UAE to open Asia’s biggest visa centre in Karachi: envoy

E-Paper | May 01, 2026

KARACHI: Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hamad Obaid Alzaabi said on Friday his country would be opening a visa centre in Karachi in September which would be the biggest such facility in Asia.

During his visit to the office of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the UAE ambassador said another facility centre would start functioning in Islamabad in the first week of October, offering all facilities in Pakistan.

“Everything will be here, including medical insurance, check-ups and contracts etc, to facilitate visa issuance from the visa centre in Karachi which will be the biggest visa centre of Asia while the entire team for this Visa Centre at Khayaban-i-Shamsheer in Karachi will come from the UAE,” said a statement issued by the KCCI after the visit of Mr Alzaabi, who was accompanied by UAE Deputy Consul General Bakheet Ateeq Alremeithi.

The UAE officials attended a meeting at the KCCI office in which chairman of Businessmen Group and former president of KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, KCCI president Junaid Esmail Makda, senior vice president Khurram Shahzad, vice president Asif Sheikh Javaid and managing committee members were present.

While expressing gratitude to KCCI members for their warm hospitality on his visit, the statement said, the UAE ambassador said that he had visited many areas of Pakistan, including Faisalabad, Sialkot, Lahore, Peshawar, South Waziristan and Quetta, but Karachi was one of the most important cities of the country where social life, atmosphere, culture and people were very different as compared to other areas, including Islamabad.

“We are trying to find new areas of cooperation where we could work together and also examining the challenging areas so that these could be addressed by the authorities in the UAE. Insha Allah, we will put our hands together to move forward in future,” the statement quoted the UAE ambassador as saying.

He further said that the UAE was now offering Silver Investment Visa for five years and Golden Investment Visa for 10 years which were being issued under a specific criterion and depend on the size of a company and also the amount being invested.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2019

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Salute Pakistan

Jul 20, 2019 08:21am

I hope the worst rulers of the Sindh would think about regaining the lost glory of Karachi.

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saksci

Jul 20, 2019 08:41am

Destruction of Karachi was started by the PPP with it's might leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who used poor people to destroy industries of Karachi with nationalization. Since most of the industrialist were Muhajirs which he hated them, now Murad Ali Shah will help to move remaining businesses from Karachi to Dubai. Eventually Karachi will look like another village of Sindh where PPP leaders came from.

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AR Khan

Jul 20, 2019 09:29am

Big visa centre with big processing fees...... ??

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Faseeh Ali Khan

Jul 20, 2019 09:37am

Visas for who? Who cares. UAE economy has started to crash and UAE is loosing international business and jobs.

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Singh.ra

Jul 20, 2019 09:46am

Is it not visa free for you from brother Islamic countries?

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Ahmad

Jul 20, 2019 10:29am

Must be an excellent business case paying for all the tests before being rejected

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Javed

Jul 20, 2019 10:39am

Now Shariffs are gone , Zaradri is caught who will buy Silver Investment Visa f and Golden Investment Visa? If anyone has this kind visa they need to be investigated.

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Taimoor

Jul 20, 2019 10:46am

Big trade deals are needed which benefit Pakistan, not big UAE ambassador’s office (visa process) that does nothing to expand our economy.

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Prateik

Jul 20, 2019 10:51am

UAE is looking for rich expats and many here don't fulfill the criteria.

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observer

Jul 20, 2019 11:12am

until 1930's karachi's literacy rate was 90%, and word muhajir;s didnt exist then , it was city of wealthy merchant's , Karachi's destruction is result of post partition influx of immigrants from all over country . so blaming any sec of population will not help restore its glory .

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SkyHawk

Jul 20, 2019 11:15am

Good news.

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Jawad

Jul 20, 2019 11:20am

Kick PPP oitbof power in sindh and bring PTI.

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Zak

Jul 20, 2019 11:21am

'the UAE ambassador said that he had visited many areas of Pakistan, including Faisalabad, Sialkot, Lahore, Peshawar, South Waziristan and Quetta, but Karachi was one of the most important cities of the country where social life, atmosphere, culture and people were very different as compared to other areas, including Islamabad.' How true. Beautiful Karachi.

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Zak

Jul 20, 2019 11:24am

UAE like Saudi realized the future potential of Pakistan with CPEC, TAPC, IPC etc. That's why all these close brother countries are positioning right from the outset. Largest visa Centre in Asia. Speaks volumes.

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WayToGo

Jul 20, 2019 11:29am

No jobs in uae why big centre then...

