India’s Embassy in Abu Dhabi announced on 29 May 2026 that it has awarded Al Hind Tours & Travels a three-year contract to run 16 consular service centres throughout the Emirates. The facilities will replace BLS International outlets and will go live on 1 July 2026, handling passports, visas, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards, attestations and police-clearance certificates for the UAE’s 4.3 million-strong Indian community. The expansion—six branches in Abu Dhabi, two in Dubai (Bur Dubai and Dubai Investment Park) and additional sites in Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain and Khor Fakkan—will more than double counter capacity and reduce average appointment wait-times from three weeks to five working days, according to embassy estimates. Fees have been capped at AED 19 per transaction, under-cutting current rates by almost 40 per cent.
![India to open 16 new passport-and-visa centres across the UAE]()
For applicants who prefer an end-to-end digital concierge instead of visiting a physical counter, VisaHQ offers an online platform that allows Indian nationals in the UAE to initiate passport renewals, OCI applications and visa requests from any device, with courier pick-up and delivery options. The service, detailed at https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/ can integrate with corporate mobility portals and provides real-time tracking that complements the embassy’s new dashboard.
For multinational employers, the rollout promises faster turnaround on passport renewals and Indian employment-visa stamping, two frequent pinch-points in assignment planning. Mobility managers should update relocation timelines, particularly for July start-dates, and brief employees that biometric enrolment will shift to the new centres. Al Hind says it is recruiting 350 staff and upgrading IT links to India’s Passport Seva system to support same-day data uploads—a step expected to cut courier costs and minimise document-loss risk. The shake-up follows a Ministry of External Affairs decision to bar BLS International from future tenders for two years after service-quality complaints and litigation. Indian authorities have emphasised that customer-service metrics—including queue-length, call-centre response time and refund processing—will be monitored in real time via a new dashboard shared with the embassy. Expatriate groups welcomed the move, arguing that decentralised centres in residential hubs such as Al Reem Island and Al Majaz spare applicants long drives and weekday leave. Travel agencies also expect a surge in last-minute summer holiday bookings once passport backlogs clear.
For applicants who prefer an end-to-end digital concierge instead of visiting a physical counter, VisaHQ offers an online platform that allows Indian nationals in the UAE to initiate passport renewals, OCI applications and visa requests from any device, with courier pick-up and delivery options. The service, detailed at https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/ can integrate with corporate mobility portals and provides real-time tracking that complements the embassy’s new dashboard.
For multinational employers, the rollout promises faster turnaround on passport renewals and Indian employment-visa stamping, two frequent pinch-points in assignment planning. Mobility managers should update relocation timelines, particularly for July start-dates, and brief employees that biometric enrolment will shift to the new centres. Al Hind says it is recruiting 350 staff and upgrading IT links to India’s Passport Seva system to support same-day data uploads—a step expected to cut courier costs and minimise document-loss risk. The shake-up follows a Ministry of External Affairs decision to bar BLS International from future tenders for two years after service-quality complaints and litigation. Indian authorities have emphasised that customer-service metrics—including queue-length, call-centre response time and refund processing—will be monitored in real time via a new dashboard shared with the embassy. Expatriate groups welcomed the move, arguing that decentralised centres in residential hubs such as Al Reem Island and Al Majaz spare applicants long drives and weekday leave. Travel agencies also expect a surge in last-minute summer holiday bookings once passport backlogs clear.
