UAE Visit Visa for Pakistanis: Routes, Fees, Documents and the Visa Ban Reports

The short answer: An ordinary Pakistani passport does not get visa-free or on-arrival entry to the UAE. Only Pakistani diplomatic and official passports do, under a waiver the two governments activated on 25 July 2025. Everyone else needs a visit visa arranged before they travel, through one of two routes. A UAE resident relative can sponsor you, through ICP (smartservices.icp.gov.ae or the UAEICP app) if they live outside Dubai, or through GDRFA Dubai (gdrfad.gov.ae, the GDRFA smart app or Dubai Now) if they live in Dubai. Or you can book a visit visa through a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel, which Holidayys arranges; this route does not depend on a relative's residence visa or salary. Visas run 30, 60 or 90 days, single or multiple entry. GDRFA Dubai's own service pages, read in October 2026, set the single-entry fee at AED 200 for 30 days, AED 300 for 60 days or AED 400 for 90 days, plus 5% VAT, and the same pages add one document for a Pakistani applicant that most other nationalities do not need: a copy of your Pakistani national identity card, alongside your passport copy.

Pakistanis are one of the UAE's largest expat communities, and a visit visa is usually the first step for a family wedding, a job-hunting trip, a medical appointment or a holiday in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah. The paperwork gets more attention here than for most nationalities, for two reasons that have nothing to do with the visa form itself. First, Pakistani and UAE officials have spent 2024 to 2026 publicly disputing whether the UAE has quietly tightened or banned visas for Pakistani citizens, with both governments repeatedly denying a formal ban. Second, Pakistan's own Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has stepped up checks on outbound passengers it suspects of travelling on a visit visa to work abroad, and Pakistani courts have been pushing back on how those checks are carried out. None of that changes the visa application itself: it is the same ICP or GDRFA process run for every nationality, with the one added document noted above.

UAE visit visa for Pakistanis at a glance

Question	Answer (October 2026)
Who can sponsor the visa	A UAE resident relative (through ICP or GDRFA Dubai), or a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel
Visa lengths available	30, 60 or 90 days, single or multiple entry
Where Dubai-bound applications go	GDRFA Dubai: gdrfad.gov.ae, the GDRFA smart app, Dubai Now, or an Amer centre
Where applications for the other emirates go	ICP: smartservices.icp.gov.ae or the UAEICP app
Extra document GDRFA asks Pakistani applicants for	A copy of the Pakistani national identity card, alongside the passport copy, GDRFA's service pages state
GDRFA single-entry visit visa fee (relative-sponsored)	AED 200 for 30 days, AED 300 for 60 days, AED 400 for 90 days, plus 5% VAT, GDRFA's service page states
Security deposit (relative-sponsored visa)	AED 1,000 single entry or AED 2,000 multiple entry, refundable, per GDRFA's service pages
Visa-free or on-arrival entry	None found on an official page for ordinary passports; diplomatic and official passports only, since 25 July 2025
Overstay fine	AED 50 a day, per ICP's service page
"UAE visa ban" reports	Both governments have repeatedly denied a formal ban, most recently 27 November 2025; Pakistani officials describe tighter scrutiny rather than a ban

How to apply: two routes

There are two ways to get a pre-arranged UAE visit visa, and a narrow third option that skips a visa altogether.

• A UAE resident relative sponsors you, through ICP if they live outside Dubai, or through GDRFA Dubai if they live in Dubai. The application rests on the sponsor's own residence visa, Emirates ID and income, not on yours.
• Book a visit visa through a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel. Holidayys arranges this route; it does not need a sponsoring relative at all, which is the simpler option if you have no UAE-resident relative, or your relative's income does not clear the sponsor threshold.
• Diplomatic and official passport holders travel visa-free under the Pakistan-UAE waiver, covered below. This does not apply to an ordinary Pakistani passport.

Through a UAE resident relative

Which authority your relative deals with depends on where they live, not where you are flying from. Residents of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah or Fujairah apply through ICP, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, at smartservices.icp.gov.ae or the UAEICP app. Residents of Dubai apply through GDRFA, at gdrfad.gov.ae, the GDRFA smart app, Dubai Now, or an Amer centre. Our UAE visa for parents guide sets out the sponsor-income rules ICP and GDRFA publish by relationship; the figures below cover what GDRFA's own pages state for a single-entry or multiple-entry visit visa sponsored by a relative or friend, read directly in October 2026.

