UAE visa on arrival: who gets 30 or 90 days, who needs a visa

Many visitors to the United Arab Emirates never fill in a visa form. If your passport is on the UAE's visa-free list, an officer stamps a visitor visa into it at the airport, at no charge, and you walk out into Dubai or Abu Dhabi. What catches people out is that the stamp is not the same for everyone: some passports get 30 days, others get 90 days inside a 180-day period.

Travelers whose passports are not on the list need a tourist visa before they board, and the UAE handles that differently from most countries, because its embassies do not issue tourist visas at all.

The UAE government portal sorts visitors into three situations: visa-free entry, a visa on arrival, and a tourist visa arranged in advance for everyone else. It states the last point as a definition: "A tourist visa is for those who are not eligible for visa on arrival or a visa-free entry to the UAE." Its eligibility page adds one condition that applies to every visitor, and one warning.

The source is the portal's page Check if you need a visa to enter the UAE, last updated on 13 July 2026. That page no longer prints the country lists itself. The nationality-by-nationality answer sits on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs page Visa exemptions for non-citizens, which marks every country as either "Visa Free" or "Visa Required".

Two authorities run the system behind those pages. The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, known as ICP, is the federal authority, and the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, GDRFA, handles Dubai. You only deal with them directly if you need a visa in advance or want to extend a stay.

Start with the foreign ministry list. On 12 October 2026 it showed 90 entries marked "Visa Free". They include the other Gulf Cooperation Council states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman), the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the countries of the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Hong Kong, plus a number of Latin American, Balkan and Central Asian countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Serbia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. If your country is marked "Visa Free", you do not apply for anything before you fly. For citizens of the Gulf states it is simpler still: the Abu Dhabi Residents Office says they need no entry visa and no sponsor, only a passport or a national ID issued by a Gulf Cooperation Council country.

A second group can also get a visa on arrival, but only with a residence permit from another country. ICP announced on 25 June 2026 that nationals of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa had joined India on the list of eligible nationalities. To qualify, the traveler and any accompanying family members must hold a valid residence permit issued by the United States, a European Union member state, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or Canada. The foreign ministry's own announcement adds that the scheme is for holders of ordinary passports.

Everyone else is in the third group. India, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Turkey and more than 100 other countries are marked "Visa Required" on the ministry list, and their citizens need a tourist visa issued before travel unless the residence permit route applies. Residents of the Gulf states who are not Gulf citizens are a separate case again: the portal says they and their companions must apply online for an eVisa and obtain it before arriving.

If you hold two passports

Entry rights follow the passport you present, so a dual national can pick the one on the visa-free list. Use the same passport for the airline booking, for arrival and for departure. The Canadian government's page warns that using different passports to enter and leave can lead to detention and delays.

This is the part the UAE's own pages no longer spell out country by country, so the dependable sources are the foreign ministries of the travelers' own governments. They describe two different stamps.

The UK page explains how the longer stamp is counted: the 180-day period "will begin from the date of first entry into the UAE", and the stay "can either be continuous or divided across multiple visits, provided the total duration does not exceed 90 days within the 180-day timeframe." Canada's page says the same thing in different words. So a week in Dubai in January and a stopover in March come out of the same 90 days.

The 30-day stamp is the other pattern. The Abu Dhabi Residents Office, a government body, still describes the visa on arrival as "valid for 30 days with a 10-day period for extension", and Ireland's foreign ministry tells Irish citizens to expect 30 days. No current official figure for US passports could be confirmed for this guide, and the Australian page confirms the visa on arrival without giving its length. If your passport is not in the table, read your own government's UAE page and ask your airline, and do not assume the longer stay.

Which stay do you actually need?

For a stopover or a week of city and beach, either stamp is more than enough and the difference does not matter. It matters for long winter stays, for remote workers who come and go, and for anyone who plans several visits in one season on a 90-in-180 passport, because every earlier day counts against the next trip. Count your days before you book a third visit.

The visa stamped on arrival for passports on the visa-free list is free. The UK page says it is "issued free of charge when you arrive in the UAE", Canada's says the same, and Dubai's official tourism site says most passport holders get a visa on arrival at no cost.

The residence permit route is paid. ICP and the foreign ministry both list the total fee as AED 100 for the 14-day visa and AED 250 for the 60-day visa.

For a tourist visa arranged in advance, the price depends on who issues it. GDRFA Dubai publishes these fees on its service pages:

GDRFA adds that the total "may vary" with the applicant's circumstances and that only accredited tourism offices in the emirate can issue this visa. ICP prices its visit visa differently, as separate lines: an application fee of AED 100, an issuance fee of AED 100 per month for a single entry or AED 200 per month for multiple entries, and a smart service fee of AED 100. An airline, hotel or agent that sponsors you will quote its own total, so compare that total with the government figures before you pay.

The portal's tourist visa page lists the channels: online through ICP or GDRFA Dubai, or through an airline, a licensed travel agent or a hotel. It is blunt about what does not work: "The UAE's embassies do not issue tourist visas."

