Middle East - Options for Canadians wanting to visit UAE, Qatar and Oman

We are two Canadians hoping to travel to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman. We will likely travel in and out of the area from DEL on Jet Airways due to the price.

We would like to see all of the above places for a total of a 10 day visit or so. Does anyone have any suggestions that can help minimimze our costs on the visa front? At $250 for a single entry visa to the UAE, we're heavily contemplating avoiding the UAE altogether.

After a couple of hours researching, but finding only limited information, I have the following questions:

1) I have a UK passport (although I reside in Canada), can I be exempt from the visa requirement? Or does the fact that I reside in Canada mean I will be treated as other Canadians? My girlfriend only has a Canadian passport unfortunately.

2) I found a cheap flight from MCT - AUH on Ethiad, if we did this and flew out of say DXB or AUH on Jet Airways, would we able to get the lower cost visa by virtue of flying in on Ethiad? Or do they mean that you must fly from your native country on Ethiad or Emirates?

3) I notice that UAE can issue a transit visa as long as you are leaving in 96 hours or less, does this apply to Canadians too? Chances are we likely wouldn't spend much more time than 96 hours anyways, so if need be we could arrange to be there less time.

Unfortunately this is part of a larger 6 month trip, so spending time here is already stretching our wallets :)

thanks

Some help at least.

On Q1, it's your passport that matters, UK passport has no visa payment (free 30 day stamp on arrival).

On other points, flying the 2 big carriers (Etihad and Emirates) can often mean they'll arrange your visa for you. However, the Canadian "situation" is new so not sure what to advise except call the carriers and ask if they'll throw in a visa with the flight.

In terms of overall itinerary, would say spend 4 days in Oman, 4-5 in UAE and 1-2 in Qatar.

My understanding is there is no border control between the 7 emirates. Indeed, you'd be hard pushed to know when you've actually crossed from Dubai to Sharjah. I'm happy to be corrected, but IMHO once you're in, you're in, and I've never had a problem entering at SHJ and leaving from DXB.

This is as a UK passport holder though.

My understanding is there is no border control between the 7 emirates. Indeed, you'd be hard pushed to know when you've actually crossed from Dubai to Sharjah. I'm happy to be corrected, but IMHO once you're in, you're in, and I've never had a problem entering at SHJ and leaving from DXB.

This is correct. No controls between the emirates.

FYI - Etihad runs a free shuttle for their passengers between Abu Dhabi airport and Dubai. Travel time is 1 hour.

More info : http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/cn/en/planatrip/Pages/Travelling-to-from-Dubai.aspx

This is correct. No controls between the emirates.

yep - its like the USA - one country with sub-national entities. they have different laws / rules tho so be aware!

FYI - Etihad runs a free shuttle for their passengers between Abu Dhabi airport and Dubai. Travel time is 1 hour.

More info : http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/cn/en/planatrip/Pages/Travelling-to-from-Dubai.aspx

does one need to book this in advance to/from XNB, in particular the outbound leg? or can i just book a normal trip to AUH and ask for this later?

If we fly Ethiad from MCT to AUH would they be able to process an online visa cheaper?

We would still be flying into MCT from DEL on 9W and out of DXB on 9W as well.