India to issue five-year multiple-entry visas for UAE citizens

The government of India has announced its intention to issue five-year multiple-entry business visas to businesspersons of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 1 April. Hereafter, Indian missions in the Emirates will start issuing these five-year multiple-entry business visas, Navdeep Singh Suri, India’s ambassador to the UAE, stated on 2 March in Dubai’s Indian Consulate. These visas would be the norm for all the bonafide expats or citizens of the UAE. Suri was quoted by Gulf News as saying that eligible for these five-year multiple-entry business visas would be all the residents and citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states.  He said that for the other five GCC nations, Indian missions in the respective countries would take a call on when they would be ready to issue these visas. For each of these visas, which would cost Dh1, 500, biometric data needs to be submitted when an individual is applying for the first time. According to Suri, there will be lesser traffic at the consulates in the UAE with the introduction of these visas. He said that this move was initiated after a request was made by the UAE authorities to enable trade in keeping with India’s efforts to pitch itself as a business-friendly nation. Since this was not to be meant to be a visa on arrival, Emiratis should have to apply for these visas before they enter India. If you are looking to travel to any one of the seven emirates, contact Y-Axis, a distinguished immigration consultancy company, to apply for a visa from one of its several global offices.