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WayToGo

Jul 20, 2019 11:29am

@Salute Pakistan, Clean your mind set all be good...

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WayToGo

Jul 20, 2019 11:30am

@saksci, Why dont you help making it then bragging only..

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Naveen

Jul 20, 2019 11:50am

While the entire team for this centre will come from UAE Wow!

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ARIF UR RAHMAN

Jul 20, 2019 12:14pm

Will there an expensive shuttle service as well like the one in Diplomatic enclave? Do we have any Pakistani golden visa or silver visas? Seems they will suck the money out of Pakistan without any benefit to Pakistan.

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Mirza I

Jul 20, 2019 01:24pm

Need to be very careful with UAE. UAE is very close to Indians now and giving access to UAE is just like giving access to Indians. As such there is no need to provide them big facilities in Pakistan specially Karachi.

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Kapil

Jul 20, 2019 01:31pm

Good news indeed, in UAE much scarcity of labourers under indian managers.

Recommend 0

Jul 20, 2019 02:04pm

@Zak, Pakistan needs big Visa center as for others they have given Visa free entry like they did recently for India(they allowed Indians to get 1 year Visa on entry)

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Asjadfareed

Jul 20, 2019 02:11pm

Every country has visa centres in Karachi.

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Tamilselvan

Jul 20, 2019 02:38pm

This for sure will prevent visa frauds such as forging of medical records, drug addicts visit, age and financial verification and background checks etc. as they don’t trust documents such as finger print and passport documents submitted by candidates

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zeeshandxb

Jul 20, 2019 03:20pm

So basically our government is clear on brain draining the skillful to UAE. They have only one plan. Send the people abroad and get remittances. What can i say.

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harish nagar

Jul 20, 2019 03:55pm

labour is very cheaper in pakistan

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Zak

Jul 20, 2019 03:57pm

@Salute Pakistan, under PPP, no chance. They only look at it as a cash cow, to milk it.

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Aman

Jul 20, 2019 04:50pm

Thank you UAE, we love you.

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Aman

Jul 20, 2019 04:51pm

@AR Khan, stay positive my friend!

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Vasu

Jul 20, 2019 05:13pm

What is this for? People from all over Asia will come here to get their UAE visa?

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UncleFunky

Jul 20, 2019 06:14pm

UAE needs a lot of laborers in the coming years.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad

Jul 20, 2019 06:15pm

Great move by the brotherly country of UAE to open in Karachi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, its biggest visa center in Continent Asia. Well done and keep it up.

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saksci

Jul 20, 2019 06:43pm

@observer, Yes it was the colony of the British Empire, 90% were white enjoying there live; all locals were living in there villages without education and electricity or clean running water?

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Junaid Imran Mahmood

Jul 20, 2019 07:08pm

@Singh.ra, Visa free travel to PK to Kartarpur Sahib for all Sikhs come and visit PK.

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IMRAN QURAISHI

Jul 20, 2019 07:11pm

on the other hand Prime minister Imran Khan is coming to America to ask the American president to revive the economic activity in Pakistan and try to attract American investors to invest heavily in Pakistan. A very wishful thinking by all means.

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Jamil Soomro, New York City

Jul 20, 2019 07:19pm

@observer, Excellent comment.

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Naresh

Jul 20, 2019 07:40pm

@WayToGo, so that UAE will make money from tests and other fees on top of VISA fee.

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IMRAN QURAISHI

Jul 21, 2019 02:48am

. As soon as this visa centre opens up Pakistan's economy would go down the drain. No doubt about that.

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Haq

Jul 21, 2019 01:58pm

Biggest visa centre ! Indian expats in the ME are roughly 3 to 5 times than Pakistanis. So is UAE going to fire Indians and hire Pakistanis instead ? If not then, will they create new jobs (despite the fact that their economy is already in tatters due to some obvious reasons) ? If not then will they hire Pakistanis for some other purposes ?

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Mahmood

Jul 21, 2019 02:00pm

Interesting! "while the entire team for this Visa Centre at Khayaban-i-Shamsheer in Karachi will come from the UAE,” Not entirely true! Visa Processors may be Emiratees, but the security guards, cooks, drivers, cleaners and maintenance people will all be locals from Karachi!

Recommend 0

Jul 21, 2019 06:26pm

@Zak, Largest because they cannot trust any of the local facilities to off-load or contract the work and want to do it themselves. Visa office's job is to grant visa and NOT do medical checkup or provide insurance.

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Mini

Jul 21, 2019 08:36pm

We hear things like, which is the biggest this or that in the world, but from Pakistan, which is GOING to be this or that.

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