This page explains how UAE Survival Guide is funded and what that means for the guidance you read here.

Current status

This site carries a small number of affiliate links: on the Business Setup page (a company formation service), on our money transfer comparison post (Remitly), and on our insurance comparison post (Policybazaar.ae). Each is labelled directly on the page it appears on, as promised below. Everywhere else on the site, including any advertisements you may see, is placed by our hosting provider, not us, and we receive nothing from it.

That may change. If it does, this page will be updated first, and the rules below will apply.

What an affiliate link is

An affiliate link is a link to a company’s service that pays us a commission if you go on to sign up or buy. It costs you nothing extra — the company pays out of its own marketing budget.

The obvious risk is that it gives a site a financial reason to recommend whoever pays best rather than whoever is best. Here’s how we handle that.

The rules we apply

• Labelled where they appear. Any page containing an affiliate link will say so clearly on that page, not just here.
• Never in the figures. Rent caps, gratuity multipliers, visa fees, insurance minimums and every other number on this site come from the relevant authority. Commercial relationships never influence a figure, a calculation, or which law we cite.
• Government sources stay unlinked commercially. Links to RERA, MOHRE, ICP, GDRFA, KHDA, DEWA and RTA are, and will remain, plain links to the authority.
• No pay-for-placement. We will not accept payment to rank a company higher, remove criticism, or describe a product more favourably than we otherwise would.
• Downsides stay in. Where a service has drawbacks — a free zone with banking difficulties, an insurance plan with a restrictive network — we say so regardless of any commercial relationship.

What we will not do

We won’t turn guides into product listings. The purpose of this site is to tell you what the law says and what things cost, and a page stuffed with referral links stops doing that job honestly. If a recommendation wouldn’t survive us removing the commission, it doesn’t belong here.

Not advice

Nothing on this site is legal, financial, tax or insurance advice, whether or not a commercial relationship exists. For decisions involving your money or your residency, confirm with the relevant authority or a licensed professional. See our Disclaimer for the full position.

Questions

If you think something here reads like a paid recommendation, please challenge it via the Contact page. Our sourcing method and editorial standards are set out on the About the Author page.

Last updated 6 September 2026.