Islamabad, November 27, 2025: The United Arab Emirates has virtually stopped issuing visas to ordinary Pakistani passport holders, Additional Interior Secretary Salman Chaudhry revealed before the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Thursday.
“The UAE is currently issuing visas only to diplomatic and blue passport holders,” Chaudhry stated, adding that both the UAE and Saudi Arabia had “stopped short of imposing a formal ban” but warned that crossing that line would make reversal difficult.
Nearly 500 visas were being processed daily at the newly launched UAE Visa Centre in Pakistan, the finance ministry quotes the UAE envoy as saying.https://t.co/NQeZXFdjTc
— Dawn.com (@dawn_com) November 27, 2025
Committee chairperson Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri confirmed to Dawn that the restriction stemmed from Emirati concerns over some Pakistanis on visit visas engaging in begging and other criminal activities.
A senior UAE embassy diplomat, speaking anonymously, insisted there was “no official ban,” while Ambassador Salem Al Zaabi met Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb separately to announce facilitation measures including e-visas, online processing, and a new visa centre handling nearly 500 applications daily.
Despite the positive diplomatic messaging, officials acknowledged very few regular visas have been granted recently, “after much difficulty.” Past episodes of similar restrictions occurred in January and July 2025, each time linked to concerns over misuse of visit visas by some travellers.
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