• Single entry: AED 200 for 30 days, AED 300 for 60 days, or AED 400 for 90 days, plus 5% VAT
• Multiple entry: AED 300 for 30 days, AED 500 for 60 days, or AED 700 for 90 days, plus 5% VAT
• Refundable security deposit: AED 1,000 for single entry or AED 2,000 for multiple entry, plus a AED 20 deposit service fee and a AED 40 collection and reimbursement fee
• Medical insurance: AED 40, 60 or 90, for 30, 60 or 90 days
• If you are already inside the UAE when your relative applies: GDRFA's pages add a further AED 500 in-country fee, plus two AED 10 Knowledge and Innovation Dirham charges

GDRFA's pages list processing at about 48 hours. The permit must be used within a set window of issue; check the current one on the service page before booking flights, since the parents guide found ICP's own window at 60 days for its equivalent permit.

Through a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel

UAE immigration law also lets a licensed travel agency, hotel or UAE-based airline sponsor a visit visa, separately from the relative-sponsored route above. GDRFA's tourist-visa service pages describe the sponsor requirement plainly: the host must be "one of the establishments working in the field of tourism," and only an accredited tourism office can issue this type of visa. This is the visa Holidayys sells: it does not rest on a relative's residence visa, Emirates ID or salary. Choose 30, 60 or 90 days by how long you are staying. See our UAE visa services page for the current visa types, including the 14-day, 30-day, 60-day, 90-day and 90-day multiple-entry options, or go straight to the family visit section for the relative-sponsored and agency-sponsored routes side by side. We cannot speed up or guarantee the outcome of either route; the decision sits with GDRFA or ICP.

Diplomatic and official passports: visa-free since July 2025

Pakistan and the UAE signed a memorandum of understanding on mutual visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders on 24 June 2025, at the 12th Pakistan-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said the waiver came into effect on 25 July 2025, at all UAE airports, with a matching waiver for Emirati diplomatic and official passport holders at Pakistani airports. This exemption covers only diplomatic and official passports. It does not extend to an ordinary Pakistani passport, whatever the purpose of the trip.

Documents a Pakistani applicant needs

• A passport valid for at least six months
• One or two recent personal photos (the exact number depends on the route and visa type)
• A copy of your Pakistani national identity card. GDRFA Dubai's service pages for both the tourist visa and the relative or friend visit visa list this for "some nationalities (Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan)," on top of the usual passport copy
• A return or onward travel ticket
• Proof of where you are staying: your UAE-resident relative's address and Emirates ID, or a hotel booking
• Medical insurance valid in the UAE (GDRFA bills this as part of the fee on the relative-sponsored route; check whether the agency-sponsored route includes it)
• If a relative is sponsoring you: proof of the relationship (such as a birth or marriage certificate) and their proof of income

Beyond the visa file itself, your airline may ask to see your return ticket and accommodation details at check-in, and UAE border officers can ask the same on arrival. We could not confirm a specific minimum cash amount on an official UAE or Pakistani government page, so we have left that figure out; carry a return ticket and proof of accommodation regardless, and check with your airline if you are unsure what it wants to see.

What goes wrong: Pakistan's own exit checks

Before you even board, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) runs its own checks on outbound passengers at Pakistani airports, and visit-visa travellers bound for the Gulf are a frequent focus. The FIA's Lahore Zone Director, Captain (retired) Muhammad Ali Zia, told reporters on 27 November 2025 that people are only denied boarding if they lack valid documents or are suspected of working with human smugglers, saying "all those who are denied from going abroad are refused due to them not having valid documents." He said officers "profile" travellers and gave examples of people holding permits or visas for companies that did not exist.

