Indian expatriates – the UAE’s single largest foreign community – have been advised to plan around a five-day suspension of routine passport, visa and attestation appointments as the country’s missions switch outsourcing partners. The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Consulate in Dubai confirmed that BLS International (passport and visa processing) and SGIVS Global (document attestation) stopped accepting new applications at the close of business on 25 June 2026. From 26 to 30 June no regular appointments will be available while IT systems are migrated and physical files transferred. Emergency services – lost-passport replacements, compassionate visas and life-or-death attestations – will continue to be handled directly by mission staff via the 24-hour hotline 800 INDIA, WhatsApp and dedicated email channels.
![Indian consular services in UAE to pause 26–30 June as Alhind replaces BLS and IVS]()
Online facilitation platforms can also cushion the disruption. VisaHQ, for instance, offers an end-to-end UAE service (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/) that keeps applicants informed of shifting consular rules, pre-validates paperwork and arranges courier pick-up and drop-off once processing restarts, giving travellers and HR teams an extra layer of certainty while the mission’s systems are offline.
The missions have urged travellers with imminent deadlines to contact them immediately rather than third-party centres. Airlines have also been alerted so that Indian passengers holding travel receipts for the transition period are not denied boarding. Operations will resume on 1 July under a new single-vendor model. Kerala-based Alhind Tours & Travels LLC won a three-year contract after a competitive tender that attracted 15 global bidders including VFS Global. Sixteen Indian Consular Application Centres (ICACs) will open across all seven emirates – six in Abu Dhabi, two in Dubai and eight in the Northern Emirates – streamlining services that were previously divided between two providers. Alhind’s winning bid fixed the service fee at just AED 19 per transaction, roughly half current charges, and commits to 30-minute in-centre processing. For employers the change matters because over 4.3 million Indians work in the UAE, many in time-critical roles that require fast visa renewals and police-clearance certificates. Mobility teams should factor the 26–30 June blackout into assignment start dates and avoid scheduling document legalisations for that week. After 1 July, HR departments can take advantage of consolidated ‘one-stop’ centres and a new online appointment portal that promises five-day slot availability. The missions say the overhaul was driven by persistent customer-service complaints, rising transaction costs and the ambition to handle growing consular volumes – more than 560,000 passport and visa transactions in 2024 alone. Alhind has begun recruiting 300 additional staff and will introduce mobile biometric vans for large corporate clients in free zones. Performance will be reviewed annually, with penalties up to contract termination for service failures – a point stressed after BLS was barred from Indian government tenders in 2025 over compliance issues. Indian residents whose passports or visas expire during the pause can travel once they obtain a ‘no-objection’ letter from the embassy, but they should renew documents promptly from 1 July to avoid fines under UAE immigration law. The missions also reminded Golden Visa holders that they must still keep passports valid for six months to maintain residence status.
Online facilitation platforms can also cushion the disruption. VisaHQ, for instance, offers an end-to-end UAE service (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/) that keeps applicants informed of shifting consular rules, pre-validates paperwork and arranges courier pick-up and drop-off once processing restarts, giving travellers and HR teams an extra layer of certainty while the mission’s systems are offline.
The missions have urged travellers with imminent deadlines to contact them immediately rather than third-party centres. Airlines have also been alerted so that Indian passengers holding travel receipts for the transition period are not denied boarding. Operations will resume on 1 July under a new single-vendor model. Kerala-based Alhind Tours & Travels LLC won a three-year contract after a competitive tender that attracted 15 global bidders including VFS Global. Sixteen Indian Consular Application Centres (ICACs) will open across all seven emirates – six in Abu Dhabi, two in Dubai and eight in the Northern Emirates – streamlining services that were previously divided between two providers. Alhind’s winning bid fixed the service fee at just AED 19 per transaction, roughly half current charges, and commits to 30-minute in-centre processing. For employers the change matters because over 4.3 million Indians work in the UAE, many in time-critical roles that require fast visa renewals and police-clearance certificates. Mobility teams should factor the 26–30 June blackout into assignment start dates and avoid scheduling document legalisations for that week. After 1 July, HR departments can take advantage of consolidated ‘one-stop’ centres and a new online appointment portal that promises five-day slot availability. The missions say the overhaul was driven by persistent customer-service complaints, rising transaction costs and the ambition to handle growing consular volumes – more than 560,000 passport and visa transactions in 2024 alone. Alhind has begun recruiting 300 additional staff and will introduce mobile biometric vans for large corporate clients in free zones. Performance will be reviewed annually, with penalties up to contract termination for service failures – a point stressed after BLS was barred from Indian government tenders in 2025 over compliance issues. Indian residents whose passports or visas expire during the pause can travel once they obtain a ‘no-objection’ letter from the embassy, but they should renew documents promptly from 1 July to avoid fines under UAE immigration law. The missions also reminded Golden Visa holders that they must still keep passports valid for six months to maintain residence status.
