Under what conditions can a wife sponsor her husband?

A reader from Dubai asks: My friend is on a residence visa and wants to know how she can sponsor her husband under a wife's visa. What is the salary level required? Her husband is Iraqi and she is Asian. She said there is a new law that says all Iraqis cannot get visit visas anymore.

As for wives sponsoring husbands this applies to certain professions only.

The wife should be employed as a doctor, teacher or engineer with a minimum salary of Dh3,000 plus accommodation, or Dh4,000 with no accommodation. As for visas for Iraqi nationals, nowadays such visas are not easy, however, the questioner might submit an appeal to the head of Naturalisation and Residency Department seeking to review her application.

- Answers by Advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Bahr Advocates and Legal Consultants.