Visa-Free Countries for Pakistani Passport Holders in the UAE (2026)

The short answer: a Pakistani passport has few genuinely visa-free options, and the ones that exist are mostly small or remote: Henley's count has moved between 29 and 32 destinations across 2026, and nearly all of those are reached on a visa on arrival or an eTA rather than true visa-free entry, which itself covers about ten countries. A UAE residence visa changes the picture considerably: it opens a GCC-resident route into Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, and visa-free entry to Armenia and, on one extra condition, Georgia, none of which a Pakistani passport reaches as easily alone. Kuwait is the exception: its route for Pakistani residents is unclear. This guide sets out exactly what the passport gets you by itself, what a visa on arrival or eVisa adds, what your UAE residence adds on top, and where the rules are genuinely contested between official sources.

This question comes up constantly from Pakistani residents in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, and the honest answer is less generous than for several neighbouring nationalities covered in our other guides. That is worth saying plainly: Henley Passport Index figures reported in Khaleej Times (12 July 2026) and Gulf News (14 January 2026) put Pakistan between 98th and 101st in the world across 2026, among the lowest-ranked passports the index tracks. What a UAE residence visa genuinely adds is the useful part. The lists below separate the passport's own entitlements from what UAE residence adds, and flag anywhere official sources disagree or we could not fully confirm a rule.

Visa-free countries for Pakistani passport holders at a glance

Question	Answer (October 2026)
Henley Passport Index rank and count	Reported between 98th (January 2026, Gulf News) and 101st (late July 2026, a regional broadcaster), with the number of destinations reachable without a visa arranged beforehand moving between 29 and 32 across the year; this mixes true visa-free entry with visa-on-arrival and eTA places, so it is wider than the "passport alone, no paperwork" list below
Genuinely visa-free, no paperwork at all	A short list of mostly small or remote destinations: see the table below. Most of Asia, Europe and North America are not on it
Visa on arrival or eVisa, no sponsor needed	Nepal (free once a year), Sri Lanka (free ETA), Maldives (free), Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia (e-visa, not on the VOA list), Kenya
UAE residence unlocks a GCC eVisa or an easier route	Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia on one condition (Kuwait unclear)
A valid US, UK or Schengen visa unlocks entry	Turkey (conditional e-Visa), Mexico
Not a genuine UAE-residence shortcut, despite claims online	Kyrgyzstan's visa-free rule is for Emiratis, not UAE residents of other nationalities; Pakistan still needs the standard e-visa there

Where a Pakistani passport alone is genuinely visa-free

This is the shortest table in this guide, and that is the honest picture. The destinations below ask for nothing before you fly: no e-visa, no fee, no sponsor. Several are small island states or destinations rarely flown to directly from the UAE, and the figures below come from Henley Passport Index reporting rather than a single Pakistani government list, since Pakistan's Directorate General of Immigration and Passports publishes entry requirements for foreign nationals coming to Pakistan, not a matching outbound list for its own citizens.

Destination	Stay allowed	Notes
The Gambia	Reported up to 90 days	Reinstated for Pakistani passport holders in reporting from February 2026, after a period off the list; confirm directly with The Gambia's immigration department before relying on it
Rwanda	Up to 30 days	Strictly a visa issued free on arrival: Rwanda waives the fee for Commonwealth citizens, Pakistan included, which some trackers count as visa-free. Confirm with Rwanda's Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration before travel
Haiti	Reported up to 90 days	Figure not independently confirmed against Haiti's own immigration authority
Dominica	Reported up to 21 days	Caribbean state; figure from Henley reporting, not separately confirmed
St Vincent and the Grenadines	Reported up to 30 days	Caribbean state; figure not separately confirmed
Trinidad and Tobago	Reported up to 30 days	Figure not separately confirmed
Vanuatu	Reported up to 30 days	Pacific state; figure not separately confirmed
Micronesia	Reported up to 30 days	Pacific state; figure not separately confirmed
Cook Islands	Reported up to 31 days	Associated with New Zealand but sets its own entry rules; figure not separately confirmed

None of these are common holiday routes from the UAE, and each unconfirmed figure is marked for re-checking rather than presented as settled, because Henley's own list changes which countries it includes and smaller immigration authorities do not always publish an English-language policy page. Treat this table as a starting point, not a final answer, if one of these destinations is genuinely on your itinerary.

