BuildingMyBento

Greetings FT,

For some reason I'm led to believe that getting various tourist visas in Dubai would be a cinch.

Naturally, I'm not a UAE resident, also with US citizenship that might slice the naive optimism in half. In any event, if I planned to be in Dubai for a week, bopping in and out of consulates/visa offices for various Central/Southwest Asian and East African countries, what are my chances of success? Anyone have experience with using Dubai (or I guess Abu Dhabi) as a visa shopping center?

Thanks,
BuildingMyBento

mecabq

It would be Abu Dhabi where most of the consulates are located.

It really depends. Many embassies in this part of the world require you to have a residence visa (not just a visit) for the country in which you are applying for a visa. It seems to get less open each year for whatever reason. For example, India: in Qatar, they won't issue a visa to someone who is not a resident of Qatar, but in the past I have successfully obtained India visas in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh without resident status.

I would advise you to find an agent (they sometimes call them mandoub) in Abu Dhabi who is familiar with all of the requirements and processes of the various embassies. You might also not achieve much in a week, since the process takes at least overnight in most cases, and visa issuing hours are usually only part of the day and sometimes not even daily. So it's easy to burn two days on one visa.

You might be better off just Fedexing your passport to an agent in Washington, D.C. and having him obtain everything you're looking for.

GUWonder

Which countries are you considering for visa shopping?

In the UAE, there are some consular services provided in Dubai, but some countries have consular services only in Abu Dhabi.

Foreigners applying for visas in a country of non-residence may actually face a longer delay in getting a visa than it does to apply for the visas elsewhere. This, however, depends on the countries involved.

A US person applying for an Indian visa in person while a tourist in the UAE is going to see a longer delay in getting the visa issued than a US person applying for an Indian visa in person in Chicago or Washington.

BuildingMyBento

Thanks for the replies, mecabq and GUWonder.

I'm aware that applying out of one's home country/place of residence can render getting a visa improbable or impossible, but for some reason Dubai as the new crossroads of the world leads me to believe that, at consulates in that city, a casual interest in one's country or discussion over a couple cups of tea pull a bit more weight.

I guess I'm trying to bank on the randomness factor in a city where trade and discourse between any two countries is anything but random. Put it this way- asking about applying for a Pakistani visa in NY and Washington, DC was quite the pill, but in Jakarta the attitude was "let's chat." Same thing for the Myanmar and Bangladesh visas in Hong Kong. Or is this just aforementioned naivete again?

Anyway, places I'd like visit (with DXB/AUH/SHJ as bases) include Uzbekistan, Hargeisa, Baku, Yemen, and Sudan, though that last one might already be moot.

mecabq

BuildingMyBento, please PM me if you want and I can give you a contact in Abu Dhabi who might be able to help you navigate the requirements (for a fee, unfortunately (not to me, to him )).

I agree with you about the benefit of local contacts and tea etc., for sure, but if you are not plugged into the local scene, then it's not so easy just to make the right contacts. The front-line guy at any consulate is likely to be a low-level bureaucrat, possibly not even a national of the country whose consulate you are visiting, so likely won't have much pull. Asking him out for tea through the bullet-proof glass window when you walk in off of the street will likely be difficult.

But you are on to something. There are few actual rules here, so being polite but assertive, as an American, can work. This worked for me at the Russian consulate in Abu Dhabi -- they said I had to be a resident, but when I insisted, they proved helpful and eventually granted it to me.

dhuey

BuildingMyBento, something tells me this is the way you're going to get your answer. You have reason to think some FT'ers have good answers to your question, but they'd rather not post them.

Canuck2012

Buildingmybento, you're skirting around the issue, but it sounds like you'd be open to bribing individuals to get your visa expedited. Not exactly a smart way to go about it ---well unless you are well connected and know the right people. Being an American these days, it does pay to do things the right way, which would mean getting all your visas sorted in your home country.

Sure its tedious and may cost more, but well worth the trouble to avoid unnecessary complications when you show up in those countries. Indeed, for some of those countries you listed as wanting to visit, it could take a month to get a tourist visa.

In my experience, bribing is more often than not more trouble than its worth.

mecabq

In my experience in the region, it's not quite so cut-and-dried as "bribing" versus doing it the "right way." Most visa applications here are handled by agents, who have knowledge of the processes, relationships with people who process the applications, and resources to do the leg work (e.g., stand in line for hours, make multiple trips to the consulate, translate documents), not to mention Arabic language, without which it might be difficult for anyone to apply on his own. The transaction environment is not as transparent as we are used to in the West, but not necessarily illegal. It's more like just someone who can expedite the process because this is what he does for a living.

Yes, of course, sometimes the agents' "knowledge" and "relationships" come at a cost, but just as often it's like any other business relationships -- the agents are professionals, with experience obtaining visas and familiarity with the consular officials involved. So having those wheels pre-greased does not mean that an individual application is coming with a bribe.

dhuey

Yes, it's not black-and-white, and unfortunately so many officials and civil servants in developing nations line their pockets by exploiting those gray areas.

BuildingMyBento

Definitely didn't mean to suggest that I'd bribe officials!

Although no country is immune from the many facets of bribery, from living in Indonesia and China I'm aware of its destructive power. My posts harken back to previous experiences getting visas- not a bribe was offered nor expected in those cases- and how differently every country (or embassy, for that matter) manages said visa issuance.

BuildingMyBento

Indeed, mecabq.

If I had the slightest hint of wasta (and in tandem with that, on-the-ground professional experience in the Arab world), I'm not sure if this thread would have been started.