Our company’s specialists are often asked the same questions, and for your convenience we decided to post them here. We hope that you will find the answer to your question, but if not, we are always happy to see residents of the capital at the address: Moscow, st. Kozhevnicheskaya, 1, building 1, office. 514 (Flagship Travel). M. Paveletskaya (radial) or you can contact us by email, e-mail: [email protected].
Question: Do I need a visitor visa? Can you open it and how much will it cost?
Answer: Our company issues exclusively tourist single-entry visas to the United Arab Emirates for a period of up to 30 days. The cost of visas to the UAE when booking a tour is $85 (95 if you reserve an apartment). We do not issue other types of visas.
Question: How long does it take to obtain a visa to the UAE, and how many days before the trip is it best to apply for a visa to Dubai (United Arab Emirates)?
Answer: A UAE tourist visa is valid for 60 days, 30 of which you are allowed to stay in the country. Since there may be delays or refusal to issue a visa by the UAE Immigration Service for reasons beyond the control of the tour operator, it is better to submit documents in advance.
The official period for issuing a visa to the United Arab Emirates is from 2 to 7 working days (we remind you that Friday and Saturday are days off in the UAE). Therefore, we recommend submitting your documents at least a week before departure, or better yet even earlier, since it is impossible to influence the visa issuance date.
Sometimes the Immigration Service encounters checks, failures in the electronic system and other types of obstacles that delay the issuance of a visa to the United Arab Emirates. Moreover, the Immigration Service may and has the right not to explain the reason for the delay or refusal. Given these circumstances, the sooner you apply for a visa, the better (but not earlier than one month before the start of your trip if your stay in the country is 30 days).
If payment and booking of a tour occurs so far before the trip that there is too little time left and the Immigration Service delays the opening of a visa to the UAE or even refuses it, then fines from the hotel, airline and other material losses of the tour operator are paid by the client.
Question: If there is too little time left before departure and you urgently need a visa, is it possible to open such an (urgent) visa? What does this visa look like and how is it different from a regular visa?
Answer: Our company has encountered such situations. In exceptional cases, an urgent visa to the UAE is possible. An urgent visa to the United Arab Emirates is opened through the Immigration Service of the Emirate of Sharjah, since in this emirate all procedures are faster than usual, and the processing time for a visa to the UAE is only 1-2 days.
The visa obtained through the Dubai Immigration Service is an electronic version, and the tourist only needs to have a printout of it. An urgent visa issued through the Sharjah Immigration Service is not created electronically - you must have the original on hand (an A4 sheet with the tourist’s passport data and his photo).
Since the traveler must have the original in his hands to cross the border, he will have to pick it up at the VISA COLLECTION counter at Sharjah or Dubai airport (it is not delivered to other emirates).
And one more important nuance: urgent visas to the United Arab Emirates are not provided to women under 35 years of age traveling unaccompanied by a relative or husband. For all other categories of citizens, urgent visas to the UAE are opened through the Sharjah Immigration Service (of course, if the tourist has not previously committed offenses in the UAE and is not wanted by Interpol).
PS: Temporarily our company is not able to issue urgent visas.
Question: A resident visa is required for Dubai (United Arab Emirates), can you obtain one as an exception?
Answer: We cannot help you here, since we only deal with tourist visas to the UAE.
Regarding a resident visa, we can provide this kind of information: the issue of adopting a Federal Law on an indefinite permanent resident visa of the UAE is currently at the development stage. Currently, the validity of such a visa is 3 years, regardless of its type - state, investor or work.
If real estate is purchased, then a resident visa to the United Arab Emirates provides the opportunity for a long stay (residence) in the UAE, as well as the right to open accounts in international banks, but it does not provide a work permit.
But this is not such a big problem - a Labor Card can be easily purchased if you have an employment contract.
An investor visa does not automatically give you the right to have a labor card. You will have to obtain a company investor visa if, in addition to investing, the buyer wants to carry out business activities in the UAE. Documents for an investor visa are submitted if there is no other resident visa. Applying for such a visa costs 5,000 dirhams ($1,370), and you can start applying for it a month before the project is due.
