Dubai Travel News

The mandatory deposit of Dh1000 for issuance of visit, transit and other types of visas may be waived for certain nationalities, revealed the Acting Director-General of FNRD, Brig. Al Minhali.

The criteria for waiving the deposit, is based on the adherence by the visa-seeking nationalities to the new rules and regulations. The lesser the violation of rules, the more the chance of deposit waiver, the official revealed.

The new visa regulation in UAE, likely to be effective from tomorrow, would uproot all visitors who overstay their visas by December.

Brig. Al Minhali confirmed that visit visas for friends by expatriates will no longer be permitted. Only citizens will be allowed to sponsor friends on visit visa, which also is based on certain conditions.

Residents will be permitted to seek visa for their blood relative or spouse, but sponsoring other blood relatives will need approval of Undersecretary of Interior Ministry or their representative.

A Visit Visa holder can enter UAE once in two months from the date of issue of visa.

UAE will not charge 34 nationalities for entry visa, while the free entry permit upon arrival would remain unaltered.

Citizens of 34 countries, including US, UK, Japan, Australia and Brunei and Singapore will also not be subjected to Dh.1000 deposit or health insurance applicable to subjects of all other countries.

Brig. Al Minhali revealed that henceforth, short trips to neighbouring countries for change on visit visas, commonly known as visa runs will however be stopped. Visitors intending to apply for new visit visas following the expiry of their visas will have to go back to their home countries to do so.

The system will permit people to come back to UAE, but, there should be a valid reason, as each application would be studies thoroughly before issuing a visa. Applicants and sponsors would be traced based on their records The Visa applicants will have to pay a refundable deposit of Dh.1000, apart from being covered by health insurance.

Separate visas will be issued for education or medical treatments.

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