Information being circulated on social media suggests that Nigerians have been exempted from a host of visa-related services into and within Dubai.
Nigeria is not the only nationality with no access to certain visa-related services in Dubai.
Full Text
An image and some news articles being widely circulated online and on Social media suggest that the United Arab Emirates, specifically Dubai, has put up some restrictions on Nigerians intending to visit the country and for those already in the country.
According to the image, visa-related needs of Nigerians like renewals, tourist visa requests and others have been halted. See image below.
Verification
The United Arab Emirates in Nigeria released an official statement on the matter. This was released via their Official Twitter page yesterday August 6th, 2020.
According to the release, the purported imposition of restrictions on Nigerians seeking to travel to the UAE is inaccurate.
It further stated that the restrictions were based on Covid-19 related restrictions which have since been eased as at July 7th for all travellers with negative PCR tests results within 92 hours of traveling to the UAE, including Nigerians.
The limitation of travel between Nigeria and UAE is credited to the continued closure of the Nigerian airspace and no other reason.
See the statement below.
Dubawa further reached out to Flyworld as indicated on the image attached to this report. The response indicated that Visa renewals and tourist applications have been temporarily on hold since March 17th, 2020 and NOT for Nigerians alone.
See response below.
UAE on expired visas and residence permits
According to the United Arab Emirates Government portal, the expired work permits and residence permits of labourers and support service staff such as domestic workers will be issued and renewed automatically. Also, foreigners who are visitors or residents of the country who also have expired visas will also receive extensions for their visa until December 2020.
This decision was supposedly taken in order to support visitors and residents in the country, following the suspension of air traffic. See specifications of the decision below.
“residents whose residence visas expired in early March 2020 or are due to expire later will receive an extension of their visas until the end of December 2020. This measure applies to both residents inside and outside the UAE. Foreign visitors to the UAE who couldn’t leave the UAE and whose visas expired in early March 2020 or are due to expire later, will also have their visit visas extended until the end of December 2020. In addition, residents whose Emirates ID cards expired in early March 2020 or later will also have their validity extended until the end of the current year.”
As seen, no specification is made as to which nationality this will apply to or otherwise and decisions taken are in light of the coronavirus pandemic and moves to mitigate the spread of the virus.
However, The UAE has since July 7th, 2020 began easing air traffic restrictions for citizens, visitors and residents in and outside the country.
Conclusion
UAE has generally suspended visa-related services for most nationalities, including most African countries. Nigeria has not been singled out as a country not to be granted visa or travel-related services in the UAE.