Any resident visa becomes invalid if the resident is absent from the UAE for more than 180 calendar days.
At the Immigration Department, the developer processes visas, and documents and medical examination results are transferred to him.
When making a transaction through a real estate agency, the documents are also transferred to the developer by one of the participants in the sale and purchase, in accordance with the agreement.
Regardless of the number and size of the purchased living space, the owner of the home can act as a sponsor of his wife and children, but a wife cannot be a sponsor of her husband (if necessary, a contract is drawn up under which the spouse appears as a co-owner of the home).
Question: Your company enjoys great authority and there are a lot of good reviews about you. I would like to open a Visit Visa in the UAE with your company. Can you help with this?
Answer: No matter how much we value and respect our clients, we, unfortunately, cannot help in this matter. Our company deals only with tourist visas to the United Arab Emirates. Visitor visas for relatives can be submitted to the Immigration Services by residents of states that have a residence permit in the UAE, or by UAE citizens themselves.
Question: Do I need a transit visa for the United Arab Emirates? Can I open it for you?
Answer: We only deal with tourist visas to the UAE. We do not issue any other types of visas, and, unfortunately, we cannot help you in any way.
A transit visa is obtained through the airline (transit 96-hours visa) two weeks before departure.
Question: I would like to apply for a visa to Dubai (UAE) on my own. How do you advise me to open, I suppose to contact the Consular Hotel (in Moscow) of the UAE Embassy?
Answer: The consular section does not process visas. Visas are issued by the Immigration Services of the Emirates of Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.
Question: How to open a visa on your own through a hotel in the UAE?
Answer: Obtaining a visa to the UAE through a booked hotel is possible if it is accredited by the Immigration Service. This is only a small part of the five-star hotels. Opening a visa through a hotel is quite a troublesome task: you constantly need to call and correspond with hotel managers and so on. In addition, we have encountered situations when tourists turned to us for urgent visa processing due to the fact that the staff of the booked hotel simply forgot to issue a visa for their guests.
The hotel will not issue visas to the United Arab Emirates for young women traveling without a husband.
Question: Can I apply for a visa myself by contacting the airline?
Answer: There are two airlines that can issue you a visa to the UAE. These are the famous Emirates and Etihad (Abu Dhabi). The requirements of the visa departments of these airlines are very strict, you need to collect a large number of documents, and there are restrictions on the gender and age of tourists. We have had cases when young (under 30 years old) women applied to us for a visa to the UAE, but the airlines refused to issue a visa for them. We opened visas through the UAE Immigration Service and the women calmly flew away to rest.
Question: What is the sequence when applying for a visa to Dubai (UAE)? How is everything going?
Answer: You submit scanned copies of the required documents. They are sent to the sponsoring company located in the UAE and registered with the UAE Immigration Service. On the official website of the Immigration Service, the sponsoring company fills out an application form (Application Form) based on your data from your passport, adding your color photo.
Then the questionnaire is checked (in several stages) and approved (or not approved - extremely rarely) by the relevant services. The sponsoring company, having access, prints the finished visa from the Immigration Service system. Checks may take not two or three days, but much longer, so documents for a UAE visa must be submitted in advance, at least a week before departure.
Question: What does a UAE visa look like and what is it all about?
Answer: A non-urgent (regular) tourist visa to the United Arab Emirates, the original of which is made in electronic form, is issued to the tourist in the form of a sheet of standard format (A4), which contains passport data, visa number, barcode and also contains your photograph.
To cross the UAE border, you do not need to pick up the original anywhere (it remains in the computer system of the Immigration Service), it is enough to have this printed sheet with you. (It can be black and white or color, it doesn’t matter, and is a copy of the printout from the Ministry of Interior, General Directorate of Residency & Foreigners Affairs of the UAE). Border guards will use your unique visa number to check online that your visa has been approved, put a stamp in your passport, and you can safely cross the border and go on vacation. The UAE visa is not affixed to the passport.
