Watch: What is your status if your residency visa in Dubai was cancelled after July 12?
In the first of a series of exclusive interviews, GDRFA Dubai provides key answers
Dubai: Visa cancellations in Dubai are back to pre-pandemic times. If a resident cancels his residency after July 12, he or she will have the one-month grace period from the date of cancellation to either leave the country or change the status to avoid fines.
Major Salim Bin Ali, Director of the Amer Department for the Happiness of Customers at the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (DGRFA) in Dubai, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview: “Cancellation is back to normal, like before the outbreak of the pandemic. If a resident cancels his or her residency visa after July 12, then he or she will have the one-month grace period from the date of cancelation to either leave the country or change the status to avoid fines.”
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However, he said people who have cancelled their residency and couldn’t fly back home due to a lockdown in some countries can always seek help by approaching the humanitarian committee at the GDRFA-Dubai.
“UAE always supports people in these exceptional times since the outbreak of the pandemic. If the person couldn’t fly home due to lockdown in the airspace of his country, then he or she can come to the humanitarian committee and they will look into the case and help by reducing the amount of fines,” Maj Bin Ali said.
“You need to understand that you are in UAE. For sure, we have a solution for any case. In line with the directions of Major General Mohammad Al Marri, General Director of GDRFA-Dubai, we look into individual cases and ask people to explain their situation, so we can help them through our humanitarian committee.”
He said Dubai residents who cancelled their visa between March 1 and July 12 and have not exited have already overstayed as the deadline to leave or change their status ended on August 11 this year.
“People who cancelled their residency between March 1 to July 12 had until August 11 this year to either leave the country or change their status without fines,” Maj Bin Ali said.
He said that people who cancelled their residency after July 12 this year have the normal 30-day grace period.
GDRFA-Dubai has urged people who have cancelled their residency to phone the Amer call centre at 8005111 for any enquiry or send an email at amer@dnrd.ae