Thousands of Indian expatriates in the Emirates will soon lodge all passport, visa and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) applications at a brand-new network of service centres after the Indian Embassy and Consulate completed a competitive re-tender. The winning bidder, Kerala-headquartered Al Hind Tours and Travels LLC, will take over from incumbent outsourcers BLS International and SGIVS Global at 16 locations across all seven emirates. According to the Embassy’s transition notice, BLS/SGIVS counters will accept applications only until 30 June; from 1 July 2026, applicants must book appointments and pay fees through Al Hind’s dedicated UAE portal or in-person at its new branches in Abu Dhabi (six sites), Dubai (Bur Dubai and Dubai Investment Park) and the northern emirates. The switch follows a months-long evaluation of service quality and pricing. Officials said Al Hind has committed to shorter queues, extended weekend hours and the roll-out of self-service kiosks that feed data directly into India’s Passport Seva 2.0 system. Indian missions processed more than 600,000 passport renewals and 180,000 visa or OCI requests in 2025; peak volumes regularly top 4,000 files a day during school-holiday months, so continuity planning has been critical. For HR and mobility managers, the key takeaway is to re-programme employee checklists and corporate travel policies before the cut-off.
VisaHQ can also serve as a helpful bridge during this handover. Through its UAE platform (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/), the company offers corporate and individual users step-by-step assistance with Indian passports, visas and OCI documents, plus comprehensive support for travel paperwork to and from other countries. Using VisaHQ’s online dashboards and live-agent guidance can reduce administrative friction while your teams transition from BLS to Al Hind.
Companies using consolidated billing with BLS must open new credit lines with Al Hind and update vendor master data in ERP systems. Travellers holding BLS payment receipts dated before 30 June will still be served, but any re-submission after that date must be re-routed. Indian authorities reiterated that all fees are fixed by the Government of India and warned applicants to ignore unofficial WhatsApp groups advertising “VIP” or “express” slots. A dedicated helpline and chat-bot will go live next week to answer questions about the migration, biometric requirements and OCI document checklists.
VisaHQ can also serve as a helpful bridge during this handover. Through its UAE platform (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/), the company offers corporate and individual users step-by-step assistance with Indian passports, visas and OCI documents, plus comprehensive support for travel paperwork to and from other countries. Using VisaHQ’s online dashboards and live-agent guidance can reduce administrative friction while your teams transition from BLS to Al Hind.
Companies using consolidated billing with BLS must open new credit lines with Al Hind and update vendor master data in ERP systems. Travellers holding BLS payment receipts dated before 30 June will still be served, but any re-submission after that date must be re-routed. Indian authorities reiterated that all fees are fixed by the Government of India and warned applicants to ignore unofficial WhatsApp groups advertising “VIP” or “express” slots. A dedicated helpline and chat-bot will go live next week to answer questions about the migration, biometric requirements and OCI document checklists.
