To avoid disappointments during your trip to Dubai, we recommend that you verify your visa beforehand. In fact, until you are certain that the visa is genuine; you shouldn’t pay for flight tickets or hotel accommodations.
As you may know, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an Arabian country that is made of up seven nations called emirates. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Sharja, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain are the emirates that constitute the UAE.
And while each of them can issue visa allowing you to visit any of the emirates, Dubai issues the most. Dubai is the most popular of the emirates – with nearly more than 17 million visitors yearly. But Dubai visas are paper or electronic that can be easily manipulated with cheap graphic design tools. Except you verify, you cannot know if what you have is genuine or not.
More on why you should verify your Dubai visa
If you still wonder why we ask that you verify your Dubai visa first, consider the following reasons:
1- Dubai issues what is known as electronic visa type – otherwise called paper visa. This type of visa is printed on a sheet of paper. Unlike the popular sticker visa types that are usually fixed inside an international passport, Dubai electronic visa has no security or quality.
It is merely a sheet of paper with your visa number and your data. This situation has made Dubai visa easy for fraudulent agents to scam unsuspecting individuals. For more on fake agents, we have an article on how you can identify them and avoid being scammed.
2-The UAE has no embassy in Nigeria. Hence Dubai electronic visas are not issued in Nigeria. So you need an agent in Dubai or Nigeria that can get it for you. As a result of this, you will not be able to tell if the visa was genuinely issued in Dubai or it was just Photoshopped by a crook agent.
3- Apart from your data that will be written in English on the visa, other information will be presented in Arabic. You don’t understand Arabic, the more reason why you need to verify that it is indeed a valid visa.
Limitations of this verification procedure
Before you read too far, let’s let you know that this blog post is most relevant when verifying the Dubai UAE visa.
As you have discovered, other emirates also issue UAE visas. In fact, second to Dubai is Sharjah, Sharjah visa is also quite common and we have helped a lot of people to secure it too.
But before checking out steps below on how to verify a Dubai visa, you should do a preliminary check on where the visa is issued. The emirate where the visa is issued will be stated atop the visa. As shown in the image below:
So, if your UAE visa was issued in Sharja or any other emirate except Dubai, you cannot use the method shared in this post to verify your visa.
But don’t go yet!
We have something for you too at the end of this article so you are not totally out of luck. If you need to confirm visas from the other emirates there is way you can do so with the tip shared at the end of this post.
The verification procedure
Having confirmed that the visa was indeed issued in Dubai; then follow the procedure below to verify the visa:
1- Visit the General directorate of residency and foreigners’ affairs – Dubai website. Click here to visit.
2- Under “service to inquire” select “ENTRY PERMIT VALIDITY”
3- On the next line, you need to enter your entry permit number. To do this, look for ‘ENTRY PERMIT NUMBER’ on your visa. You need to write it backward which is based on the Arabic writing system. In the sample visa above, the number is 87088595 / 2019 / 204, but while entering it, I will first select the number 204 in the dropdown menu, followed by 2019 which is basically the year it was issued, and lastly, I will write out the number 87088595 in the box.
4- Next is “first name in English”. Here you should enter your name as it appears on the visa. Do not include your surname.
5- Select your gender
6- Enter your date of birth. It is better to use the calendar icon to select your date of birth.
7- Select your nationality
8- Enter the security code in the box below the code. You need to be careful here so you don’t have to start over when you enter the wrong code. If the displayed code is not visible enough, simple click a small refresh icon beside the code so that the code will be updated. You may keep on refreshing the code until a visible is shown.
9- Now click on submit
After you have submitted, if the visa is valid then the status, validity period and expiry date of the visa will be shown. Otherwise, you will get an error message that the visa is not valid.
If valid, the message you get is similar to the one on the image below:
The verification procedure – if not a Dubai UAE visa
Now, if your visa wasn’t issued in Dubai, there is another way to confirm the originality of the visa. This involves getting an ‘OK to board’ approval from an airline. While all airlines should be able to help confirm the visa before paying for ticket, some are more responsive to such an enquiry.
For example, you may fill out an OK to board form on Emirates Airlines’ website to confirm your visa. Otherwise, you have to send an email to the airline you wish to travel with before paying for airline ticket. They can help confirm if your visa is original and valid.
Conclusion
As long as the Dubai visa remains a paper visa, there is always a chance that your Dubai visa is a fake. So, to avoid loss of money and embarrassment, it is better to confirm if your visa is genuine. These steps should protect you from heartaches.
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