This overview is related to different types of visas, which can be obtained in the UAE. This country is attractive for tourism as well as for permanent residence. That is why the issues of getting short-term visas and residence permits are considered to be interesting and relevant.
First of all, it is necessary to classify visas into two major groups - short-term and long-term ones. The short-term visas are the tourist visas that are issued for a term up to 30 days with the possibility of further extension for additional 30 days. Visit (guest) visas are issued on the request of relatives or for other purposes such as treatment in the UAE. There are also transit visas that are issued for the period of 96 hours.
The other type of visas is the long-term visas, which provide the possibility for the permanent residence in the UAE. Among them there are working visas as well as visas issued over buying real estate or company registration. Find more information on such visas in the previous overview “UAE residence visa / permit, possible types and its costs”
The general rules for obtaining short-term visas in the UAE are as following:
First of all, it is advisable to start visa procedure as early as possible. Despite the fact that the procedure of UAE visa issue does not take much time, it is better to submit all the documents for its issuing in advance.
Types of the UAE Visas: the applicable exceptions
In fact, visas are necessary not for everybody. There is a list of countries whose citizens do not need to obtain visas in advance. These countries are:
- Andorra
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brunei
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Holland
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Monaco
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- San Marino
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- USA
- Vatican City
Citizens of the abovementioned countries may obtain visas upon the arrival and are permitted to stay in the country for up to 60 days.
The possible reasons for visa rejection may include violation of law during your previous visit. There can be some cases when visas are rejected without any explanation. However, for the many years of our experience, we have not had such cases happened to our clients who had obtained a great number of various types of visas.
Another possible reason of visa rejection may the fact of a country being in the list, whose citizens face certain limitations related to entering the UAE. For example, as of the date of publishing this article, the citizens of Bangladesh are in this list.
There are also multiple entry visas in the UAE. Such visas give the possibility of visiting the country for a number of times and are issued for the period of 6 month. This type of UAE visas is seldom used due to its higher cost and relatively short validity period.
The procedure of obtaining a short-term visa usually requires the submission of a copy of your passport, photos, ticket and hotel reservation.
