UAE Eases Visit Visas for Pakistanis: Travel Agents

Islamabad/Dubai —
The United Arab Emirates has resumed issuing visit visas for Pakistani citizens applying through registered travel agents, industry representatives and a UAE embassy official said on Saturday. According to a report by Arab News, the development eases months of uncertainty that had disrupted travel to one of Pakistan’s most important overseas destinations. Around 1.8 million Pakistanis live in the UAE, which is one of Pakistan’s largest sources of remittances.
The easing comes after months of applicants complaining of lengthy delays and heightened scrutiny, even as Islamabad and Abu Dhabi consistently maintained that no official visa restrictions were in place for Pakistani citizens. Travel industry sources say families have benefited the most, with applications that once faced long waits now being processed comparatively quickly.
Muhammad Nadeem Sharif, CEO of Aroma Travels and former chairman of the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP), said the UAE embassy in Pakistan has started issuing visas to Pakistani tourists traveling with family — a positive development, in his words. He said applicants traveling with family or visiting relatives already residing in the UAE are now getting timely responses, tourism promotion campaigns have resumed, and air travel — which had declined amid recent regional tensions — is gradually recovering.
Immigration data also points to the uptick. A senior Pakistani immigration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the number of daily passengers traveling from Pakistan to Dubai — around 170 at the start of this summer — rose to roughly 400 by the last week of July, though still well below the roughly 1,000 daily travelers recorded two years ago. TAAP official Muhammad Hanif Rinch confirmed the positive trend as well, saying the chances of approval for family visa applications have improved after years of higher rejection rates for individual applicants. “Things have improved since last week, and more Pakistanis traveling with family are getting visas,” Rinch said.