UAE Visit Visa for Filipinos: Routes, Fees, Documents and the New Visa on Arrival

The short answer: Most Philippine passport holders still need a visa arranged before they fly to the UAE. You can get one three ways: a UAE resident relative can sponsor you through ICP (smartservices.icp.gov.ae) if they live outside Dubai, or GDRFA Dubai (gdrfad.gov.ae) if they live in Dubai; a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel can sponsor a visit visa for you without needing any local contact, which is the visa Holidayys arranges; or, since 25 June 2026, some Filipinos can get a visa on arrival at a UAE airport, but only if they also hold a current visa, residence permit or Green Card from a short list of other countries. A plain Philippine passport, on its own, does not yet qualify for a visa on arrival.

The Philippines is one of the largest expat communities in the UAE, and most visits are family ones: an OFW in Dubai or Abu Dhabi bringing a parent, spouse or child over, or a relative flying out to see them. Getting the visa side right matters on both ends of the trip. In the UAE, overstaying or working on a visit visa carries fines and can end in deportation. In the Philippines, departing passengers go through the Bureau of Immigration's own checks before they can board, and the government has repeated for years that a visit visa must never be used to look for work abroad.

UAE visa for Filipinos at a glance

Question	Answer (October 2026)
Does a Philippine passport get visa-free entry to the UAE	No. A visa must be arranged in advance, unless the visa-on-arrival conditions below are met
Who can sponsor a pre-arranged visit visa	A UAE resident relative (via ICP or GDRFA), or a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel
Visit visa lengths on offer	14, 30, 60 or 90 days, single or multiple entry
Agency/airline/hotel-sponsored visit visa fee (Dubai)	AED 200 for 30 days or AED 300 for 60 days, single entry, plus 5% VAT, per GDRFA Dubai's service pages
Visa on arrival for Filipinos (from 25 June 2026)	14 or 60 days, only with a qualifying foreign visa or residence permit; AED 100 or AED 250, per the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Overstay fine on the visa-on-arrival permit	AED 50 a day, per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' announcement
Can a visit visa be used to work	No. UAE law bars it, and Philippine authorities have long warned against travelling on a visit visa to look for a job
Documents the Philippines checks before departure	Passport valid 6 months, visa if required, boarding pass, round-trip ticket, and eTravel registration
Non-stop flights, Manila to Dubai	Emirates, Cebu Pacific and (from October 2026) Philippine Airlines

Three ways to get a UAE visa as a Filipino traveller

• Have a relative in the UAE sponsor you. They apply through ICP, if they live in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah or the northern emirates, or through GDRFA if they live in Dubai. This rests on their residence visa, Emirates ID and income.
• Book a visit visa through a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel. This is the visa Holidayys arranges. It does not need a UAE-based sponsor at all, which makes it the simpler route if you have no relative there, or if their income does not clear the sponsor threshold.
• Check whether you qualify for the new visa on arrival. Since 25 June 2026 the UAE has opened a visa-on-arrival route to Filipino passport holders, but only if you also hold a qualifying visa, residence permit or Green Card from certain other countries. See the dedicated section below before you rely on this.

Book a visit visa through a travel agency, airline or hotel

This is the most straightforward route for a Filipino traveller with no UAE resident to sponsor them, since the visa does not depend on anyone's salary or residence status in the UAE. GDRFA Dubai calls its version a "tourist visa," the term people also use for a visit visa; it must be sponsored by "one of the establishments working in the field of tourism," as its own service pages put it, and only accredited tourism offices in the emirate can issue it. Read on GDRFA's own pages in October 2026:

• Single entry: AED 200 for 30 days, or AED 300 for 60 days, plus 5% VAT
• Multiple entry: AED 300 for 30 days, or AED 500 for 60 days, plus 5% VAT
• Security deposit: none, on this type of visa
• Processing time: about 48 hours

If you are already inside the UAE when the visa is applied for, GDRFA's pages add a Knowledge Dirham and an Innovation Dirham of AED 10 each, plus an AED 500 in-country fee. Outside Dubai, ICP runs the same kind of service through travel agencies, airlines and hotels, with its own fee schedule; our guide to UAE visas for parents sets out ICP's figures in full, since the mechanics are the same whoever is visiting.

