India-Dubai Travel; no vaccination needed?

Dubai residence visa holders can travel from India to Dubai as long as they have an approval from the GDRFA (General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs). The traveler, in addition to the GDRFA approval, must have negative Covid test results. These seems to be the basic requirements that selected Airline would be verifying at the check-in counters, as per reports.

As per the Emirates Support’s twitter handle, Dubai residence visa holders can travel as long as they present a printout of GDRFA approval, a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of departure and a negative Rapid PCR test taken 04 hours prior to travel.

As per a report, quoting a top Air India official in the UAE, “as per instructions issued by civil aviation authorities in Dubai, for passengers to disembark in Dubai, only three documents are required. They need to have a GDRFA approval, negative RT-PCR test result taken 48 hours before departure, and a rapid PCR test result from the airport.”

Passengers can apply for GDRFA approval using the link: https://smart.gdrfad.gov.ae/Smart_OTCServicesPortal/ReturnPermitService.aspx

Last week, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) announced UAE residents who have taken full vaccination (2 doses) in the UAE provided that 14 days have elapsed since the second dose can return to Dubai. The vaccination certificate should have been issued by the UAE health authorities; and the Vaccination certificate should be available in the UAE government health smart apps.

Healthcare professionals, teachers, students, Expo 2020 personnel, medical exemptions, and humanitarian cases are among those who can travel regardless of their vaccination status.