Visa on arrival, eVisa and eTA: no sponsor needed

These are the routes that matter more in practice: a form or a counter, not an embassy visit, and no UAE residence or sponsor required.

Destination	Fee	Stay	Notes
Nepal	Free	30 days, once per calendar year	A SAARC concession limited to one free visa a year; a second visit in the same year pays the standard visa-on-arrival fee. There is no Holidayys visa service for Nepal; apply directly on arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport
Sri Lanka	Free	30 days, double entry	Pakistan is on the list of 40 nationalities Sri Lanka made its ETA free for from 25 May 2026, a clear improvement on the previous paid ETA – see our Sri Lanka visa guide
Maldives	Free	30 days	Needs a return ticket, a prepaid booking at a registered resort or hotel, and the free IMUGA traveller declaration online within 96 hours of arrival – see our Maldives visa guide
Cambodia	Reported at USD 30	30 days	E-visa or visa on arrival; this fee is from recent airline check-in guidance rather than a direct notice from Cambodia's own e-visa portal, which was unreachable while researching this guide – see our Cambodia visa guide
Malaysia	Around RM 20 plus a RM 105 eVisa fee	30 days	Applied for online before travel, not on arrival, despite sometimes being described as a visa on arrival – see our Malaysia visa guide
Indonesia	IDR 1,000,000 (about AED 220)	Up to 60 days, extendable to 180	Pakistan is explicitly excluded from Indonesia's visa-on-arrival list and needs the C1 tourist e-visa instead, which also asks for a bank statement showing at least USD 2,000 and a recent photo – see our Indonesia visa guide
Kenya	Reported at USD 30–35	Typically up to 90 days, set at entry	Applied for online as an eTA before travel; no exemption is reported for Pakistani nationals – see our Kenya visa guide

It is worth being just as clear about what is not on this list. Hong Kong requires a visa for Pakistani nationals, applied for before travel and usually taking about four weeks. Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam also need a visa arranged before you fly, and our visa desk arranges all three. Several "visa-free Asia" destinations in our Filipino sister guide simply do not extend to a Pakistani passport. If a Southeast Asian trip is the plan, check the specific country rather than assuming the region behaves the same way for every nationality.

Where your UAE residence visa does the work

This is where the picture improves substantially. A valid UAE residence visa or Emirates ID opens GCC-resident routes that a Pakistani passport does not get on its own, plus visa-free or near-visa-free entry to two Caucasus states.

Destination	What UAE residence gets you	Fee	Notes
Saudi Arabia	GCC-resident tourist eVisa, any profession	About SAR 300 plus compulsory medical insurance	One year, multiple entry, up to 90 days a visit. A Pakistani passport is not on Saudi Arabia's own standalone eVisa list, so for most Pakistani residents this is the only online route – see our Saudi visa guide
Qatar	GCC Resident Visa (A2) via Hayya	QAR 100	Passport and UAE residence each need 3+ months left; up to two months, multiple entry. Qatar is reported to have suspended its separate standalone visa on arrival for Pakistani nationals around 31 March 2026, with no confirmed end date, but the GCC-resident A2 route is not reported to be affected – see our Qatar visa guide
Oman	GCC-resident e-visa, if your job title is on Oman's approved list	OMR 5	UAE residence needs 3+ months left; job-title eligibility is the main gate, not nationality – see our Oman visa guide
Bahrain	eVisa or visa on arrival for GCC residents	From about BD 5 (2-week visa on arrival)	Eligibility also depends on job title; check evisa.gov.bh directly – see our Bahrain visa guide
Kuwait	Unclear for Pakistani nationals	–	Pakistani nationals cannot use Kuwait's online e-visa and are directed to a Kuwaiti embassy. Kuwait's August 2025 visa on arrival for GCC residents of any profession does not say whether Pakistan is included, so check with the embassy before you book – see our Kuwait visa guide
Georgia	Visa-free, 90 days in any 180, only if your UAE residence visa is multiple-entry with at least a year left on the day you enter	None	Pakistan is one of 17 nationalities with this extra condition, which does not apply to the Philippines. With less than a year left on your residence, apply for Georgia's e-visa instead – see our Georgia visa guide
Armenia	Visa-free, reported to run from 1 Jul 2026 to 1 Jul 2027	None	Needs at least 6 months left on your UAE residence; up to 180 days a year. Pakistan is named in Armenia's own list of 111 eligible nationalities under this temporary scheme – confirm on Armenia's Foreign Ministry site, since we could not independently extract the full list from the published PDF – see our Armenia visa guide
Azerbaijan	Visa on arrival at Baku's airports	Charged on arrival	The Azerbaijani embassy's own wording is "holders of a UAE resident visa can be issued a visa," with no nationality list attached, and this is distinct from the separate ASAN Visa online system – see our Azerbaijan visa guide

