Dubai Announces Five-Year Multiple Entry Visa for Indians

Dubai has introduced a 5-year multiple entry visa for Indians, the emirate’s largest source market for tourism.

The processing time for the visa would be around two to five business days and would allow Indians to stay for 90 days, extendable once to a total stay not exceeding 180 days in a year, according to the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.

What’s needed:

• Passport valid for at least six months
• Six months’ bank statements showing at least INR 330,000 ($4,000) in funds.
• Health insurance
• Return flight tickets
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Indians Top Dubai Arrivals

Dubai welcomed 17.15 million international overnight visitors in 2023.

Of this, almost 2.46 million overnight visitors were from India, a 25% increase from the pre-pandemic era and a 34% jump from the 1.84 million tourists in 2022.

“As a key market for Dubai, India will continue to play an integral role in enabling us to achieve the goals of the D33 Agenda, further reinforcing Dubai’s position as a hub for business, investment and tourism,” said Bader Ali Habib, regional head of proximity markets at Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism.

India-Dubai is one of the busiest air corridors. Indian carriers have also been looking to increase connectivity to the emirate. Carriers like Indigo and Air India Express recently started connecting Dubai to smaller cities like Surat. Indigo operates almost 108 direct flights a week to Dubai from 13 cities in India.

The bilateral air service agreement inked between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India in January 2014 allows airlines from both nations to collectively operate up to 66,000 seats per week between Dubai and cities in India. This allotted quota has been maximized by airlines from both India and the UAE.

Visa Incentives

Earlier this month, Dubai-based Emirates Airline, had teamed up with VFS Global to introduce a pre-approved visa-on-arrival service for Indian passport holders with valid six-month visas for the US, US Green Cards, EU Residencies, or UK Residencies.

The new initiative issued a 14-day single entry visa allowing travelers to bypass queues upon arrival in Dubai, streamlining entry procedures.