Urgent visas are issued in the emirate of Sharjah and their original must be collected at Dubai or Sharjah airport.
Question: We opened a tourist visa in 60 days and stayed in Dubai for 20 days. Is it possible to travel to the UAE again with this visa, since it has not yet expired?
Answer: Unfortunately, no, a tourist visa to the UAE is a single-entry visa, that is, after the first trip it is no longer valid. For your next trip you need to apply for a different visa.
Question: Can I immediately open this and the next visa (at the same time) on my passport?
Answer: It is impossible to open two visas to the United Arab Emirates for one passport (or even for two passports of the same person) at the same time. First, after leaving the UAE, the first visa is closed, then documents can be submitted for the second (the submission period depends on the length of stay in the country. If up to 14 days, documents can be submitted immediately upon return, from 14 to 30 days - only after a month).
Question: After returning from the UAE, is it possible to obtain a second visa to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) immediately?
Answer: It all depends on the length of your stay in the United Arab Emirates. If you have lived in the country for less than 14 days, then you can apply for a second visa immediately, on the day of departure. If 14 or more days have passed, then 30 days after returning from the UAE.
Question: We are going to the Emirates for 30 days. We want to apply for a visa 2 weeks before departure. In this regard, the question is: what is the validity period of the visa?
Answer: From the moment the UAE visa is issued, it is valid for almost two months - or 60 days. An important point: during this time, despite the validity of the visa, you can stay in the country for no more than 30 days. For example, a visa was opened on February 1. In fact, it is valid for February and almost all of March, but you can go not for these two months, but on any date of one of them, for no more than 30 days.
Question: If circumstances arise that I am forced to stay in the UAE for more than 30 days, say, two days, what will happen to me then?
Answer: It's better not to do this for many reasons. Even two days is a violation of the country's rules, and for this you may be blacklisted by the Immigration Service, and you will never be able to come to the UAE. And that is not all. When you leave (and you will still have to leave sooner or later), at the border you will be fined 200 AED ($55) for the first day of delay and 100 AED ($28) for each subsequent day.
You will cause trouble not only for yourself, but also for the company that issued your visa - it will also be fined 5,000 AED ($1,370).
Question: What if a situation arises where you still need to stay in the UAE for more than thirty days? What to do to avoid being blacklisted and fined?
Answer: In exceptional cases, it is possible to extend a visa to the United Arab Emirates for an additional 30 days (one time!). You will need to contact the company that issued the visa. The cost of an extension is many times higher than the cost of a visa, and depending on the sponsoring company, it can reach $500.
Question: My passport is about to expire. Are there any passport requirements for a visa to Dubai (United Arab Emirates)?
Answer: By the time of arrival in the UAE, the validity of the foreign passport must formally be at least 6 months. Our company compares favorably with its competitors in that it can issue you a visa to the UAE, even if your passport is valid for 3 months - but no less!
Question: To apply for a visa to Dubai with a tour (UAE), what documents are needed?
Answer: You bring or send by email a scanned COLOR copy to our company:
- a foreign passport with a validity period of at least 3 months at the time of travel (copy of the first page with photo)
- Color photo - 1 piece, on any background, any size (or send a scanned color copy of the photo by e-mail)
Question: In addition to a passport and photograph, will they require other documents from me to open a visa to the United Arab Emirates - if I want to get a visa to Dubai without a tour?
Answer: In case of obtaining a visa to the UAE without purchasing a tourist tour, our partners in the United Arab Emirates will ask you to provide a hotel reservation or air tickets. This is done in order to know the exact terms of your stay in the country and protect yourself from fines if you suddenly decide to violate these terms. (You can see the answer above about the consequences of missing deadlines)
Question: My friends filled out a form at some travel agency to apply for a visa to Dubai. Do I need to fill out a form with you?
Answer: You simply provide us with a color scanned copy of your passport, and we take the data from it and fill out the form ourselves. We care about the convenience of our customers!
Question: I heard that those who have visited Israel at least once are not allowed into the UAE. I have an Israeli visa in my passport. Will I be allowed into Dubai (UAE)?