Two further routes are worth naming precisely because they do not depend on your UAE residence at all. The first is Kyrgyzstan, often repeated online as a UAE-resident perk: in fact its visa-free rule, in force since January 2025, covers Emiratis and a short list of other nationalities, not UAE residents generally, so a Pakistani passport still needs the standard tourist e-visa at around USD 52, whatever your residence status. The second is Turkey and Mexico, which run on a different mechanism entirely: a currently valid US, Canadian, Japanese, UK or Schengen visa makes a Pakistani passport eligible for Turkey's conditional e-Visa, and the same family of visas lets you skip Mexico's own visa for up to 180 days. Neither needs your UAE residence visa, only the foreign one; without it, Turkey asks for its standard sticker visa and Mexico for its own visa at the Mexican Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Recently added, changed or unresolved

A few points here are moving targets, worth tracking rather than treating as settled. Henley's own count for Pakistan shifted across 2026: 98th place and roughly 31 to 32 destinations in January and February (after The Gambia was reportedly reinstated), 100th and 30 in July, then 101st and 29 later the same month. These are different snapshots from different outlets, not a contradiction in the passport's actual entitlements, but the ranking itself moves monthly and any number you read should be dated. Qatar's suspension of its standalone visa on arrival for Pakistani nationals, reported around 31 March 2026, has no confirmed end date, and does not appear to affect the separate Hayya A2 GCC-resident route. Kuwait's position is the clearest unresolved item in this guide: conflicting signals on whether Pakistan qualifies for the August 2025 "any profession" visa on arrival, flagged rather than guessed either way.

Common mistakes

Three things catch Pakistani travellers out more than the visa rules themselves. The first is passport validity, including the e-passport transition: Pakistan's Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has set 15 October 2026 as the date new passport applications move to e-passports only, according to Gulf News reporting in late September 2026. This affects new applications, not existing booklets, but if yours needs renewing before a trip, check current requirements rather than assuming the old process still applies: see our Pakistani passport renewal in the UAE guide. The second is UAE residence and passport validity windows for the GCC routes specifically: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait each ask for several months of validity on both documents, and an expired-soon residence visa can mean a rejected application even if the passport itself is fine. The third is assuming a rule for a neighbouring nationality applies to Pakistan too: Thailand's visa exemption and Hong Kong's visa-free entry, both in our Filipino sister guide, do not extend to a Pakistani passport, so check the country specifically rather than assuming parity.

Popular trips from the UAE for Pakistani travellers

Georgia and Armenia are the two destinations we are asked about most once people learn their UAE residence visa reaches them directly, and both are on our UAE National Day packages, departing 2 December 2026: Georgia at 6 days and 5 nights from AED 2,999, and Armenia at 5 days and 4 nights from AED 2,799. Azerbaijan is on the same list at 6 days and 5 nights from AED 3,199, or see our Georgia packages hub for other dates. For Southeast Asia, Malaysia and Cambodia are the two destinations in this guide's second table with a ready-made package: Malaysia at 3 nights and 4 days from AED 3,000, and Cambodia at 5 days and 4 nights from AED 4,800, both on our Asian holiday packages page. Sri Lanka and the Maldives, both free for a Pakistani passport as set out above, are two of the simplest short-haul options: the Maldives is also on our Asian packages page at 3 nights and 4 days from AED 5,000. We quote flights from the UAE alongside any of these on request.

