Emirati passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online, and the UAE is one of only three nationalities eligible for Indian Visa on Arrival. Approval typically arrives by email in 24 to 72 hours.
90 days
Maximum stay per visit
24–72 hrs
Typical processing time
Up to 5 years
Longest validity offered
Eligible
Visa on Arrival
100% online
No embassy visit
Important for UAE citizens
If you live in the UAE but hold a passport from another country, you must apply as a citizen of that country — not as the UAE. Your Emirates ID and residence visa have no bearing on Indian visa eligibility, fees or stay limits. This is by far the most common error on this route, given that most UAE residents are expatriates.
Overview
The UAE–India corridor is the busiest international air route to India by a wide margin, with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah collectively serving more than twenty Indian cities at three to four hours' flying time. Most of that traffic is India's enormous expatriate community in the Emirates, but Emirati nationals themselves travel to India in growing numbers for leisure, medical treatment and business.
Emirati citizens hold a privileged position: the UAE is one of only three nationalities eligible for Indian Visa on Arrival, alongside Japan and South Korea. For most trips the eVisa is still the better instrument — it is cheaper, confirmed before you fly, and available as a multiple-entry one-year or five-year visa — but the Visa on Arrival facility is genuine and useful for unplanned travel.
Emirati passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. India is also a major destination for Emirati medical travel, and the medical eVisa is a well-used route into the large private hospital networks in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kochi.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, but the UAE has two routes where most nationalities have one. The eVisa is applied for online before departure and approved within 24 to 72 hours. Visa on Arrival is available to Emirati nationals at designated Indian airports for stays of up to 60 days — but it means queueing at the border, paying at a counter, and having the decision taken after you have already flown.
For most trips the eVisa is the better choice: cheaper, confirmed in advance, and available in multiple-entry versions that suit the frequency of travel on this corridor.
Choose the eVisa category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, visiting friends and family, and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits and contract negotiation require the business eVisa. Treatment at an Indian hospital requires the medical eVisa, which also allows accompanying family members to apply as medical attendants. Employment, journalism, research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from an Indian mission in the UAE.
Stay & validity
Emirati citizens are permitted up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows double entry, with its 30 days counted from your arrival date — often the right product given how short most trips on this corridor are.
The one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry, with validity starting on the date the Indian government grants the application. Because the flight is short and frequent, many travellers on this route go several times a year, which makes the multi-year visa clearly better value than repeat applications.
Visa on Arrival, where used, permits up to 60 days. The business eVisa allows up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — double the tourist allowance. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry, built around a treatment-and-follow-up pattern, and medical attendant visas are available for accompanying family.
The eVisa is bound to a single passport number, so renewing your passport during a multi-year visa's term invalidates it, with no transfer process.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Emirati passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as United Arab Emirates
Requirements
Everything Emirati passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality or visa type.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent passport-style photograph — square format, plain white background, full face visible, no shadows and no headwear other than for religious reasons
A valid credit or debit card to pay the government fee and service charge
Your return or onward ticket details, or at minimum your intended departure date
The address where you will be staying for your first night in India
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Indian authorities.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, choose your visa type and duration, and upload your photo and passport data page.
Our team checks your photo dimensions, passport scan clarity, name spelling and date formats before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to the Government of India on your behalf, and we keep you posted at every status change.
Print it or keep it on your phone, and we explain exactly how to present it at your port of entry in India.
Standard processing takes 48 to 72 hours and express handling 24 to 48 hours. Both are business-day estimates, and Indian public holidays — numerous and often state-specific — extend them.
Apply at least five days before departure, and preferably a week. Travel on this corridor is often booked at short notice, which is exactly when the margin matters: if a photograph is rejected you need a day to replace it, and express processing on top of a same-week booking leaves no slack. For recurring travel, a five-year multiple-entry visa removes the pressure permanently.
Separate from your eVisa, every foreign national entering India must complete the digital e-Arrival Card before boarding. It replaces the old paper disembarkation form and is required on every single visit, whatever visa you hold.
Getting there
The UAE has the densest air link to India in the world. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah collectively serve more than twenty Indian cities nonstop, with multiple daily frequencies on the major routes and flight times of three to four hours. All are designated eVisa ports.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the most comfortable window for leisure travel — and it also coincides with the pleasant part of the Emirati calendar, so it is peak season on this corridor. Book early around the UAE National Day holiday and the winter school break.
The Emirati summer, when temperatures in the Gulf become extreme, is a popular time to leave for cooler destinations, and India offers good options then: Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kashmir and Ladakh are at their best from June to September. Kerala's monsoon is also the traditional Ayurveda season, which makes it a well-established summer destination for Gulf travellers.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C — no improvement on the Gulf. Note that the Indian working week is Monday to Friday with a Saturday–Sunday weekend, which differs from the UAE pattern; factor that in when scheduling business meetings. India is 1.5 hours ahead of UAE time, so there is effectively no jet lag.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from United Arab Emirates — we check for every one of them before submitting.
