Tourists will apply for Dubai visas on Visit Dubai from November
Dubai is adding single and multiple-entry tourist visa applications to the Visit Dubai website this month and starting Dubai Access Club, an invitation-only programme for repeat visitors.
Visitors to Dubai will soon be able to apply for a tourist visa on the same website they use to plan their trip. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, announced on 1 November that Visit Dubai, the city's official tourism website, will take applications for single-entry and multiple-entry tourist visas, and that a new membership programme for repeat visitors, Dubai Access Club, will start alongside it. Both are due to be in place during November.
The visa change does not alter who decides. The General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA Dubai) will still assess every application and issue the visa, as it does today. What changes is the front door: instead of going through an airline, a hotel, a travel agent or a separate government portal, a visitor will be able to apply where they are already reading about the city. More visa categories are planned later, and the authorities say further details of the service will be announced in due course.
Dubai Access Club is described as an invitation-only membership for people who come back to the city again and again. Invited members will get offers, experiences, services and benefits meant to bring them back and connect them more closely with Dubai. The announcement does not say how members will be chosen, what the benefits are, or whether there is a fee, so the detail is still to come.
Both initiatives were built by GDRFA Dubai, the Department of Economy and Tourism and Digital Dubai under the Shared Digital Channels Initiative, which was approved in February 2025 to bring government and private services together on a small number of shared platforms. They are part of the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33, which aims to put Dubai among the world's top three cities for business and leisure travel. Gulf News, Emirates 24|7 and the Emirates News Agency all reported the announcement.
For residents, the practical change is for friends and family planning a visit. From later this month they should be able to check the Visit Dubai website for the visa application, rather than asking an airline or agent first. Fees, processing times and the documents needed have not been published yet, so until they are, keep using the usual routes, and check visitdubai.com and the GDRFA Dubai website before anyone books flights around a visa.