UAE amends travel guidelines to allow individuals with one name on their passport to enter the country

Earlier this week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amended its travel guidelines to require that passport holders register their full names on entry. As announced on Thursday by the Consulate General of India, Dubai, passengers with one name will be permitted access if their father or family’s name appears on the second page of their passport.

Additionally, the amended rule states that passengers with only one name are eligible for a visa on arrival (VoA) if their father’s name or family name appears on the second page of the passport.

The application for a visa issued with more than one name is accepted if the passenger’s father’s/family name appears on the second page of the visa. According to a tweet from the Consulate General of India, Dubai, a passenger is eligible for VOA if the father’s or family’s name on the second page is accepted.

Passengers with visiting visas or visas on arrival were required to clearly state both their first and last names on their passports, as was the rule in effect on Monday (November 21), which has now been amended. The country had stated that passport holders with single-word names in either the ‘given name’ or ‘surname’ column of their passports would be considered ‘inadmissible passengers’ (INAD) and would not be allowed entry. In contrast, UAE residents and individuals with employment visas were not subject to the rule.

There had been panic among many passengers as a result of this rule. According to media reports, some travellers with only one name on their passports were prohibited from entering the UAE.

According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) part 3.4, which stipulates that the ‘name of the holder is generally represented in two parts; the primary identifier and the secondary identifier’, the UAE government has relied on the convention of writing the name to implement the new rule.