Pakistan restores passport services in UAE after global outage

Dubai: Passport services at Pakistani embassies and consulates have been restored in the UAE and many other countries in the world on Tuesday, May 5, bringing relief to thousands of overseas Pakistanis affected by an eight-day disruption.

The restoration follows a system-wide technical fault at the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports (DGI & P) headquarters in Islamabad, which had forced the suspension of passport services at missions abroad since April 29.

Pakistan’s embassy and consulate in the UAE confirmed the resumption of services in official notifications issued on Tuesday.

“Passport services at the Consulate General of Pakistan and the Embassy have been fully restored. All applicants may visit the consulate and the embassy for passport processing during the specified times,” the Consulate said.

Outage impact

The outage had impacted Pakistani missions across the Gulf and beyond, including in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, leaving thousands unable to renew or apply for passports.

In the UAE alone, missions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi typically handle between 800 and 1,000 applications daily, and the suspension caused significant inconvenience for residents dealing with visa renewals, travel plans and employment requirements.

The disruption was attributed to a technical glitch at the DGI & P headquarters, where officials and IT experts had been working to resolve the issue since late April.

The resumption of services is expected to ease pressure on missions, particularly for urgent cases such as expiring passports and applications for newborn children, which require in-person processing.

Authorities have advised applicants to visit embassies and consulates during designated timings and expect a surge in demand in the coming days as backlogs are cleared.