UAE Visa on Arrival For Indians: Eligibility, Requirements, and Immigration
As I have a US visa, I didn’t take a visa for UAE. I decided to visit UAE on a whim. In early February, I was looking for flights to Turkey. As days passed and flights got expensive while I decided on the date, I do what travelers do. I put in my destination in SkyScanner, a website I have been using for years. I also put in my source destination and looked for flights around the world for the entire month.
Dubai had been on my mind since I had traveled to Chile in 2016 and had an all-night layover on the Dubai airport. I knew it is a major airport and connecting hub. There were many flights from Calcutta to Dubai and from Dubai to Istanbul. The combined fair of the two flights would be slightly more than the single flight from Calcutta to Istanbul. The prices looked great, and so a plan formed in my head.
I searched for visas to Dubai for Indians. I had a hunch that I could fly to the UAE on a valid US visa. My search confirmed my intuition. For Turkey, I could get an e-visa, given my US travel visa (a travel friend and a dear reader had confirmed).
I know a lot of you who are not from India are wondering: “You have to take a visa to Turkey and UEA?” Yes, that’s true. That’s my passport. But Indians can travel to many countries on a valid US, Schengen, UK, Canada, Australia visa, etc.
I booked the flight, and asked a friend who travels to UAE often if I needed a visa on top of a valid US visa. She confirmed that a US visa was enough.
Most visas on arrival and e-visas expect you to have a return flight ticket and/or hotel bookings along with enough money for the travel. I had an onwards ticket to Istanbul. I had a Couchsurfing host’s invitation in Abu Dhabi and a three-night fully refundable booking in a hotel in Dubai. I had added money on my Wise travel card. My bank account statement could also be shown at immigration if asked. Though I have never been asked for hotel reservations or proof of enough funds at a visa counter ever. So there was nothing to do.
A day before my flight, while I was making up my mind about the countries I want to visit on this trip, I came across Albania’s official embassy page. They had said that Indians with valid US visas can visit Albania on a visa on arrival. But, and this is a big but, you should have traveled to the US on that visa.
This requirement unsettled me. I hadn’t heard of it before. I researched more and couldn’t find a similar need from the UAE government. My friend confirmed that she had not traveled to the US on her new visa (though she had visited US on her previous visa), and she had been to the UAE many times. I breathed a sigh of relief.
I was, in my head, prepared for any confusion or issue at the airport. You never know with an Indian passport.
At the Calcutta airport, my partner, Sagar, and I approached the Indigo counters together. The attendant couldn’t process my US visa. She scanned it and told me she couldn’t find my visa. She asked if I had another visa. I had the US visa only. I wasn’t panicking but was fully prepared to go home, thinking that maybe the US visa should have been used or some last-minute change had happened. The attendant called someone and asked me to go to a different counter. She told me her colleague needed to email someone. I had read that Indigo used to need to take permission from Dubai before onboarding an Indian passenger with a valid US visa. I thought That must be it.
At this new counter, the attendant listened to me and said that earlier I was at the domestic counter and that’s why they couldn’t process my visa. Make sure you head to the appropriate checkin counter always. When I mentioned the need of an email, she said I had nothing to worry about. Her colleague took my passport, scanned my US visa, and handed me a boarding pass, all the while being directed by her. Not all the Indigo staff knew how to onboard Indian passengers with valid US visas for UAE flights.
I requested window seats. My backpack weighed 11.3 kilos and was checked in. I had to throw away my pepper spray. The baggage was to be collected directly in Abu Dhabi. With only my light pack, I set off with Sagar. He also had had to throw away the tape he was carrying and his electric kettle was thoroughly checked at security.
The flight from Calcutta to Abu Dhabi was connecting via Chennai. So I waited for a few hours at the Chennai airport, and at about 3:30 am, reached the Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi.
At the glistening airport, the burqa-clad employee asked me to go to the automatic immigration glass stall where I stood on the two yellow footmarks, put my passport where they said put your passport, and looked into the camera. The screen showed an error and requested me to head to immigration. I waited in line at the immigration in between a group of old men from Spain who instructed each other to stand there and pass their fingers onto the scanner that way. Their maroon passports were stamped immediately, the immigration officer smiling at their jokes. At my turn, finally, he flipped my passport pages quickly and demanded my resident visa. I said, “I have a US visa.” He, with a straight face, asked me to go to Counter No.1. I was at the 40th or something.
At Counter No.3 (1 and 2 were empty), I was again asked for a resident visa with an even sharper look. I repeated myself. He asked for 100 dirhams. I had forgotten about the payment part. I quickly looked into my bag for my Wise travel card and handed the fluorescent green thing to him. All done, I walked to the baggage area where my blue backpack was taking turns on the baggage belt, waiting to be collected. The yoga mat I had tied to it was almost untied by now. (Wise card deserves a blog post. It is a travel card that allows you to load local currency and pay in local currency without any fees except the small amount you pay while topping up the card.)
Yes, my experience could have been smoother. They could have checked my passport or asked for my visa status and sent me to the correct counter. But when thousands of Indians fly in every day, who cares! After five minutes, I had been able to switch on my eSIM activated with a Dubai data plan, I walked out of the airport to find the bus to the city, and after some back and forth and asking a few questions, I was at the bus stop outside the arrival, waiting for the N2 bus, ready to hit the bed.
Long story short: If you have a US visa valid for six months and an Indian passport valid for six months, you can travel to UAE without arranging a specific UAE travel visa.
Dubai is a major airport. You can even visit the UAE during your transit to another country. Just book a self-transfer flight with a stop over at Dubai or Abu Dhabi, and go out to explore.
Do you have any more questions regarding the UAE on arrival visa for Indians? Please ask in the comments.
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