ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates has resumed issuing visit visas to Pakistani citizens applying through registered travel agents, according to travel industry representatives and a UAE embassy official on Saturday, easing months of uncertainty that had disrupted travel to one of Pakistan’s most important overseas destinations.
The UAE is home to about 1.8 million Pakistanis and remains one of the country’s largest sources of remittances. The easing comes after months of complaints from applicants over prolonged delays and increased scrutiny, even as both Islamabad and Abu Dhabi repeatedly maintained there was no official visa ban on Pakistani nationals.
Travel executives say the biggest change has been for families, with applications that had previously faced lengthy delays now being processed more smoothly.
“The UAE embassy in Pakistan has started issuing visas to Pakistani tourists traveling with families, which is a positive development,” said Muhammad Nadeem Sharif, chief executive of Aroma Travels and former chairman of the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP).
Sharif said applicants traveling with families or joining relatives already living in the UAE were now receiving timely responses, while tourism promotion campaigns had resumed and passenger traffic, which had fallen during recent regional tensions, was gradually recovering.
Immigration data also points to a pickup in travel.
A senior Pakistani immigration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arab News that the number of daily passengers traveling from Pakistan to Dubai had risen from around 170 a day earlier this summer to about 400 by the final week of July.
However, he added the figure remains well below the roughly 1,000 daily passengers recorded two years ago.
Echoing the improving outlook, Muhammad Hanif Rinch, an office bearer of TAAP, said family visa applications had begun seeing greater success after years of high rejection rates for individual applicants.
“The situation has improved since last week and more Pakistanis traveling with families are getting visas,” Rinch said, adding that family travelers currently account for about 10 percent of Pakistani visitors to the UAE.
An official at the UAE embassy in Pakistan confirmed that visit visas are being issued to ordinary passport holders applying through registered travel agencies.
“I don’t have the complete information, but visas are open through travel agents for ordinary passports,” he said, requesting anonymity.
The official added that while processing had experienced localized delays earlier for safety and security reasons, applicants with complete documentation could now apply without difficulty.
The easing follows months of concern over visa processing for Pakistani nationals.
In April last year, Pakistan’s interior ministry said Islamabad and Abu Dhabi had agreed to take “necessary steps” to facilitate visa issuance following a meeting between Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and his Emirati counterpart.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry later told parliament that some applicants had submitted forged academic degrees, diplomas and employment contracts, while others had faced legal action in the UAE over unauthorized political activities, criminal offenses or misuse of social media, prompting stricter background checks and documentation requirements.
