From 22 July 2026, all Indian consular, passport, visa and attestation services in the UAE are handled by Al Hind Tours & Travels under an outsourcing contract announced by the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi. Sixteen Indian Consular Application Centres (ICACs) have opened across all seven emirates, replacing in-house processing at the embassy and the Consulate-General in Dubai. The shift is designed to cut queues and standardise customer experience. Applicants must book appointments online—slots are released twice daily at 9 am and 9 pm—and pay a flat service fee of AED 19 that covers form filling, photographs, document typing and courier return. Government fees, revised on 1 July 2026, remain unchanged. For the UAE’s estimated 3.4 million Indian nationals—the largest expatriate group—the move is significant. HR departments that coordinate bulk passport renewals for work-permit purposes should update vendor agreements and budget for the service fee. Emergency services such as Tatkal passports and Emergency Certificates remain available on a walk-in basis but only at ICACs, not the diplomatic missions. Legal consultants note that the contract includes SLA clauses on data protection in line with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the UAE’s 2025 PDPL. Al Hind has deployed encrypted kiosks and segregated storage for biometric data. Nevertheless, companies handling bulk submissions should obtain employee consent and revisit internal privacy notices. The embassy said it will audit the operator quarterly. If wait times drop below 30 minutes—the benchmark set in the tender—similar outsourcing models may be adopted by other high-volume missions in the Gulf, potentially reshaping the consular landscape for expatriate communities.
