Dubai Visa by Nationality 2026: Four Regimes, Not an Alphabetical List
Every page that ranks for dubai visa by nationality is an alphabetical list. Call it a nationality lookup table, A to Z. Emirates, Air India, IndiGo, MOFA and VFS each publish one. It shows where your country sits in the alphabet. It does not show what happens at the counter. Your passport falls into one of four regimes. This page sorts by regime, then routes you to your per-passport page.
The four regimes, and which one your passport falls into
Four mechanisms decide your route, not 190 country names. Regime 1 stamps a visa on arrival with nothing arranged first. Regime 2 unlocks a 14 or 60-day visa on arrival, but only with a US, UK or EU visa. Regime 3 makes you file before you fly. Regime 4 adds a manual-clearance step. This is your visa regime by nationality, checked 20 July 2026.
Regime (route) | Mechanism | Passports it covers | Where the visa is decided |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Pre-approved route | Visa on arrival, stamped at the airport. Nothing filed first. | 88 passport entries on Emirates' lists — US, UK, Canada, Australia, EU states | DXB or AUH counter |
2. Exemption route | A 14 or 60-day visa on arrival. Only with a valid US, UK or EU (or other listed) visa or permit. | Indian (since 7 Jan 2024), Filipino (since 25 June 2026) + 5 more added that date | Counter, on the second document |
3. Pre-arranged route | No visa on arrival. File a tourist e-visa or a sponsored visit visa first. | Egyptian, and most passports off the arrival list | GDRFA, ICP or a licensed Amer centre |
4. Restricted-nationality handling | As Regime 3, but the online form is blocked. The file goes to a person first. | Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Ghana, Afghanistan + 6 more | A person, via WhatsApp |
Regime 3 is the pre-arranged route. It is often a sponsor-required route too: a resident sponsor files for a relative. Regime 4 is restricted nationality handling — same product, extra gate. The exact qualifying list for the exemption route differs by passport and date, so your page carries it. One case: under the 25 June 2026 scheme a Filipino passport pays AED 100 for 14 days, or AED 250 for 60 days, at the counter (The National, 25 June 2026).
A GCC residence permit is not a shortcut. Emirates has required GCC residents to apply before arrival since 29 April 2016. Read the regime, not the passport’s reputation. A well-travelled resident in Regime 4 still meets the gate. A first-timer in Regime 1 walks straight through.
Find your passport
Three passports have a dated page below. Each answers which route applies to my passport, with the exact conditions and the document pack, plus a dated timeline — not a service promise. The pages link up to here, never to each other. So you compare against the regime, not against a neighbour.
In this section
- Dubai Visa for a Filipino Passport 2026: The 25 June Visa on Arrival, and the Manila Exit Check the UAE Pages Miss — From 25 June 2026, a Philippine passport with a US, EU, Japan or Australian visa gets a UAE visa on arrival — AED 100 for 14 days or AED 250 for 60.
- Dubai Visa for an Indian Passport 2026: The Visa-on-Arrival Shortcut vs the E-Visa, Every Condition Dated — Headlines said Dubai went visa-free for Indians in 2025.
- Dubai Visa for a Pakistani Passport: Confirmed Rules vs the 'Closed' Rumour (2026) — A Pakistani passport gets no Dubai visa on arrival — you arrange it before you fly.
No page yet for your passport? An Egyptian passport sits in Regime 3, the pre-arranged route. It is not on the manual-clearance list amer247 publishes. A Nigerian passport sits in Regime 4: that list, not a published ban. We found no UAE government notice of a visa ban on either nationality as of 20 July 2026.
What changes between regimes, and what never changes
Six comparison axes separate one passport from the next. Compare them one at a time. The eligibility mechanism. The grey-list status, or restricted nationality handling. The document pack by nationality. The AED fee by nationality. The submission centre. The processing time by nationality. Every per-passport page follows those six axes, in that order. That is how you compare passport routes, row for row.
Grey-list status is the axis no government site publishes. amer247, a GDRFA-partner Amer centre, prints one notice on every tourist form. It says: verify on WhatsApp first for Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Nigeria, Lebanon, Libya, Mozambique, Ghana, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Cameroon. No u.ae, ICP or GDRFA page carries that list. A Pakistani or Afghan applicant is also asked for a National ID the others are not. Same visa, different gate.
Three things never change. Your passport must be machine-readable and valid six months from arrival, in every regime. The government fee is published one card at a time. So it lives on one page — our fees table — not repeated here to go stale. And none of these four regimes is visa-free for the passports on this page. Residual validity trips strong profiles. A US visa with three months left is still valid. Yet a boarding agent may not accept it.
Found a rule that changed, or a receipt that contradicts us? Write to us at contact. We re-check the source and publish a dated correction. The route-by-route mechanism sits on the pillar. The arrival test sits on the visa-on-arrival page. Definitions of entry permit, Amer centre and grey list sit in the glossary.
We are not affiliated with the UAE Government, u.ae, ICP, GDRFA, MOFA or any Amer centre. We quote no price of our own and we process no applications. Every figure is a published government or third-party figure, shown with its source and the date we checked it.
Sources cited only — expert review pending. For individualized advice, consult a licensed professional.
Was your refusal letter worded differently, or did a centre quote you another figure?
WRITE TO US