Solicitud de naturalización (inversores, médicos, científicos, inventores y profesionales creativos)

AE-NAT-02 is the UAE's nomination (talent-based) naturalization route: a discretionary, nomination-gated pathway by which the State confers Emirati nationality on specified categories of high-value foreigners — investors, doctors and specialists, scientists, inventors (patent-holders), and creatives/intellectuals/artists — together with their spouses and children. It is the headline product of the 2017-2021 nationality reform and stands in sharp contrast to the legacy residence-tier route (AE-NAT-01, Arts 5-8). Its statutory hook is Article 9 of Federal Law No. 17 of 1972, under which 'the President of the State may issue a decree.. granting [nationality] by naturalization to any person without regard to the residence periods and the conditions set forth in the present Decree-Law and its Executive Regulations', and may grant nationality 'to any person having provided outstanding services to the State' (Art 9). The grant conditions are governed by Article 12 Bis (inserted by Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2017), and the specific nominee categories were operationalized by a Cabinet amendment to the Executive Regulation approved 30 January 2021. Crucially, the route is NOT self-application: per official guidance, 'You can acquire the UAE's citizenship only through the Rulers' and Crown Princes' Courts, Offices of the Executive Councils and the Cabinet based on the nominations of federal entities.' Two features distinguish it sharply from every other UAE acquisition route: nominees MAY RETAIN their original nationality (a scope-limited dual-nationality carve-out from the otherwise mandatory Art 11 renunciation rule), and the grant is REVOCABLE on breach of conditions. The Golden Visa is categorically excluded from this route — it is residency, not nationality.

Eligibility under AE-NAT-02 is defined by NOMINATED CATEGORY rather than by years of residence. Per the post-30-January-2021 Executive-Regulation regime, the categories opened to Emirati nationality (and their spouses and children) are: INVESTORS (property owners); DOCTORS and specialists; SCIENTISTS; INVENTORS (patent-holders); and CREATIVES/INTELLECTUALS/ARTISTS. Official UAE government guidance adds category-specific qualifiers — for the intellectuals/creatives category, the nominee 'must be pioneers in art or culture and must have won at least one international award' plus a recommendation letter from related government entities. Because the statutory hook is Art 9 ('without regard to the residence periods and the conditions set forth in the present Decree-Law'), the legacy residence-year thresholds of Arts 5-8 do NOT apply; the route's gate is nomination by a qualifying authority, not accumulated residence. The candidate must still satisfy the Art 12 Bis grant conditions to the extent the regulation does not waive them — in particular the oath of allegiance (Art 12 Bis(9)), security approval (Art 12 Bis(8)), and good conduct/no-turpitude-conviction (Art 12 Bis(6)-(7)). Eligibility is in every operative verb DISCRETIONARY: Art 9 uses 'may issue a decree' / 'may be granted', so even a nominated candidate meeting every criterion holds no entitlement to nationality — the State retains full discretion. There is no statutory quota, acceptance rate, or minimum investment threshold gazetted in the decoded primary corpus, and none may be asserted (Art 45 delegates such specification to the Cabinet).

The procedure is NOMINATION-DRIVEN and federal, not application-driven. Step 1 — NOMINATION: a qualifying authority nominates the candidate. Per verbatim official guidance, 'You can acquire the UAE's citizenship only through the Rulers' and Crown Princes' Courts, Offices of the Executive Councils and the Cabinet based on the nominations of federal entities'. There is no public self-application portal for this route; the candidate does not initiate. Step 2 — RECOMMENDATION + CRITERIA: category-specific recommendation letters from related government entities are required (e.g. for creatives, a recommendation letter plus evidence of an international award). Step 3 — CONDITIONS + OATH: the candidate must satisfy the applicable Art 12 Bis conditions, obtain security approval (Art 12 Bis(8)), and 'swear allegiance to the State' (Art 12 Bis(9)). Step 4 — GRANT BY FEDERAL DECREE: per Art 20, 'granting.. of nationality shall be by a Federal decree'; the chain runs through Cabinet approval and Presidential/Supreme Council ratification (Const Art 114). Step 5 — DOCUMENT COMPLETION: per Art 9 para 3 and Art 44 Bis, the EFFECTIVE date of the grant is 'the date of completion of the nationality documents and the fulfilment of the procedures required in accordance with the.. Executive Regulations', and the Authority must complete the procedures for issued decrees 'within a maximum period of one year from the date of issuance of such decrees' (Art 44 Bis) — the ONLY statutory time-bound figure for nomination grants. No fee, processing timeline beyond the one-year completion cap, or quota is gazetted (Art 45 delegates fees to the Cabinet; none decoded — do NOT assert).

The only time-bound figure fixed on the face of the statute for nomination grants is the Art 44 Bis one-year completion cap: the Authority 'shall take the measures necessary with respect to the implementation of the decrees issued for granting the nationality.. provided that such procedures are completed within a maximum period of one year from the date of issuance of such decrees' (Art 44 Bis). Separately, Art 9 para 3 fixes the EFFECTIVE date of a grant as 'the date of completion of the nationality documents and the fulfilment of the procedures required in accordance with the.. Executive Regulations' — i.e. nationality vests on document completion, not on the date of the decree. Beyond these, NO processing-time figure, nomination-to-decree interval, queue length, or service-level standard is gazetted in the decoded primary corpus, and none may be asserted: Art 45 delegates fee/procedure specification to the Cabinet ('the Cabinet shall specify any fees.. [and] shall issue the Executive regulations'), and Art 19 delegates the procedural system to the Executive Regulations. This is a deliberate positive disconfirmation — the absence of a published timeline is a finding, not a gap to be filled from training data or comparative inference. Because the route is discretionary at every stage (Art 9 'may'), there is also no entitlement-based maximum decision window: a nomination may simply not result in a decree.

The route rests on a three-instrument legal stack, all pinned to decoded primary text. (1) STATUTORY HOOK — Article 9 of Federal Law 17/1972 (amended by Decree-Law 16/2017): 'The president of the State may issue a decree establishing nationality by operation of law or granting it by naturalization to any person without regard to the residence periods and the conditions set forth in the present Decree-Law and its Executive Regulations. The nationality may be granted to any person having provided outstanding services to the State without regard to residence periods provided for in the preceding articles' (Art 9). This is the only article that waives the Art 5-8 residence tiers, and it is the constitutional and statutory anchor for any non-residence-based grant. (2) GRANT CONDITIONS — Article 12 Bis (inserted 2017) prescribes nine conditions for granting nationality to an applicant: renounce the origin/other nationality; lawful and continuous residence; Arabic proficiency; lawful income; educational qualification; good reputation and conduct; no felony/misdemeanour of moral turpitude or dishonesty (unless rehabilitated); security approval; and an oath of allegiance ('He/she shall swear allegiance to the State', Art 12 Bis(9)). (3) OPERATIONAL CATEGORIES — the Cabinet Executive-Regulation amendment approved 30 January 2021, a sub-statutory instrument that defined the nominee categories and the dual-nationality retention. Procedurally, Art 20 provides that 'granting.. of nationality shall be by a Federal decree' and Const Art 120(16) places 'the federal nationality, passports, residence and immigration' in exclusive federal jurisdiction — so nomination is purely federal; an emirate may nominate but cannot grant.