Answer: This information is outdated. Yes, this happened before, but now it is quite acceptable to visit the United Arab Emirates after a tourist has visited Israel. The only exception is for citizens of Israel and those born in this country - they are prohibited from entering the UAE.
Question: I am a 23-year-old girl. I heard that due to age there may be some problems with a visa to the UAE. Is it so?
Answer: If you have not committed any offenses in the UAE and for this reason are not included in the Black List of the UAE Immigration Service, then there should be no problems with obtaining a visa to the United Arab Emirates. There are no restrictions for girls.
However, among young ladies (girls under 30 years old) traveling to the UAE without a male accompaniment (relative or husband with the same last name), there are frequent cases of violation of the permitted period of stay. Therefore, you must leave a deposit with the company that issues the visa, which will be returned to you without any problems upon your return from the UAE (in due time). In our company, the deposit amount is 50,000 rubles.
Question: I am Russian. My cousin is a citizen of one of the CIS countries. We want to fly together on vacation to the United Arab Emirates, will there be any obstacles in obtaining a visa for my brother because of his citizenship?
Answer: For CIS citizens there are no restrictions when applying for a visa, and it is quite possible to obtain a visa to the United Arab Emirates on time and without refusal for both you and your brother, unless you have previously committed offenses in the UAE and you are not wanted by Interpol. But when applying for a visa to the United Arab Emirates, your brother will be required to take a deposit of 500,000 rubles. These are the rules. Cases have become more frequent when CIS citizens stay in the Emirates and work there, and the company that issued the visa pays a large fine. Therefore, a deposit is taken from CIS citizens, which will be returned upon return on time.
Question: I would like to do without collateral. Is this possible if you belong to the category of tourists for whom payment of a deposit is required?
Answer: Yes, in exceptional cases you can do without paying a deposit. Our company will provide you with this opportunity subject to booking and paying for a room in a hotel of at least 4* level (at least 7 nights), as well as if you booked the hotel yourself and at the same time provide us with paid air tickets and a hotel reservation of at least 5* for a period of 7 nights or more.
Question: Can a visa to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) be refused?
Answer: If you are suddenly wanted by Interpol, or you previously violated the period of stay in the country, or, having committed an offense, were taken to the police in the UAE and are now included in the Black List of the Immigration Service, then yes, you will be denied a visa.
There are times when your namesake ends up on the Black List for these reasons, but you are clean before the laws of the United Arab Emirates. Then, not a complete and irrevocable refusal is possible, but a delay in obtaining a visa to the United Arab Emirates.
But we have reliable partners in the UAE who will quickly solve this problem if you provide a copy of your passport. Over the entire period of our work, we received only three refusals, which is less than 0.01% of the total number of open visas. There were cases when tourists contacted us who decided to apply for a visa to the United Arab Emirates through a hotel or airline and ultimately did not receive it - they thought it was a refusal, but it turned out that the companies simply forgot to issue visas!
Fortunately, we have reliable partners in the UAE with whom we have been successfully working for more than 10 years. This problem was solved quickly, and people calmly went on vacation.
Question: My husband and I have different last names. We are flying to Dubai on vacation together, will this cause problems with a visa to Dubai (UAE)?
Answer: Our clients have not had any problems, although please provide a marriage certificate just in case. There may be a delay in obtaining a visa to the United Arab Emirates if the wife is under 30 years old, but we have always successfully solved this problem.
Quite complex. And this is reflected in everything, and primarily in the organization of security in the country. Everyone who wishes to visit this state is subject to thorough inspection and verification, and this does not depend on the stated purposes of the visitor - whether it will be an ordinary tourist or pilgrimage tour, or a business trip. International airports are considered to be the most protected sites in Israel. Here everything is under control, no one is left behind. Not only passengers' documents, but also their luggage are subject to thorough checks. Surveillance cameras are installed everywhere. As a result of such measures, there has not been a single terrorist attack at airports or on departing planes for forty years.
