Let me try a genuine help for all. You can bring any of your relatives provided their surnames match with yours. Also for Family Visit Visa for Relatives less than 60 Years its pretty easy. The trouble comes with Single females travelling which are less than 30 years old. If she is not immediate family like sister or daughter getting a Visa is NOT easy but its possible if your salary is high enough and the Senior Office Sitting on the first Level at Madinah Khalifa is convinced of your bonafide intentions ( I am not implying that anyone of you are not bona-fide).
For relatives over the age of 60 again its a matter of the Senior Officer who will decide it on case to case basis after convincing himself. For relatives over 60 be ready to convince him that you want them here for short duration and for a specific reason (Apparently the Govt. had an experience of lots of old expats (As told to me mainly Arabs)) who had their old age relatives with them and this created a strain on the already stretched Health Services (All of this could be non-sense, since the source inside who told me was not high enough) . The fact exists that there is a clear directive of the home ministry not to entertain too many visas of people over 60 Years (and that was told by the big boss at Madina Khalifa).
Its not about Westerners or Easterners at all. Everyone who wants a family visit visa has to go through the same process. Visa on arrival is a facility which is only available to westerners but its a hassle since you need to be out of the country every 15 days for renewal and as per the latest directives you need to show a reservation in the hotel or show credit cards with $2000 credit in it.
Let me try a genuine help for all. You can bring any of your relatives provided their surnames match with yours. Also for Family Visit Visa for Relatives less than 60 Years its pretty easy. The trouble comes with Single females travelling which are less than 30 years old. If she is not immediate family like sister or daughter getting a Visa is NOT easy but its possible if your salary is high enough and the Senior Office Sitting on the first Level at Madinah Khalifa is convinced of your bonafide intentions ( I am not implying that anyone of you are not bona-fide).
For relatives over the age of 60 again its a matter of the Senior Officer who will decide it on case to case basis after convincing himself. For relatives over 60 be ready to convince him that you want them here for short duration and for a specific reason (Apparently the Govt. had an experience of lots of old expats (As told to me mainly Arabs)) who had their old age relatives with them and this created a strain on the already stretched Health Services (All of this could be non-sense, since the source inside who told me was not high enough) . The fact exists that there is a clear directive of the home ministry not to entertain too many visas of people over 60 Years (and that was told by the big boss at Madina Khalifa).
Its not about Westerners or Easterners at all. Everyone who wants a family visit visa has to go through the same process. Visa on arrival is a facility which is only available to westerners but its a hassle since you need to be out of the country every 15 days for renewal and as per the latest directives you need to show a reservation in the hotel or show credit cards with $2000 credit in it.
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