July 11, 2022 | 13 min read
Are you already in UAE with a 30 day or 90 day visa? Are you contemplating staying longer in the UAE? If you answered yes to both these questions or if you are curious about a UAE visa Extension, this guide will prove helpful to you. Apart from explaining what is a UAE visa extension, it will also cover the procedure, give you an estimate of the price and more important details.
A UAE visa extension is the name of the procedure that allows you to stay longer in the UAE by extending your current visa or doing a status change to a new visa that has been extended through the in country visa procedure. The UAE visa extension procedure is mostly used by prepaid visa nationals as they need to apply for a visa to stay in the UAE, unlike GCC nationals (who dont need a visa) or on arrival visa nationals. If you are a prepaid visa national this guide will break down the different procedures so that you can get a better idea.
Any nationals who don’t belong to GCC countries or on-arrival eligible countries are regarded as prepaid nationals and they need to apply for a UAE visit visa. If they want to stay longer they need to apply for UAE visit visa extension
It is better to apply a minimum of 5 days before your grace period is finishing which is the 95th or 35th day depending on the visa you initially applied for. You will be charged overstaying fines if your visa extension gets delayed.
If you need to stay longer in the UAE and want to extend your visa, you can go about it in any of the two ways mentioned below. You can choose either of the procedure based on your convenience and preference.
What is a same visa extension?
A same visa extension is when you extend the visa with which you entered UAE.
How many times can I extend my visa with this procedure?
You can extend your visa twice with this procedure. You will get 30 days with the first extension and 20 days with the second extension.
What is the procedure for this type of extension?
Contact the same visa provider from whom you got your UAE visit visa issued and they will help you from there.
What is the total duration I can stay in UAE with this procedure?
You can stay for a total of 90 days or 150 days depending on whether your initial visa was a 30 day or 90 day visa. Here is a breakdown to ease your confusion:
| Number of days | 30 day visa | 90 day visa |
|---|---|---|
| Initial (including 10 day grace period) | 40 | 100 |
| 1st extension | 30 | 30 |
| 2nd extension | 20 | 20 |
| TOTAL | 90 | 150 |
What is an in country visa?
Also known as an inside country visa or no-exit visa, this procedure makes visa extension easy because the applicant doesn’t have to exit UAE for the new extension to get activated.
How many times can I extend my visa with the in country procedure?
You can extend your visa as many times as you want with this procedure. There is no limit or restrictions
What is the procedure for this type of extension?
Contact Arabiers atleast 5 days before your grace period is over and submit the necessary documents digitally. You can choose between a 1 month or 3 month visa extension. Your visa extension will be sent for processing and when it is accepted the status change will happen. You will then get 40 days (30 days +10 day grace period) or 100 days(90 days +10 day grace period) extra to stay in UAE.
You will need to submit the copy of your initial visa, a clear passport size photo taken in a white background and a coloured digital copy of your passport details page.
The cost of extending your UAE visit visa may vary depending on the following:
between 900 AED to 1000 AED (245 USD - 275 USD)
between 1100 AED to 1200 AED (300 USD - 330 USD)
between 1500 AED to 1600 AED (410 USD - 440 USD)
Grace period is the duration, usually 10 days, that is given as a safety measure within which the visa holder has to leave the UAE or extend their visa. Failure to do either can result in hefty overstaying fines.
The fine for the first day of overstaying is 200 AED and 100 AED for every day overstayed from the second day. An additional service charge of 100 AED will be added while settling the fines during exit.
It’s been amazing journey collecting, organizing & publishing UAE travel related information. We often hear our guests says it was some thing useful when I found Arabiers, that give me motivation to sit hours & hours with subject experts to extract right information that are useful but updated. I would love to write some thing that useful for any travelers, Recidents & locals, we at Arabiers trying our level best provide right information & aiming at updating our information page as much as we can, looking forward your feedback.
