UAE Temporarily Suspends Visa-on-Arrival Facility for Indian Nationals

United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended the visa-on-arrival facility for Indian nationals who have stayed in India over the last two weeks. Even those who have a visa or residence permit issued by the United States, the United Kingdom or a European Union member state, cannot access the visa-on-arrival facility. Etihad Airways has stated the same on the microblogging site while replying to a user’s query on Monday. They tweeted, “The UAE authorities have decided to temporarily suspend the Visa-on-arrival facility for passengers who are arriving from or been in India in the past 14 days. We're working to update our website.”

This rule is applicable for passengers arriving from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Namibia as well.

Earlier, the airline also updated the restrictions and travel advisory on its official web portal. It stated that the Indian citizens holding regular passports with US visas, green cards, UK Resident Permits, or EU (European Union) resident permits will get entry visas upon arrival to UAE. However, this visa will be valid for 14 days only and can be extended only once for the same period. The statement also says that the Indian passport, US visa, green card, the UK Resident Permit and the EU resident permit must be valid for at least six months.

Passengers travelling to the UAE are also instructed to carry a COVID-19 negative RT-PCR report not older than six hours before boarding the flight.

As India is reporting a decrease in the number of Covid-19 positive cases and the government has increased the vaccination pace, the UK has moved India from red to the amber list earlier this month. The travel lists in the UK has been segmented to red, amber and green, depending on the number of coronavirus cases in the country. The US too eased the travel restrictions for India last week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lowered India’s pandemic situation to Level 2: Moderate.

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