The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to grant visa on arrival to all those Indian passport holders who have residence visa from the United Kingdom and the European Union. The new visa norms from UAE come months after the UAE Cabinet had approved a decision to grant Indian passport holders with either a valid United States visa or a Green Card, a visa on arrival.
“We also passed a regulation for Indian passport holders who hold residencies in the UK and EU to receive entry visas on arrival to the UAE,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and the Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai tweeted after chairing a Cabinet meeting that cleared the new travel norms.
Terming the visa relaxation as a major step in strengthening the India-UAE partnership, its ambassador to India Dr Ahmed Albanna said the decision to have a simplified visa are in line of the maiden visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abhu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the UAE to India in February 2016, “when the Crown Prince, hailed the close links between the people of both countries, including the valuable role of the Indian community in the UAE and its contribution to the prosperity and development of both the nations.” He added that the first step in this regard was signing of an MoU between the two countries on mutual exemption of entry visa requirement to allow free travel for the holders of Diplomatic, Official and Special passport holders.
“The latest development would also be a key facilitator of people-to-people ties between the two friendly countries. Hopefully, there will be more measures in days to come to further improve the long term strategic partnership and promote political, economic and trade interests between India and the UAE,” Albanna said.