The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi has announced that Al Hind Tours & Travels LLC will become the sole outsourced service provider for passport, visa, OCI and other consular applications across the United Arab Emirates starting 1 July 2026. Existing partners BLS International and SGIVS Global will continue to accept applications until 30 June, after which 16 new centres operated by Al Hind will take over. With more than 3.5 million Indian citizens living in the UAE, the Gulf state is India’s largest overseas consular market. Officials estimate that missions there process over 800,000 passport renewals and 200,000 visa/OCI applications annually—volumes that dwarf those handled in the United States or the United Kingdom. Any transition therefore needs meticulous planning to avoid appointment bottlenecks.
![Indian missions in UAE to switch passport & visa outsourcing to Al Hind from 1 July 2026]()
For applicants who would like an extra layer of certainty during the switchover, VisaHQ can streamline the process by letting users initiate Indian passport, visa or OCI requests online and automatically routing them to the correct centre, even as providers change. UAE-based customers can track every milestone on a single dashboard and chat with case managers—handy if initial Al Hind appointments prove scarce. Details are available at https://www.visahq.com/india/
The embassy said it chose Al Hind after an open tender that emphasised biometric capacity, remote-queue management and 48-hour document-return SLAs. The new vendor will roll out WhatsApp chatbots and real-time dashboard tracking—a feature relocation firms say will help them predict passport delivery dates more accurately when scheduling employee mobilisation. Indian businesses with large expatriate workforces in Dubai and Abu Dhabi should note two immediate implications. First, service fees are expected to rise modestly because the new contract mandates extended operating hours and Saturday shifts. Second, commercial courier return of passports—popular with offshore crew rotations—will now be bundled as a premium add-on rather than a default option. Applicants who have already lodged paperwork with BLS or SGIVS need not resubmit; their files will be completed under the old system. However, new submissions from 1 July must use Al Hind’s appointment portal. Corporate mobility teams should update employee advisories and, if possible, front-load urgent renewals before the cut-over date to avoid teething-phase delays.
For applicants who would like an extra layer of certainty during the switchover, VisaHQ can streamline the process by letting users initiate Indian passport, visa or OCI requests online and automatically routing them to the correct centre, even as providers change. UAE-based customers can track every milestone on a single dashboard and chat with case managers—handy if initial Al Hind appointments prove scarce. Details are available at https://www.visahq.com/india/
The embassy said it chose Al Hind after an open tender that emphasised biometric capacity, remote-queue management and 48-hour document-return SLAs. The new vendor will roll out WhatsApp chatbots and real-time dashboard tracking—a feature relocation firms say will help them predict passport delivery dates more accurately when scheduling employee mobilisation. Indian businesses with large expatriate workforces in Dubai and Abu Dhabi should note two immediate implications. First, service fees are expected to rise modestly because the new contract mandates extended operating hours and Saturday shifts. Second, commercial courier return of passports—popular with offshore crew rotations—will now be bundled as a premium add-on rather than a default option. Applicants who have already lodged paperwork with BLS or SGIVS need not resubmit; their files will be completed under the old system. However, new submissions from 1 July must use Al Hind’s appointment portal. Corporate mobility teams should update employee advisories and, if possible, front-load urgent renewals before the cut-over date to avoid teething-phase delays.