Therefore, we ask everyone arriving in this country to be very understanding about all the above security measures. After all, this is all done only for your benefit!
And although Israeli citizens today can visit many countries of the world without a visa, the number of which is 142, there are countries where entry with an Israeli passport and Israeli stamps in international passports, even with a visa from these countries, is prohibited. Such countries include Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq - in a word, listing the countries of the Arab world where you cannot enter is a troublesome task, it is easier to list the countries of the Arab world where you can enter with an Israeli passport or Israeli stamps in your international passport Can. These are, first of all, Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, and Egypt. In very rare cases, you can visit Bahrain, Qatar, Oman with an Israeli passport and Israeli stamps. This is possible with exceptions when the participation of Israeli citizens or citizens with Israeli stamps in their passports in international scientific conferences is necessary.
And although countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Brunei, and Pakistan do not belong to the Arab world, neither Israeli citizens nor those who have visited Israel and have Israeli stamps in their passports can enter their territory without hindrance.
In short, it’s practically impossible to get to the UAE after Israel. There are a dozen more countries where it is not easy to get to even with a visa from this country, having a note in your passport about visiting the Israeli state.
After visiting Israel, many people have questions: “Will they be allowed into Israel after a trip to the UAE?”, “Will they be allowed into the UAE after a trip to Israel?” The same questions often arise when traveling to Egypt.
We answer all questions in order.
Will they be allowed into Israel after a trip to Egypt:
Israel and Egypt have no conflicts with each other. There are separate excursions from Egypt to Israel and no problems arise. Therefore, we can definitely say that they will definitely be allowed into Israel after a trip to Egypt without any problems.
Will they be allowed into Egypt after a trip to Israel?
The situation is similar when visiting Egypt after Israel: the same excursions always end in Egypt, no difficulties for tourism will arise when crossing the border.
It should be noted that when visiting Israel by land, a travel stamp will be placed on your passport - this may affect future travel to countries such as the UAE.
Will the UAE be allowed in after Israel?
Currently, when visiting Israel, if you arrived and departed by plane, no stamps are placed in your passport; a separate document is issued, as in the picture below. This document is not pasted anywhere and when you leave Israel there will not be a single piece of evidence that you were in Israel. Therefore, now you can safely fly to Israel without fear of any problems in the future, especially since Israel visa is not required now.
Example of a visa to Israel
If you still have a stamp in your passport about visiting Israel, then you should remember that a visa is required to travel to the UAE. When you submit your documents for a visa and it is confirmed, you don’t have to worry. Border guards at the border do not look at passports, and having a UAE visa is a guarantee that you will be allowed into this country (this is what a visa is for).
Will they be allowed into Israel after a trip to the UAE?
The most difficult situation.
It should be noted that in most cases there are usually no problems when visiting Israel after the UAE. In the worst case scenario, the interview is an unpleasant procedure that may or may not be subjected to. Matter of chance.
Thus, if you want to go to Israel and the UAE, you should first go to Israel and then go to the UAE. Another option is to replace your passport - this can be done before the document expires without any problems.
There are a lot of “horror stories” floating around on the Internet about how tourists were turned away at the border of one state or another because their passports had an entry stamp into another, “unfriendly” state. For example, neighbors of friends once spent a wonderful vacation in Abkhazia, and then went to Georgia, and were turned away at Tbilisi airport. And the vacation, naturally, was over. Or how a young couple who had previously visited Israel flew on a honeymoon to the Maldives, but they were not allowed there. Most of these stories, fortunately, turn out to be just horror stories. And yet, let's figure out which of all this is true. Because it is still worth taking into account the simplest rules of “visa hygiene”, regardless of whether you are an independent traveler or prefer to travel as part of groups organized through a travel agency.
Georgia
Many are probably aware of the Georgian law on occupied territories adopted after the conflict in August 2008 (establishes a special legal regime in the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia). In 2012, a high-profile incident occurred with Russian Konstantin Rodionov: Konstantin was detained at Tbilisi airport on suspicion of illegally visiting the “occupied territories” (actually, Abkhazia). Rodionov spent about a month and a half in a pre-trial detention center and was eventually released on bail. This incident is one of the most sensational in the press, but, unfortunately, it is by no means the only one.
