On 25 October 2025 the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security (ICP) opened a nationwide visa-amnesty programme that will run until 30 December 2025. The scheme allows foreign nationals with expired tourist, visit or residency visas to either regularise their status or exit the country without incurring overstay fines or re-entry bans.
Applicants may convert lapsed visas into valid residence permits—subject to meeting eligibility rules—or obtain exit permits free of administrative penalties. The ICP confirmed that the amnesty also covers undocumented children born in the UAE and workers who absconded from their sponsors, though it excludes individuals who entered the country illegally. To cope with demand, immigration service centres have extended operating hours from 07:00 to 22:00 and introduced 24/7 online filing.
Consular posts of major labour-sending countries—India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh—have set up dedicated desks to issue emergency travel certificates and short-validity passports, ensuring their nationals can benefit from the reprieve. India’s diplomatic missions, for example, have lengthened weekend hours and are waiving certain documentary requirements to accelerate assistance.
For employers, the amnesty offers a one-off opportunity to regularise out-of-status staff before harsher enforcement resumes in January 2026. Mobility managers should audit payroll and sponsorship records immediately, file status-adjustment requests where feasible, and arrange compliant exit travel for ineligible workers. Failure to act could attract sizeable fines once the grace period lapses.
The initiative underscores the UAE’s twin priorities of maintaining labour-market flexibility while tightening compliance. Organisations with large blue-collar workforces—construction, hospitality and facilities management—are expected to feel the greatest impact and should budget for additional immigration-processing capacity during the two-month window.
Applicants may convert lapsed visas into valid residence permits—subject to meeting eligibility rules—or obtain exit permits free of administrative penalties. The ICP confirmed that the amnesty also covers undocumented children born in the UAE and workers who absconded from their sponsors, though it excludes individuals who entered the country illegally. To cope with demand, immigration service centres have extended operating hours from 07:00 to 22:00 and introduced 24/7 online filing.
Consular posts of major labour-sending countries—India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh—have set up dedicated desks to issue emergency travel certificates and short-validity passports, ensuring their nationals can benefit from the reprieve. India’s diplomatic missions, for example, have lengthened weekend hours and are waiving certain documentary requirements to accelerate assistance.
For employers, the amnesty offers a one-off opportunity to regularise out-of-status staff before harsher enforcement resumes in January 2026. Mobility managers should audit payroll and sponsorship records immediately, file status-adjustment requests where feasible, and arrange compliant exit travel for ineligible workers. Failure to act could attract sizeable fines once the grace period lapses.
The initiative underscores the UAE’s twin priorities of maintaining labour-market flexibility while tightening compliance. Organisations with large blue-collar workforces—construction, hospitality and facilities management—are expected to feel the greatest impact and should budget for additional immigration-processing capacity during the two-month window.