Either way, you will need a passport valid at least six months, a ticket to continue your journey or return home, and health insurance valid in the UAE. See UAE visa services for the 14, 30, 60 and 90-day options we arrange, including 30 days, 60 days and 90 days. We cannot guarantee or speed up a government decision on any visa.

Sponsored by a relative who lives in the UAE

If you have a parent, spouse, sibling or child already living in the UAE, they can sponsor your visit directly, through ICP if they live outside Dubai or through GDRFA if they live in Dubai. This route rests on their own residence visa, Emirates ID and income, not yours, and it runs alongside the agency-sponsored route above rather than replacing it. ICP's own service page sets a minimum sponsor income for a first-degree relative, and lists the application, issuance, Smart Service and refundable guarantee fees separately. We cover this in detail, including the exact figures, in our UAE visa for parents guide and in the family visit section of our visa services, since the process is the same regardless of which relative is travelling.

The UAE visa-on-arrival scheme for Filipinos

On 25 June 2026 the UAE extended its visa-on-arrival programme, previously open mainly to Indian passport holders, to citizens of six more countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa. The UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it this way: nationals of these six countries holding ordinary passports, travelling with or without accompanying family members, can apply for a 14-day or 60-day visa on arrival, but only if they also hold a valid residence permit issued by the United States, an EU member state, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or Canada.

Fees and rules, as the Ministry's announcement states them:

• 14-day visa: AED 100 in total issuance fees. It may be extended once while you are in the UAE.
• 60-day visa: AED 250 in total issuance fees. It is for a single stay and cannot be extended.
• Overstay fine: AED 50 a day for staying beyond the permitted period.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs issued its own, slightly more detailed guidance for Filipinos in August 2026. As Philippine news outlets reported the DFA's statement, holders of a regular Philippine passport qualify if they also hold a valid visa or residence permit issued by the USA, an EU country or the UK, or a valid residence permit only (not simply a visitor visa) issued by Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Singapore or New Zealand. Applying online through ICP's smart services site, rather than at the airport, adds a further AED 150 service fee. Having the qualifying document does not guarantee entry: issuance of the visa, and admission into the country, remain subject to the UAE immigration authorities' own assessment on the day.

Two things are worth flagging before you rely on this route. First, the UAE's own June announcement and the DFA's August update describe the qualifying document slightly differently (a residence permit only, versus a visa or residence permit depending on the country), so confirm the current wording with ICP or the DFA before you travel on the strength of it. Second, this is not a general visa waiver: a Philippine passport by itself, with no US, EU, UK or similar document behind it, still needs one of the pre-arranged visas above.

Before you fly: what the Philippines checks on departure

Philippine Immigration applies the same departure framework to every outbound traveller, tourists included. The operative guidelines are the 2015 DOJ-IACAT Memorandum Circular on Departure Formalities for International-Bound Passengers, which the Bureau of Immigration said in 2023 and 2024 remain the rule in force, after a stricter 2023 revision was suspended following concerns raised in the Senate. As of this writing we found no confirmation that a replacement has taken effect, so check the current position with the Bureau of Immigration before you travel.

For an ordinary tourist, the Bureau's own description of primary inspection is short: a passport valid for at least six months, a visa where your destination requires one, a boarding pass, a confirmed round-trip ticket, and proof of eTravel registration. eTravel is a separate, free registration at etravel.gov.ph (or the eGovPH app) that departing Filipino passengers must complete, generally up to 72 hours before the flight; save the QR code it generates and present it before boarding.

Immigration officers refer a traveller to a closer, secondary check when they judge it necessary, commonly for a mismatch between someone's stated purpose of travel and their documents, or signs they may be vulnerable to trafficking or illegal recruitment. The Bureau has put this at a small share of departing Filipinos. If you cannot show you can fund the trip yourself, an authenticated affidavit of support from a sponsor, stating the relationship within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity and backed by the sponsor's own documents, or an affidavit of undertaking or guaranty, may be asked for and assessed at that point. Carrying one does not by itself guarantee you will be cleared to leave; the decision rests with the immigration officer on duty.