Where Holidayys helps

Several of the destinations above – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya and Indonesia – are among the countries our visa services desk arranges, from AED 130 depending on the country; each country's page shows its own starting price. We do not currently have a visa service page for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, the Maldives, Hong Kong, Mexico or Kyrgyzstan, or for any of the small visa-free destinations in the first table; for those, or if you are not sure which bucket your trip falls into, message us on WhatsApp at +971 4 589 0001 or use our contact page and we will tell you plainly whether we can help. If a UAE visa status check is what you need first, our free UAE visa check tracks your own visa with reminders, separate from any of the destination visas above. We do not renew Pakistani passports; that stays with the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports and Pakistan's missions in the UAE.

Frequently asked questions

How many countries can Pakistani passport holders visit without a visa?

Genuinely visa-free, with no paperwork of any kind, is a short list of mostly small or remote destinations, covered in the first table above. Henley Passport Index's wider count, which mixes true visa-free entry with visa on arrival and eTA places, moved between 29 and 32 across 2026 depending on the month and the outlet reporting it, so any single figure you see should be read as a snapshot rather than a fixed number.

Does my UAE residence visa let me enter countries my Pakistani passport can't reach alone?

Yes, for a specific set of countries: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain each offer an easier GCC-resident visa route than the standard Pakistani-passport application (Kuwait's is unclear for Pakistani nationals), and Georgia and Armenia offer visa-free or near-visa-free entry on a valid UAE residence document, with Georgia applying an extra condition that does not apply to some other nationalities. Outside that list, your passport's own status is what counts, and Kyrgyzstan in particular is not a genuine UAE-residence shortcut despite being described that way online.

Can a UAE resident with a Pakistani passport get a visa on arrival for Qatar?

The position changed during 2026. Qatar is reported to have suspended its standalone visa on arrival for Pakistani nationals around 31 March 2026, with no confirmed end date in the sources we checked. The separate GCC Resident Visa (Hayya A2), available to Pakistani nationals holding a valid UAE residence visa, does not appear to be affected by that suspension, but confirm current status on Hayya's own platform before booking.

Is Kuwait's visa on arrival open to Pakistani passport holders?

This is unresolved in the sources we checked, and we are saying so rather than guessing. Kuwait announced a tourist visa on arrival for GCC residents of any profession in August 2025, but we found conflicting signals on whether Pakistani nationals specifically are included or excluded from that route, since Pakistan is separately named as excluded from a different Kuwait GCC-resident e-visa. Confirm directly with Kuwait's e-visa portal or embassy before relying on this for a trip.

Do I need a visa for Georgia if I live in the UAE?

It depends on your UAE residence visa's own validity period, which is different from the rule for several other nationalities. Georgia's general 90-day visa-free allowance for UAE residents does not apply to Pakistani passport holders in the same simple way: Pakistan is on Georgia's list of 17 nationalities who get the 90 days only if their UAE residence visa is multiple-entry with at least a year left on the day they enter Georgia. With less than a year left, apply for Georgia's e-visa instead.

What happened to Sri Lanka's visa fee for Pakistani travellers?

It became free. Sri Lanka made its Electronic Travel Authorisation free for 40 nationalities, including Pakistan, from 25 May 2026, replacing what had previously been a paid ETA. The free ETA covers a 30-day stay with double entry; apply online before travel rather than assuming a fee still applies.

Related guides

• UAE visit visa for Pakistanis
• Visa on arrival and visa-free countries for UAE residents
• Visa-free countries for Indian passport holders (sister list)
• Visa-free countries for Filipino passport holders
• Pakistani passport renewal in the UAE
• Qatar visa for UAE residents

Last checked 9 October 2026 against Henley Passport Index coverage in Gulf News (14 January 2026) and Khaleej Times (12 July 2026); Holidayys' own visa guides for Sri Lanka, Maldives, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Mexico and Kyrgyzstan, each read on 9 October 2026 against the relevant embassy, immigration or e-visa portal; Armenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs list of countries under its temporary visa exemption (updated 30 June 2026); and Gulf News' coverage of Pakistan's e-passport transition (late September 2026). This guide is general information, not immigration advice. Entry rules change quickly, officers at the border have final discretion, and several rows above are flagged as unresolved between sources: confirm the current position with the destination's own immigration authority before you book or travel.