According to a recent announcement by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), residents can now carry out all visa and residency transactions without visiting GDRFA offices.
Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Marri, Director General of GDRFA, said residents will not be required any more to visit the GDRFA headquarters or any of its external branches in order to apply for any visa or residency-related transaction.
The transactions include applying for visa, renewing residency, applying for new residency, visa cancellation, in addition to any other related services.
All transactions can be carried out via approved typing services centres.
This new policy has been implemented under the new UAE vision system.
The “UAE vision”, considered one of the best systems introduced to help the public save time and effort, is in line with the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who stressed on facilitating governmental services.
How the new visa system will work in Dubai:
- Clients have to visit the designated typing center and provide accurate information such as valid phone numbers, address and email in order to allow communication with them. When customers visit typing centers, they need to look out for the Amer logo. The logo will be clearly visible on the counters and on the staff uniform. The logo is a badge of approval from the GDRFA, indicating that the typing center is qualified to carry out visa-related transactions through the UAE Vision system.
- Those who apply for visit visa-related transaction will have it sent to their email and those applying for residency visa service will have it sent to them via Zajel courier service.
- After submitting all documents, the status will be ‘in process’ until approval is confirmed by immigration. Users will be notified by SMS for the final step.
- Once approval is confirmed, residents will then visit the immigration headquarters only once to get their passport stamped.
- Visit visas will be issued through email as e-visas.
Application fees will remain the same.
According to a GDRFA official, there have been no changes to the required documents or charges related to the visa transactions.