India’s missions in the Emirates have spent the past fortnight racing to replace their long-standing outsourced passport, visa and attestation partners after contracts with BLS International and SGIVS Global expired on June 30. With a court challenge in India delaying the planned hand-over to a new single-window provider (Al Hind Tours & Travels), the Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate-General in Dubai have taken the unprecedented step of processing every application themselves – the first time in 17 years that core consular work has been handled fully in-house. Since July 1 the missions have erected temporary tents for queues, introduced a token system and—most importantly—launched the dedicated appointment portal book.passportindiauae.com.
![Indian passport and visa services in UAE move in-house: new portal, walk-in limits and agent warnings clarified]()
For applicants who also need to secure UAE visas or handle related travel paperwork, VisaHQ offers an end-to-end online service that can take the sting out of the current uncertainty. Its UAE resource centre tracks the latest entry rules, provides real-time fee calculators and even arranges courier pick-up for documents, giving both individuals and corporate travel teams a reliable fallback while embassy procedures remain in flux.
From July 12 walk-ins have been scrapped entirely in Dubai and restricted to a two-hour window (09:00-11:00) in Abu Dhabi, with priority given to newborn passports and emergency travel certificates. Applicants must now secure an online slot released nightly at 20:00 for the next working day, arrive 15 minutes early, and pay revised fees in cash (a standard passport renewal now costs Dh450, up from Dh285 – the first hike since 2012). Only the applicant is normally allowed entry; minors must be accompanied by both parents. Faced with confusion, the Embassy has issued a public advisory urging Indians not to deal with unauthorised agents. Mission officials stress that appointment booking is free and that no third party can guarantee slots. Victims of fraudulent middlemen are being asked to file complaints directly with the missions. Daily throughput has stabilised at roughly 1,500 applications—close to pre-transition volumes, but handled over a shorter working window and without outsourced infrastructure. For businesses that rotate staff between India and the UAE, the changes mean HR teams must build additional lead time into travel schedules, ensure employees carry exact cash, and monitor the portal at 20:00 each evening to secure next-day appointments. Travel managers should also brief assignees on differing entry rules at the two missions, locker policies for mobile phones, and the possibility of longer waits during peak summer heat. Once the legal dispute in India is resolved, Al Hind’s network of 16 Indian Consular Application Centres is expected to cut processing time to 30 minutes per application; until then, companies should plan for at least one week of uncertainty around Indian consular services in the UAE.
For applicants who also need to secure UAE visas or handle related travel paperwork, VisaHQ offers an end-to-end online service that can take the sting out of the current uncertainty. Its UAE resource centre tracks the latest entry rules, provides real-time fee calculators and even arranges courier pick-up for documents, giving both individuals and corporate travel teams a reliable fallback while embassy procedures remain in flux.
From July 12 walk-ins have been scrapped entirely in Dubai and restricted to a two-hour window (09:00-11:00) in Abu Dhabi, with priority given to newborn passports and emergency travel certificates. Applicants must now secure an online slot released nightly at 20:00 for the next working day, arrive 15 minutes early, and pay revised fees in cash (a standard passport renewal now costs Dh450, up from Dh285 – the first hike since 2012). Only the applicant is normally allowed entry; minors must be accompanied by both parents. Faced with confusion, the Embassy has issued a public advisory urging Indians not to deal with unauthorised agents. Mission officials stress that appointment booking is free and that no third party can guarantee slots. Victims of fraudulent middlemen are being asked to file complaints directly with the missions. Daily throughput has stabilised at roughly 1,500 applications—close to pre-transition volumes, but handled over a shorter working window and without outsourced infrastructure. For businesses that rotate staff between India and the UAE, the changes mean HR teams must build additional lead time into travel schedules, ensure employees carry exact cash, and monitor the portal at 20:00 each evening to secure next-day appointments. Travel managers should also brief assignees on differing entry rules at the two missions, locker policies for mobile phones, and the possibility of longer waits during peak summer heat. Once the legal dispute in India is resolved, Al Hind’s network of 16 Indian Consular Application Centres is expected to cut processing time to 30 minutes per application; until then, companies should plan for at least one week of uncertainty around Indian consular services in the UAE.