Pakistani courts have pushed back on how this is carried out. On 30 May 2026, the Lahore High Court ruled, in a case brought by a passenger stopped from flying to see a relative, that the FIA cannot stop a citizen who holds a valid visa, ticket and travel documents without recording a specific, meaningful legal reason; the judgment ordered officers to document the questions asked and give passengers a copy of the offloading order. On 4 September 2026, the Islamabad High Court heard a similar case and told the FIA that "whenever a person is offloaded, the reason must be recorded," summoning the agency's additional director to produce records. A formal review and appeal process, described in reports as Standing Order No 02/2026, now lets an offloaded passenger seek a review within days and, if still unsatisfied, appeal to a Zonal Grievance Committee; we could not read the order's own text, so confirm the current deadlines with your nearest FIA immigration desk if you are offloaded.

Separately, the Protector requirement that Pakistan's Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (beoe.gov.pk) administers applies to Pakistanis leaving on a work or employment visa; the Bureau's own pages describe it in terms of overseas employment, not tourism. If you are travelling on a visit visa to visit family or for tourism, this registration step is not one we found described as applying to you, but if your plans change once you arrive, confirm the current position with the Bureau before you travel.

The "UAE visa ban" reports: what officials have actually said

Reports of a UAE visa ban on Pakistanis have circulated repeatedly since at least 2024, and officials on both sides have just as repeatedly denied a formal, government-wide ban, while acknowledging tighter scrutiny. The timeline, as reported:

• 2024: the UAE Consul General in Karachi said, in a video statement, that claims the UAE had stopped issuing visas to Pakistanis were false.
• January 2025: Aisam Baig, an Overseas Employment Promoter, told a Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis that some UAE visas had been "unofficially closed," linking it to UAE concern over Pakistanis travelling on visit visas and resorting to begging. The committee chair, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada, said there were no restrictions on work visas.
• 8 April 2025: the UAE ambassador to Pakistan, Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al Zaabi, told Sindh's governor that "visa issues have been resolved" and that Pakistanis could now get a five-year multiple-entry tourist visa, a category open to other nationalities for some time; we found no separate UAE government notice confirming this, so treat it as the ambassador's own statement.
• 24 June 2025 and 25 July 2025: Pakistan and the UAE signed and then activated the diplomatic and official passport visa waiver described above.
• 27 November 2025: Salman Chaudhry, Pakistan's additional interior secretary, told a Senate human rights committee that the UAE had "unofficially halted" visa issuance for ordinary Pakistani passport holders, with only diplomatic and blue passports still being processed, and that the UAE and Saudi Arabia had "stopped short of imposing a complete ban." The same day, a senior UAE Embassy official told Dawn, "there's no ban on visas for Pakistani citizens."
• February 2026: the UAE's envoy told Dawn that reports of suspended transit visas for Pakistanis were "not true."

A later, separate report in August 2026 said notices on the VFS Global portal for Emirates' visa services showed the UAE had temporarily stopped issuing 48-hour and 96-hour transit visas, not visit visas, to Pakistani nationals. We found no official UAE confirmation of this in the sources we could read, and it concerns transit, not the visit visa this guide covers; if you are routing through a UAE airport on a Pakistani passport, check your transit visa status directly with your airline before you fly. See our UAE transit visa guide for how that permit normally works.

Taken together, the pattern across two years is consistent: Pakistani officials describe a de facto tightening, sometimes severe, in ordinary-passport processing, while UAE officials deny any formal ban. Neither side's position has changed the actual GDRFA and ICP visit-visa process described in this guide; it remains open to Pakistani applicants, document requirements and all. If your own application is refused or delayed, that is a decision for GDRFA or ICP, not evidence on its own of a wider ban.

Is there a UAE visa on arrival for Pakistanis?

No, not for an ordinary Pakistani passport. We found no official ICP, GDRFA or u.ae page offering visa-free or on-arrival entry to Pakistani passport holders generally. The only exemption we could confirm on an official basis is the one above: diplomatic and official Pakistani passports, visa-free since 25 July 2025. We also found no official scheme letting a Pakistani ordinary passport holder use a foreign visa or residence permit, such as a UK, US or Schengen one, to get a UAE visa on arrival, unlike a scheme that applies to some Indian passport holders in similar circumstances. If you have heard otherwise, confirm it directly with ICP or GDRFA before relying on it; do not book travel against an unconfirmed on-arrival claim.

