In the first week of July, several media outlets misreported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was introducing a new nomination-based Golden Visa. According to these reports, Indians could enjoy long-term residency in the UAE by paying a fee of AED 100,000 or Rs 23 lakh.
The Golden Visa programme was launched in 2019 and allows foreigners the right to live and work in the UAE for long periods (five or 10 years) with renewal options. Designed for investors, entrepreneurs, and highly skilled individuals, this visa requires sizeable investments into the country. In 2022, the UAE reduced the minimum property investment requirement to AED 2 million, broadening access to more applicants.
On July 7, 2025, multiple media outlets, including PTI, Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India, Republic, India Today, Business Standard, Hindustan Times, Outlook Business, Moneycontrol, Zee Business, Times of Oman, CNBCTV18, Moneylife, Mint, India TV News, Gulf News and others, published reports on this new policy. The reports claimed the UAE government launched a new nomination-based Golden Visa and India and Bangladesh were selected for the first phase of ‘testing’ this visa. The report alleged that a UAE-based consultancy, the Rayad group, was “chosen to test the initial nomination-based golden visa in India”.
What unfolded the next day was embarrassing.
On July 8, 2025, the UAE government’s federal authority for identity, citizenship, customs, and port security (ICP) refuted these media reports. Calling it a “rumour,” the ICP clarified that there is no new policy that confers citizenship upon paying a fee. The government also urged “individuals wishing to visit, live, or invest in the UAE not to respond to inaccurate rumours and false news” and advised referring only to “official sources” for such procedures.
UAE’s ambassador to India, Dr Abdulnasser Jamal Hussain Mohammed Alshaali, also shared this clarification on his Instagram account on July 8.
So how did so many media outlets get it wrong? Where did this “rumour” originate from, and could it have been avoided?
Tracing the Trail
The first report on this was by news wire agency Press Trust of India (PTI) on July 6, subsequently republished by other outlets. While the report claimed that the UAE government had launched the new visa, it attributed much of the information in it to a single source—Rayad Kamal Ayub, the managing director (MD) of Rayad Group, a consultancy firm that also handles immigration applications. The visa allows family sponsorship, domestic staff, and business freedom, and, unlike property-based visas, it remains valid permanently, Rayad Kamal Ayub was quoted as saying.
These reports, citing the Rayad group’s MD, said that applicants for the nomination-based Golden Visa would undergo thorough background checks, including for money laundering and criminal history. They would also undergo social media screening carried out by the Rayad group. The ‘assessment’ would evaluate the applicants’ potential contributions to sectors such as culture, trade, or startups. However, it said, after these thorough screenings, the UAE government would take the final call.
Citing “beneficiaries and people involved in the process”, PTI reported that the new nomination-based visa policy would allow some Indians to enjoy the UAE’s Golden Visa for life by paying a fee of AED 1,00,000 (roughly Rs 23.3 lakh).
However, it wasn’t clear who the people involved in the process were. While these reports all hinted that the UAE government was introducing the new policy, there was no mention of an official statement by the concerned UAE ministry, nor were any government officials quoted. It seemed like the report was published based on the Rayad group’s claims without any verification from official authorities.
A quick keyword search on Google confirmed this. We located a press release that likely sparked the ‘news’ reports.
However, this release, issued by VFS Global—an agency that handles passport and visa applications—was deleted. We found an archived version of this. The PDF can be accessed here.
Several points from this release have been mentioned in the PTI report. PTI’s report, however, went into more detail but quoted unnamed beneficiaries and the Rayad group’s MD. Conversations with a Dubai-based journalist revealed that while VFS Global is a well-known visa and passport agency, the Rayad group isn’t. Their website too does not give much detail about the company, its founders or others in the leadership besides the MD. The copyright on the website indicates that it was made recently, and we also found some language-related issues and typos in it. All in all, besides its tie-up with VFS Global, there’s little on the Rayad group that makes it a credible source of information.
On July 9, the group took “full responsibility” for the confusion and told the Khaleej Times that “the initiative in question was part of an exploratory collaboration between the Rayad group and licensed partners specialising in immigration services.” It also said that the effort was aimed at assessing the feasibility of providing advisory support for Golden Visa applications to eligible individuals.
“We take full responsibility and remain committed to ensuring that all future communications are clear, accurate, and fully aligned with the UAE’s stringent regulatory framework,” it added
Further, it said that public comments made by Rayad group’s MD “were misplaced and have contributed to the misinterpretation of our role and the nature of the initiative in question. These statements did not accurately reflect our intent, our scope of services, or the limitations of our authority in relation to the UAE Golden Visa programme. To reiterate with full clarity: no guaranteed visa, fixed-price programme, or lifetime UAE residency product currently exists, and the Rayad group does not offer, support, participate, or endorse any such arrangement.”
“Due to the confusion caused, the Rayad group is discontinuing private advisory services for Golden Visas,” the publication reported citing the the group’s statement.
Meanwhile, VFS Global group released a separate statement to Khaleej Times on Wednesday, clarifying that its role was “strictly limited to informing interested individuals about the services.”
The company explained that it had entered into a non-exclusive referral agreement with Rayad group, under which it was authorised solely to receive enquiries from individuals interested in the UAE Golden Visa scheme.
“Our involvement was limited to sharing information about Rayad group’s services and referring interested individuals to them,” the statement read. “It was solely Rayad group’s responsibility to assess these profiles and forward them to the relevant UAE authorities for eligibility determination.”
Could This Have Been Avoided?
Yes. By simply verifying or cross-checking with official authorities or waiting for a government statement on it. A press release of an initiative by a not-so-credible business entity about whom little is known was published by credible Indian news agencies without making additional checks. Worse, even those who did not publish this initially republished based on other outlets’ reports.
Also, at first glance or mention, the visa policy should have set some alarm bells ringing because with the growing influx of Indians migrating to UAE, the offer sounded too good to be true. It does not pass a basic logical evaluation test.
The widespread misreporting shows a striking lack of due diligence by media outlets, many of which have still not corrected these stories or issued clarifications.
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