A visit visa is for visiting, not working

Both governments are explicit on this point. Under UAE law, a visit visa does not permit any kind of work, paid or unpaid, for yourself or anyone else; the UAE's Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation treats working on a visit visa as a serious offence that can bring fines and legal action for both the worker and the employer, and lawful employment instead starts with a proper work permit arranged before the job begins. On the Philippine side, the Department of Migrant Workers and its predecessor, POEA, have for years told Filipinos not to accept any job that requires leaving on a visit visa, even when a recruiter promises to sort out work papers after arrival. The lawful route into UAE employment is an employment contract and a work visa processed before departure, not a visit visa converted after the fact. If you are weighing a job offer that depends on travelling as a visitor first, verify it through the Department of Migrant Workers or the Migrant Workers Office in Dubai before you book anything.

Extending, changing or ending the visit

A pre-arranged visit visa, however it was sponsored, generally runs for its original 14, 30, 60 or 90 days before it needs extending or ending. Our UAE visit visa extension guide covers how extensions work and their fees in detail. If an extension inside the UAE is not possible or suits you less than leaving and coming back in, Holidayys also arranges a visa change by bus or by flight, in 30 or 60-day lengths. Whichever visa you hold, you can check its status and get an expiry reminder free on our UAE visa check tool, which is worth using well before any visa, agency-sponsored or visa-on-arrival, is due to run out.

What airlines check at boarding

Airlines flying into the UAE are responsible for the passengers they carry, so check-in staff generally verify your passport's validity and your visa or entry permit, printed or on your phone, before they issue a boarding pass; a missing or invalid document can mean being denied boarding rather than being allowed to sort it out on arrival. Build in time for this: airlines typically ask international passengers to be at the check-in or bag-drop counter at least an hour or more before departure, separately from the Philippines' own departure checks above.

For non-stop Manila-Dubai flights, Emirates and Cebu Pacific were both operating as of October 2026, and Philippine Airlines announced a restart of its own non-stop Manila-Dubai service from 2 October 2026, initially four times a week. For flights from Abu Dhabi or Sharjah, check the current timetables. Schedules on this route have changed more than once through 2026, so confirm your flight is operating as booked before you travel, whichever airport in the Philippines you are flying from.

Frequently asked questions

Do Filipinos need a visa to enter the UAE?

Generally yes. A Philippine passport does not carry UAE visa-free entry. Most Filipino travellers need a visit visa arranged beforehand, through a UAE resident relative, a licensed travel agency, an airline or a hotel, unless they qualify for the visa-on-arrival route below.

Can Filipinos get a UAE visa on arrival?

Some can, since 25 June 2026, but only if they also hold a current visa, residence permit or Green Card from a specific list of other countries, among them the US, an EU country, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Singapore or New Zealand. A Philippine passport by itself does not qualify.

How much does a UAE visit visa cost for a Filipino?

For an agency, airline or hotel-sponsored visit visa in Dubai, GDRFA's own fee pages list AED 200 for 30 days or AED 300 for 60 days, single entry, plus 5% VAT. The visa-on-arrival route, where eligible, costs AED 100 for 14 days or AED 250 for 60 days, per the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Can I enter the UAE on a visit visa to look for work?

No. UAE law does not allow working on a visit visa, and the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers has repeatedly warned against travelling on one with the intention of taking a job once there. Arrange a proper work visa before you travel for employment.

What is eTravel and do I need it to fly out of the Philippines?

eTravel is the Philippine government's free registration for international travellers, at etravel.gov.ph. Departing Filipino passengers are required to register, generally up to 72 hours before the flight, and to present the QR code it generates before boarding.

Do airlines check my UAE visa before I board in Manila?

Yes. Airlines flying to the UAE are expected to verify your passport and your visa or entry permit at check-in, separately from the Bureau of Immigration's own departure checks, and can refuse boarding if either is missing or invalid.

Planning your visit

Settle the visa side first, since it decides how soon you can book flights and accommodation with confidence. See UAE visa services for the visa lengths we arrange, the family visit section if a UAE resident is involved, or talk to us about which route fits your dates and your relative's situation.

Related guides

• UAE visa for parents: routes, fees and documents
• UAE visit visa extension: who can extend, fees and rules
• UAE visa guide: types, rules and status check
• Philippines visa from Dubai: a guide for UAE residents

Last checked 9 October 2026 against the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs' announcement on visa on arrival, GDRFA Dubai's single and multiple-entry visit visa service pages, Philippine news reporting of the Department of Foreign Affairs' August 2026 update, and the Bureau of Immigration's stated position on departure formalities for tourists. This guide is general information, not immigration advice. Confirm the current requirements with ICP, GDRFA, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration or our team before you apply or travel.