Each channel has a condition attached. An airline arranges a visa only if you fly with it. A licensed agent or a hotel in the UAE can arrange one "provided you purchase the ticket through them and maintain hotel reservation with the specific hotel." The portal also tells travelers to check that an agent is genuine and to "refrain from paying or sending copies of your official documents" until they are sure, and says a UAE embassy can help verify a tour operator.

For the application itself, GDRFA's page for the single-entry tourist visa asks for a personal photo and a copy of the passport, plus a national identity card for applicants from Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Its conditions are a passport valid for at least six months, a ticket to continue the journey or leave the UAE, and medical insurance valid in the UAE. The expected completion time shown is 48 hours.

ICP's visa issuance page describes visit visas of 30, 60 or 90 days. The holder must enter within 60 days of the date of issue, and the authority may extend the visa as long as the total stay does not exceed 120 days. The page gives a completion time of 2 days.

Longer and shorter options

Frequent visitors of any nationality can apply for the multiple entry 5-year tourist visa. The portal says it allows 90 days on each visit, extendable for a further 90 days, and requires a bank balance of USD 4,000 or the equivalent over the last six months, health insurance valid in the UAE and a continuing or return ticket.

At the other end, a traveler who is not eligible for visa-free entry or a visa on arrival and wants to leave the airport during a connection needs a transit visa arranged beforehand through the airline, a travel agency or an airport hotel. The portal says it is issued for 48 or 96 hours, is single entry and cannot be extended.

The six-month passport rule is the one that stops people at check-in. The UK page words it as an expiry date at least 6 months after the date you arrive, and adds that British travelers who only change planes without passing immigration need 3 months from the date of transit.

Temporary and emergency passports are a second trap. Canada's page says the UAE accepts Canadian temporary passports only for exit and transit, Ireland's says Irish temporary passports are not valid for entry, and Australia's says emergency passports are not accepted. Australia also warns that a passport showing "XX" in the date of birth or only a single name will be refused, and New Zealand's SafeTravel says a passport with "X" in the gender field cannot be used to enter or transit the UAE.

Medication deserves a check before you pack. The UK page says you must get approval in advance from the UAE Ministry of Health to bring in medicines the UAE classes as narcotic, psychotropic, controlled or semi-controlled, that applications are normally processed within 5 working days, and that a visitor can bring up to 3 months' supply, or one month's supply for medicines on the approval list. Check the UAE Ministry of Health's own list for your prescription.

Extensions are handled where you entered: the UK page sends travelers to GDRFA for Dubai and to ICP for the rest of the country. What you can get depends on the visa. The 14-day residence permit visa may be extended once inside the UAE, the 60-day version cannot be extended, a transit visa cannot be extended, and ICP caps a visit visa at 120 days in total. For the free stamp on arrival, ask the authority before your stay runs out and do not rely on a grace period.

Overstaying costs money and can cost time. The ICP service page lists a fine of AED 50 per day once the permitted stay or the entry visa has expired, and the foreign ministry's June 2026 announcement uses the same figure. The UK page warns that fines "may accumulate for each day of overstay", and that travel bans, legal proceedings and unpaid debts can prevent a visitor from leaving the UAE.

The first is assuming 90 days because a friend with another passport got 90. The stamp follows the passport, and the two patterns in the table above sit side by side. The second is treating 90 days in 180 as 90 days per trip: earlier visits in the same window count.

The third is paying an online agency for a "visa on arrival application" when the passport is on the visa-free list. Nothing needs to be bought in that case. The fourth is waiting for an embassy appointment that does not exist, when the airline or the ICP and GDRFA portals are the real channels. The last is a passport with five months left, which fails the six-month rule no matter how short the stay.

A UAE stamp does not cover the neighbors. Oman runs its own entry system through the Royal Oman Police, with its own visa-free period and its own e-visas, so a drive from Dubai to Musandam or a flight to Muscat is a separate border check each way. The Oman guide covers the country. The UK and Australian advice pages for the UAE currently carry warnings about regional tensions and possible airspace or border closures, so read your own government's page before you plan a crossing.

Leaving the UAE for Oman and coming back does not reset a 90-in-180 allowance, because the count runs from your first entry. A 30-day stamp is a different arrangement, so ask about re-entry before you plan a border run around it. If the trip continues to Jordan or Egypt, the Jordan Pass guide and the Egypt visa guide explain those entry fees.

The newest change is the June 2026 expansion of the residence permit route, which took it from one eligible nationality, India, to seven, and added Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada to the countries whose residence permits qualify.

The other change is quieter. The government portal's eligibility page, updated in July 2026, now points to other official sites for the eligibility check and warns that the lists "may vary from time to time". Treat any country list you find on a private website as possibly out of date, and confirm your own case on the foreign ministry page and with your airline before you book. For everything that entry rules do not cover, the travel insurance guides and the connectivity guide are the next two things to sort out.