Dubai visit visa: GDRFA Dubai services, fees and extensions

The UAE has one federal entry law, but visa services are split by emirate. The u.ae tracking page assigns Dubai to GDRFA Dubai and the six other emirates to ICP. In practice, the sponsor's location decides the file: a Dubai hotel, a Dubai-licensed tourism company or a Dubai resident files with GDRFA Dubai. The GDRFA site header currently reads "General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs – Dubai" while its footer and u.ae still use "Residency and Foreigners Affairs"; we use the latter until GDRFA publishes a rename.

GDRFA Dubai runs its own fee schedule, adds the Knowledge Dirham and Innovation Dirham (AED 10 each) to most cards, and charges AED 500 when the applicant is inside the country. Dubai also has services that ICP does not offer in the same form, such as the on-arrival extension card for Indian nationals and a card for extending a tourist visa "for a single or multiple trips".

The table gathers the visit-related cards on the GDRFA Dubai services list with the figures each card states.

1. Sponsor confirms the card. Tourist visas go through a Dubai tourism establishment or airline; relatives and friends through the resident sponsor.
2. Choose the channel. The GDRFA Dubai website, the Dubai Now app, or an Amer service centre, which is the GDRFA-authorised typing route in Dubai. Airlines file for their own passengers.
3. Upload documents and pay. The card total includes the fee, VAT, Knowledge and Innovation Dirhams and, for relative and friend visas, the deposit and insurance.
4. Issuance. The cards state a completion time of 48 hours.
5. Enter within the entry validity. The federal rule on the ICP card is 60 days from issue; Emirates' page adds that its tourist visas are "valid for 60 days to enter Dubai".
6. Extend inside Dubai if needed. Use the GDRFA extension card that matches your visa before the stay expires, within the 120-day total for tourist visas.

GDRFA Dubai's tourist-extension card allows a tourist visa to be extended "for one or more times, not exceeding (120) days in total" for AED 600 plus VAT. The on-arrival extension card is specific to Indian nationals who entered under the 14-day scheme and states a stay of 14 days from the date of approval for the same fee. flydubai's page describes extensions in practical terms: visas "can be extended twice", each for 30 days, without leaving the country. The extension request is made to GDRFA, not to the airline or hotel that sponsored the visa. For the federal caps and the ICP fees, read visit visa extension.

GDRFA Dubai cards state "48.0 Hour(s)" as the expected completion for issuance and for cancellation services. No end-to-end time including document checks is stated. Airline pages give their own estimates, which vary by product.

If your sponsor is in Dubai, tell us the relationship or the tourism establishment involved and whether the visitor is already inside the UAE. We will name the GDRFA Dubai card, the figures on it and the Amer or online route. For the six ICP emirates, start at UAE visit visa requirements.