not hesitate to contact us