The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has introduced new visa restrictions for Nigerian travellers and also banned transit visa applications. According to Daily Trust, the latest directives were communicated to travel agents on Tuesday.
The new directives stated that any Nigerian aged between 18 and 45 is also restricted from getting tourist visa unless accompanied. Also, the directives from Dubai immigration communicated to the travel agents stated that there would be no more Transit Visa applications.
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 is coming just about a year after the UAE and Nigeria resolved a two-year visa ban placed on Nigerians by the UAE authorities.
But the lifting of the ban still came with several stringent conditions which restricted the number of Nigerians traveling to the UAE.
However, travel agents said that it is about getting worse in the coming days following the review of the visa process for Nigerians.