Visitors and residents who have been stranded in the UAE since the closure of much of the region’s airspace on 28 February have been benefiting from a one-off Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) waiver that temporarily erased daily overstay penalties.
![UAE overstay-fine waiver ends 31 March; travellers urged to exit or regularise status]()
Travellers scrambling for last-minute solutions can turn to VisaHQ for streamlined assistance. The firm’s dedicated UAE portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/) enables users to lodge tourist-visa applications, arrange in-country status changes and monitor approvals in real time—services that are proving invaluable as ICP portals slow and fines loom.
That grace period is now in its final hours: community advisers on 29 March circulated an ICP notice reminding the public that the waiver will be switched off at 23:59 on Tuesday, 31 March 2026. In practice, anyone whose visit, tourist or cancelled residence visa expired after 28 February must either depart the Emirates or complete an in-country “visa run”/status change before the deadline. Once the system reactivates, standard fines of AED 50 per day will automatically accrue from 1 April, and immigration officers at exit points will recover the balance in full before allowing boarding. Airlines have been told to deny uplift to passengers who cannot show that their status has been cleared. Travel-management companies say the waiver has saved corporate travellers tens of thousands of dirhams in potential penalties during a month when outbound capacity was unpredictable and re-routing via Saudi or Oman often added 10-12 hours to journeys. Several large employers have chartered buses to the Hatta and Khatm Al-Shaklah land borders so that contractors can stamp out and back in on the same day – an option that will disappear if current cross-border restrictions tighten further. HR teams are advising foreign assignees who intend to remain in the UAE to file for a new residency or at least a 30-day tourist visa before 31 March to avoid being locked out of on-line services such as Emirates ID renewal and driving-licence conversion. The ICP portal and smart-app have been intermittently overloaded since the reminder was issued, so early action is recommended. For mobility managers the key take-away is clear: after 31 March overstayers will once again face both fines and, potentially, immigration bans that could complicate future assignments. Companies with staff still waiting for seats out of the UAE should work with local agents to secure an in-country status change as an insurance policy.
Travellers scrambling for last-minute solutions can turn to VisaHQ for streamlined assistance. The firm’s dedicated UAE portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/) enables users to lodge tourist-visa applications, arrange in-country status changes and monitor approvals in real time—services that are proving invaluable as ICP portals slow and fines loom.
That grace period is now in its final hours: community advisers on 29 March circulated an ICP notice reminding the public that the waiver will be switched off at 23:59 on Tuesday, 31 March 2026. In practice, anyone whose visit, tourist or cancelled residence visa expired after 28 February must either depart the Emirates or complete an in-country “visa run”/status change before the deadline. Once the system reactivates, standard fines of AED 50 per day will automatically accrue from 1 April, and immigration officers at exit points will recover the balance in full before allowing boarding. Airlines have been told to deny uplift to passengers who cannot show that their status has been cleared. Travel-management companies say the waiver has saved corporate travellers tens of thousands of dirhams in potential penalties during a month when outbound capacity was unpredictable and re-routing via Saudi or Oman often added 10-12 hours to journeys. Several large employers have chartered buses to the Hatta and Khatm Al-Shaklah land borders so that contractors can stamp out and back in on the same day – an option that will disappear if current cross-border restrictions tighten further. HR teams are advising foreign assignees who intend to remain in the UAE to file for a new residency or at least a 30-day tourist visa before 31 March to avoid being locked out of on-line services such as Emirates ID renewal and driving-licence conversion. The ICP portal and smart-app have been intermittently overloaded since the reminder was issued, so early action is recommended. For mobility managers the key take-away is clear: after 31 March overstayers will once again face both fines and, potentially, immigration bans that could complicate future assignments. Companies with staff still waiting for seats out of the UAE should work with local agents to secure an in-country status change as an insurance policy.
