04/08/2026
The UAE has resumed issuing visit visas to Pakistani citizens applying through registered travel agents, marking a welcome shift after months of uncertainty that disrupted travel to one of the country's most closely watched overseas destinations. The change comes as a relief to thousands of applicants who had faced prolonged delays and heightened scrutiny, even as officials in both Islamabad and Abu Dhabi consistently maintained that no formal visa ban was ever in place. Travel industry representatives say families are seeing the most noticeable improvement, with applications that once stalled for weeks now moving through the system far more efficiently. Daily passenger traffic between Pakistan and Dubai reflects this gradual recovery, climbing from around 170 travellers a day in early summer to close to 400 by the final week of July, though numbers remain well below the roughly 1,000 daily passengers recorded two years ago. UAE officials say tighter document verification followed cases of forged credentials and visa misuse, not a blanket restriction, and for applicants with genuine purposes and complete paperwork, the pathway now looks considerably smoother.
