The United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a move to reduce the volume of Nigerians visiting Dubai for tourism or business imposed a stricter visa requirements on Nigerian travellers, including a ban on transit visa applications.
The Newsguru reports that the latest immigration directives were issued to travel agents by Dubai authorities, barely a year after the UAE lifted a two-year visa ban on Nigerian citizens.
The new guidelines will not be granting Nigerians aged between 18 and 45, tourist visas unless they are accompanied by someone deemed acceptable under UAE regulations.
The UAEs also suspended all applications for transit visas from Nigerian citizens, effectively eliminating the option of stopover travel via Dubai for Nigerians heading to other destinations.
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Travel agents disclosed that this action will will drastically impact international travel routes and airline bookings for Nigerians using Dubai as a major connection hub.
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.”
This development is coming shortly after the United States (U.S.) government announced the review of its reciprocal non-immigrant visa policy for Nigeria and other countries.
This is contained in a statement, titled “Revised Visa Reciprocity for Nigeria”, issued by the U.S. Embassy and released on Tuesday in Abuja.
The statement explained that the visa policy review would impact several countries, including Nigeria, and would take effect immediately.
“Effective immediately, most non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to citizens of Nigeria will be single-entry visas with a three-month validity period.
“Those U.S. non-immigrant visas issued prior to July 8, 2025, will retain their status and validity.
“We wish to underscore, that as is standard globally, visa reciprocity is a continuous process, and is subject to review and change at any time, such as increasing or decreasing permitted entries and duration of validity,” it said.
UAE