UAE: Pakistanis can now avail 5-year multiple-entry visas
UAE Ambassador to Pakistan Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al Zaabi announced on Tuesday that the issues have been resolved and Pakistanis will now be able to get a five-year multiple-entry tourist visa.
UAE grants many entry tourist visas valid for five years, according to Dubai's General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs website. It is a multiple entry visa and the visa holder can enter several times into the UAE from the date of issuance of this visa without the need for a sponsor or a host inside the country.
This development is said to have taken place during a brief meeting between Zaabi and Sindh Governor Karmran Khan Tessori at the Governor's House, a report in Dawn said.
Al Zaabi in a press release from the Governor House said, Visa related issues are resolved, and Pakistanis can have five year visa. He further extended an invitation to the governor to visit the visa centre at the Karachi consulate.
Tessori expressed gratitude to the UAE diplomat for his country's investment in the province, particularly in Karachi. According to the report, the ambassador commended the projects ongoing under the initiative governor.
Some reports indicated that the UAE authorities have recently intensified the interrogation of Pakistanis arriving there and alleged involvement of Pakistanis in crime and illegal activities such as begging. A Senate panel was told on December 23 that the police required to vet and verify all Pakistani tourists heading to the UAE. This also applied to travel agents, who were also given guidelines in this regard.
Separately, on January 9, the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was informed that there are “no restrictions on work visas” for Pakistanis going to the UAE. No official confirmation was available with media outlets, but the reports went on to learn that the visas to UAE had been apparently closed and that the UAE government was apprehensive regarding Pakistanis on visit visas begging in the country, Dawn reported.
However, in an interview with Geo News in November last year, the UAE's Consul-General in Karachi, Dr Bakheet Ateeq Alremeithi, said a significant number of Pakistanis were being rejected visas because of "negative activities" on social media.
Alremeithi further shared that few Pakistani social media influencers became a matter of an issue by some which made the UAE government lodged complaint against some SoM accounts which led to the imposition of strict visa regulations, creating panic among travelers from Pakistan. He further elaborated that there are no restrictions on UAE visas for Pakistani passport holders.
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