UAE offers online visa facility to GCC residents

Dubai - GCC expatriates on residence visas will no longer have to wait in queue to pay for UAE entry permits upon arrival at the airport. Major-General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, director of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai, told Khaleej Times on Tuesday that online application and online payment of visa fees have been introduced for expatriates staying in the GCC on residence visas in order to spare them from the hassle of waiting in queues at the Dubai International Airport.

Major-General Al Marri explained that the new facility is set to help ease visa paper work. “It is not a compulsory step as yet for those visa applicants to obtain the entry permits into the UAE. The choice is left to them whether to apply online and jump the queues.”

“With time, the public will try and get used to the new procedure and come to realise that it would be much easier and more convenient,” said Major-General Al Marri.

‘GCC Individual Services’ on www.ednrd.ae gives detailed information and instructions the GCC expatriates with residence visas need to know, prior to applying for UAE entry permits.

The regular procedure, that has been effective, was that those expatriates first finalise the visa fee payment upon arriving at the airport, and then proceed to the immigration counters to get their entry permits.

The GDRFA has been spreading information regarding the new facilities to the public via the social media and brochures.

None of the travel agents Khaleej Times spoke to were aware of the new system. -mary@khaleejtimes.com