UAE imposes fresh visa conditions on Nigerians, bans transit visa

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have imposed more stringent conditions for Nigerians visiting Dubai even as they banned transit visa applications.

This is the umpteenth time that UAE has imposed stringent conditions on Nigeria.

The latest directives were communicated to travel agents on Tuesday, according to a report by Daily Trust.

In a major development that is expected to reduce traffic from Nigeria to Dubai, UAE foremost destination for businesses and tourism, any Nigerian aged between 18 and 45 is also restricted from getting tourist visa unless accompanied.

This is coming just about a year after the UAE and Nigeria resolved a two-year visa ban placed on Nigerians by the UAE authorities.

But the lifting of the ban still came with several stringent conditions, which restricted the number of Nigerians travelling to the UAE.

However, travel agents said that it was about getting worse in the coming days following the review of the visa process for Nigerians.

According to the new directives from Dubai immigration communicated to the travel agents on Tuesday, there would be no more Transit Visa applications.

The notification added, “For Nigeria nationals, please bear in mind that an applicant aged 18 to 45 years travelling alone is not eligible for TOURIST VISA CATEGORY.

“An applicant who is 45yrs or above must provide a Single Nigerian personal bank statement for a period of last six months, with each month’s end balance reflecting a minimum ending balance of USD 10,000 or its naira equivalent.

“Kindly note that the above points must be taken into consideration before sending your applications with other existing documents such as hotel reservation, data page, etc.”