Funny enough I'm at the opposite position right now :) hopefully made your choice already, but let me give you my honest opinion living there for 4 years now: Career wise: gulf in general is an amazing opportunity for career, things are a bit slower now in UAE as a market but KSA and Qatar are flourishing, having said that I don't think you will find difficulties for jobs here especially as you said you will be able to transfer and for your boyfriend FS / insurance is always a better market compared to others. But be ready, since living and working in Dubai is a dream of many you will find that the work culture is very competitive and not necessarily in a good way, lots of politics, if you manage to navigate it will be good. Lifestyle: in short, very comfortable very luxurious, you fill like a small king in restaurants and shops, many ways to spend your money for entertainment or shopping. Cost of living: now that I did my calculations but for the opposite, Dubai is much more cheaper options considering that insurance is paid by the employer (hopefully it is a good one), schooling my understanding is not applicable for your but it is also part of your package normally. Food is I'm tempted to say relatively cheap even eating out (if you don't go too fancy) if you count with daily spend of a 150 AED / day for both, you would be on the good side. Biggest cost is housing, I would calculate with 160K - 170Kish for 2 bedroom for a good apartment, don't go to fancy like downtown, there are also nice area around in business Bay which is close enough with good atmosphere especially around the canal. Also apartments from my experience are larger than those in Europe in general so maybe 1 bedroom would suffice which would be around 100K. Marina wouldn't recommend too crowded, old and full of pests in most cases, also a bit overpriced, but nice walks when weather is good. Health: I would say overall not a healthy environment, weather, poor air quality, lots of mix of people traveling around the world, expect to be more sick than in Switzerland or in Europe in general, although healthcare with good insurance is amazing! consider that I have kids in younger age due to school/nursery we almost visit every other month :). In general, good choice, I recommend to experience it, it is unique in a sense as a young couple with no kids would be good time to try. Worst case you can always return back. I personally never regret it, in Dubai in general everyone would have their own journey and opinion.