Representatives of Georgian travel companies, who specifically consulted with the Georgian Foreign Ministry, on condition of anonymity, give Russian tourists the following recommendations:
“We recommend that our tourists do not enter Georgia through Abkhaz checkpoints, because we are practically in a state of war. Georgia does not recognize Abkhazia as a separate state, considers it its ancestral territory and does not have a checkpoint there. Understand, you cannot cross the border if there is none! It’s easier to leave via Abkhazia, but again, if there are no problems on our side, then we are not responsible for the Abkhazian one. In principle, everything is not so complicated, they push it more.”
I would advise you to adhere to a simple rule: we travel to Abkhazia and Transnistria (and now also to the DPR and LPR) with a Russian passport. International passport - burn and eat (just kidding, of course!). Better to leave it at home. If your international passport already has entry stamps for the territory of Abkhazia/South Ossetia/Transnistria/DPR/LPR, the law on a second foreign passport comes to the rescue.
When going to the city, clothing should cover your shoulders and knees. There should be no visible underwear, no cleavage or skimpy clothing.
These norms do not exist in the form of laws, but in the form of recommendations and regulations. As such, no punitive measures are provided. Of course, if you appear in the city naked, you will be arrested, since this already falls under the articles “Violation of public morals.”
If you do not comply with the dress code, you may simply not be allowed into shopping centers or attractions. They will definitely not be allowed into the mosque; we clearly showed the dress code in mosques in the article “”.
In Sharjah, tourists are treated especially strictly when it comes to clothing. A police officer may approach an incorrectly dressed tourist and ask him to change his clothes. If you ignore the policeman, he may arrest you, take you to the police station and issue a fine.
There are 2 times more men than women in the UAE, imagine for a moment their gigantic dissatisfaction. If you dress provocatively, will it be pleasant to look at their undressing glances and profuse salivation?
Man + woman = prison?
In the United Arab Emirates, public displays of love and affection are prohibited, even between spouses. You can still hold hands, but you cannot passionately hug or kiss. These are the rules for all seven emirates, there are no exceptions.
From time to time, news appears in the media about another couple of tourists who were detained by the police for public kissing. The usual punishment in this case is one month in prison. Most often, tourists are not detained, but only warned. But it's better not to take risks.
In the UAE, there is a particularly negative attitude towards extramarital affairs. Ten years ago it was forbidden for an unmarried couple to share a hotel room. At the time of publication of the article (note: 2017), this ban is already a thing of the past. Also, previously young unmarried women were not allowed into the UAE, but now they are allowed in without any problems.
Sexual relations outside marriage are punishable by up to 2 years in prison. In the Western media, news constantly appears about new tourists who have been convicted of sex outside of marriage.
An indicative incident occurred on March 6, 2013. Norwegian citizen Marte Dalelv (pictured below, click on the photo to enlarge) went on a business trip to Dubai. She reported the rape to the police. The circumstances of the incident are not fully clarified, as she was drunk.
Now we will not talk about all the twists and turns of this case, we will only talk about the result. The police did not admit the fact of rape. Marte Dalelv herself was convicted of sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol without a license, she was sentenced to 16 months in prison, but was later pardoned. Her attacker was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
The UAE police handle rape allegations a little differently than here. In our country, the fact of rape is established from the words of a woman. In the UAE, the fact of rape is determined based on objective circumstances.
Arab policemen think like this: “Rape is violence. There are traces of violence (beatings), which means there was rape. No trace means no rape.” If there is no fact of rape, then there is a fact of sex outside of marriage. This means we are judging both - the applicant and her sexual partner.
Man + man = definitely a prison!
Even the fact of homosexual orientation is punishable by prison. The punishment differs in different emirates. For example, in Abu Dhabi - 14 years of imprisonment, in Dubai - 10 years. We generally do not recommend visiting the UAE for people with non-traditional sexual orientation.