By far the most consequential error on this route, and the reason it is flagged at the top of this page. The UAE's population is overwhelmingly expatriate, and Indian visa eligibility follows citizenship, not residence. If you hold a Pakistani, Filipino, Egyptian, British or any other passport, you apply as a national of that country, with that country's fees, entitlements and stay limits. An Emirates ID and residence visa are irrelevant to the application.
Emirati passports often carry a full name with several elements — given name, father's name, grandfather's name and family name. All of them belong on the application, in the printed order, exactly as the Latin-character name line shows. Applicants who enter the short form they use day to day create a mismatch that Indian immigration will pick up.
Visa on Arrival is a genuine advantage for Emirati nationals, but it caps you at 60 days, involves a queue at the airport, and defers the decision until after you have flown. The eVisa is cheaper, confirmed in advance, and available as a multi-year multiple-entry visa. Reserve Visa on Arrival for genuinely unplanned trips.
Travel on this corridor is frequently booked late. Even express processing needs 24 to 48 hours, and a rejected photograph adds a day. If you travel to India regularly, a five-year multiple-entry visa is the real fix.
If you are travelling for hospital treatment, the medical eVisa is the correct category — it allows triple entry for follow-up consultations and lets accompanying family apply as medical attendants. A tourist eVisa gives none of that structure, and hospitals increasingly ask what visa you hold.
Photo rejected on technical grounds
By far the most common cause of delay. The photograph must be square, on a plain white background, with your full face visible and no shadow behind your head. Cropped selfies and phone photos taken against a cream wall are routinely bounced back.
Passport scan unreadable
Glare across the machine-readable zone, a cut-off corner, or a scan where the passport number is blurred will stall the application. Photograph the page flat, in daylight, with no flash.
Applying too close to departure
The eVisa must be granted before you fly, and airlines check it at the gate. Applications submitted the night before a flight leave no room for a document re-upload.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the Government of India and do not vary by nationality. They are worth reading before you book, because two of them — the port-of-entry rule and the restricted-areas rule — catch out a lot of otherwise well-planned trips.
Validity is measured from your date of arrival in India, not from the date you apply. You also need at least two blank pages for immigration stamps.
The India eVisa is accepted at India's designated eVisa airports and authorised seaports. It cannot be used to cross a land border, so overland arrivals from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or Pakistan need a different visa.
Every person travelling needs their own eVisa and their own passport, including infants and children. Children cannot be added to a parent's application.
An eVisa does not grant access to Protected Areas, Restricted Areas or Cantonment Areas. Parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep require a Protected Area Permit or Restricted Area Permit in addition to your visa.
You cannot extend an eVisa from inside India or convert it into another visa category. If your plans change, you must leave and apply again.
Diplomatic, official and service passports are not eligible for the eVisa route, and neither are international travel documents or refugee travel documents.
Consular services
Neither mission is involved in an eVisa application, which is handled entirely online. They cover what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards and Surrender Certificates, and the very substantial consular workload of India's community in the Emirates.
FAQs
The questions Emirati passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Apply as a citizen of the country that issued your passport. Your UAE residence visa and Emirates ID have no bearing on Indian visa eligibility, fees or stay limits — selecting the UAE because you live there produces an application that does not match your travel document. This is the single most common mistake on this route, given that most UAE residents are expatriates.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry, which suits most trips on this corridor. The business eVisa permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year window, and the medical eVisa 60 days from first entry with triple entry. Visa on Arrival, where used, allows up to 60 days.
Usually not. Visa on Arrival is genuine for Emirati nationals at designated Indian airports, but it caps your stay at 60 days, requires queueing and paying at the border, and leaves the decision until after you have flown. The eVisa is cheaper, confirmed before departure, and available as a multiple-entry one-year or five-year visa. Visa on Arrival suits genuinely unplanned trips.
The medical eVisa. It allows 60 days from first entry with triple entry, which is designed around treatment plus follow-up consultations, and accompanying family members can apply as medical attendants. You will need a letter from the treating hospital, which must be on India's recognised list. A tourist eVisa does not provide that structure and hospitals increasingly ask which visa you hold.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Emirati passport holders across all available options. You can compare 30-day, one-year and five-year prices side by side, and the amount shown is the full cost including our service fee.
More than twenty. Dubai alone serves Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Goa, with Abu Dhabi and Sharjah adding further options. Flight times are three to four hours, and the Kerala routes are the highest-frequency services to that state anywhere in the world. Every one of these airports is a designated eVisa port.
Exactly as printed on the Latin-character name line of your passport, with every element in the printed order. Emirati passports often carry a given name, father's name, grandfather's name and family name — all of them belong on the application. Do not use the shortened form you use in daily life, and make sure your airline booking matches.
Express processing runs 24 to 48 hours, so yes — but it leaves no room if your photograph is rejected, which is the most common hitch. Allow five days if you can. If you travel this corridor regularly, a five-year multiple-entry visa removes the problem entirely.
Your nationality is already set to United Arab Emirates. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Indian authorities.
Other nationalities
Stay limits, fees and requirements differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