What the Pakistani missions in the UAE say

The Consulate-General of Pakistan in Dubai and the Embassy in Abu Dhabi focus their public guidance on Pakistanis already in the UAE, including visit-visa holders, rather than on the visa application itself, which is a UAE government process. In a video advisory on 29 September 2024, the Consulate-General told Pakistanis in the UAE, including those on visit visas, to check a visa's validity directly with GDRFA (for Dubai-issued visas) or the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (for the other emirates), not to take up work on a visit visa, and to keep copies of passport, visa and financial records accessible. News reports in March 2026 said the Consulate-General had also opened a Special Facilitation Desk with 24-hour helplines for Pakistanis in the UAE and in transit; we could not independently confirm the current hours or contact numbers, so check the consulate's own channels before relying on them. The UAE Embassy in Islamabad publishes general visa information on mofa.gov.ae; its specific visit-visa guidance did not load for us at the time of writing, so confirm current details with the embassy or a licensed agent.

Extending or changing a visit visa inside the UAE

A visit visa can usually be extended from inside the UAE before it expires, and GDRFA's extension pages for the relative or friend visit visa list a fee of AED 600 plus 5% VAT, with a cap of 180 days' total stay across any extensions. If your plans change after you arrive, rather than extend the same visa, you may want to change its category, for example to a different visit-visa length. See our full UAE visit visa extension guide for the extension process and deadlines, or our visa change services if you would rather have us handle the paperwork: by bus (30 days or 60 days) or by flight (30 days or 60 days).

Frequently asked questions

Do Pakistanis need a visa to visit the UAE?

Yes, for an ordinary passport. A Pakistani visitor needs a visit visa arranged before travel, through a UAE resident relative (via ICP or GDRFA Dubai) or through a licensed travel agency, airline or hotel. Only Pakistani diplomatic and official passports are visa-free, since 25 July 2025.

Can a Pakistani get a UAE visa on arrival?

Not on an ordinary passport, as far as any official page we checked states. Visit visas must be arranged before travel. The only confirmed exemption is for diplomatic and official passports, which do not need a visa at all.

What documents does a Pakistani need for a UAE visit visa?

A passport valid for at least six months, a recent photo, a copy of your Pakistani national identity card (GDRFA's service pages ask for this specifically), a return ticket, proof of accommodation, and, if a relative is sponsoring you, proof of the relationship and their income.

Has the UAE banned visas for Pakistanis?

UAE officials have repeatedly denied a formal ban, most recently in November 2025. Pakistani officials have described periods of tighter, sometimes near-total, scrutiny of ordinary-passport applications rather than a declared ban. The GDRFA and ICP visit-visa process remains open to Pakistani applicants.

Will Pakistan's FIA stop me from flying on a visit visa?

The FIA checks outbound passengers for valid documents and signs of suspected illegal work-seeking or trafficking; most travellers with a genuine visit visa, ticket and documents are not stopped. Pakistani courts have ruled in 2026 that the FIA must record a specific reason before offloading anyone, and a review and appeal process exists if you believe you were stopped wrongly.

How long can a Pakistani stay in the UAE on a visit visa, and can it be extended?

The base visa runs 30, 60 or 90 days. GDRFA's extension pages for the relative-sponsored visit visa allow extensions up to a total of 180 days, for a fee of AED 600 plus 5% VAT per extension. See our visit visa extension guide for the full process.

Plan your visit

Whether a relative is sponsoring you or you would rather not depend on their visa file, the visa and the trip are easier to sort out together, since the same details, your dates, where you are staying, your return flight, go into both. Browse our UAE visa services for the visit visa lengths we arrange, use the free UAE visa check to confirm a visa's status and expiry, or talk to us about which route suits your trip. If you are already planning what to do once you land, see our tour packages for ideas.

Related guides

• UAE visa for parents: routes, fees and documents
• UAE visa guide: types, rules and status check
• UAE transit visa: 48 and 96 hour permits
• UAE visit visa extension: process and deadlines

Last checked 9 October 2026 against GDRFA Dubai's service pages for the single-entry and multiple-entry tourist and relative or friend visit visas, ICP's service page for issuing an entry permit, and reporting by Dawn, Khaleej Times, ARY News and Profit Pakistan Today on UAE visa policy and FIA passenger checks. This guide is general information, not immigration advice. Confirm the current requirements with ICP, GDRFA, the UAE Embassy, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency or our team before you apply or travel.