India’s eight-million-strong diaspora in the United Arab Emirates will soon have a new front door for paperwork. In a late-evening press statement on 13 June, the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi announced that Al Hind Tours & Travels LLC has won the competitive tender to run all outsourced Indian passport, visa and consular centres in the Emirates from 1 July 2026, taking over from incumbent BLS International and SGIVS Global.
![Embassy of India Names New Outsourcing Partner for Passport and Visa Services Across UAE]()
For travellers and mobility officers who prefer an end-to-end digital experience, VisaHQ’s India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) can bridge the gap during this transition, offering up-to-date fee comparisons, document checklists and live application tracking so applicants can stay ahead of shifting provider rules without leaving their desks.
For Indian professionals and companies that rotate staff through Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates, the switch means altered appointment portals, new service-fee schedules and, in most cases, fresh biometric enrolment as files migrate. The embassy said transitional arrangements would keep existing BLS/SGIVS offices open until 30 June, but urged applicants with urgent travel in July to book slots through Al Hind’s portal once it goes live next week. Al Hind, which already operates visa centres for several Gulf governments, plans to consolidate 14 application points into nine “one-stop Consular Experience Centres” featuring extended evening hours and dedicated corporate counters. A mobile-biometrics team for on-site group processing at large construction camps and free-zone offices is also promised—a boon for employers eager to avoid employee downtime. The embassy stressed that statutory government fees for passports and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards remain unchanged; only the service provider’s convenience charges and value-added services (courier return, premium lounge, form-filling help) may differ. Indian community groups, however, have already asked regulators to cap ‘optional’ add-ons after past complaints of opaque pricing. From a compliance standpoint, HR teams must update their vendor master data, revise staff communication templates and monitor processing times closely in the hand-over month. Companies sponsoring new hires for UAE residency should factor in at least one extra week in July while Al Hind scales up staffing and integrates with India’s Passport Seva back-end.
For travellers and mobility officers who prefer an end-to-end digital experience, VisaHQ’s India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) can bridge the gap during this transition, offering up-to-date fee comparisons, document checklists and live application tracking so applicants can stay ahead of shifting provider rules without leaving their desks.
For Indian professionals and companies that rotate staff through Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates, the switch means altered appointment portals, new service-fee schedules and, in most cases, fresh biometric enrolment as files migrate. The embassy said transitional arrangements would keep existing BLS/SGIVS offices open until 30 June, but urged applicants with urgent travel in July to book slots through Al Hind’s portal once it goes live next week. Al Hind, which already operates visa centres for several Gulf governments, plans to consolidate 14 application points into nine “one-stop Consular Experience Centres” featuring extended evening hours and dedicated corporate counters. A mobile-biometrics team for on-site group processing at large construction camps and free-zone offices is also promised—a boon for employers eager to avoid employee downtime. The embassy stressed that statutory government fees for passports and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards remain unchanged; only the service provider’s convenience charges and value-added services (courier return, premium lounge, form-filling help) may differ. Indian community groups, however, have already asked regulators to cap ‘optional’ add-ons after past complaints of opaque pricing. From a compliance standpoint, HR teams must update their vendor master data, revise staff communication templates and monitor processing times closely in the hand-over month. Companies sponsoring new hires for UAE residency should factor in at least one extra week in July while Al Hind scales up staffing and integrates with India’s Passport Seva back-end.
