The centres are open from 8am to 6pm, with appointment slots released twice daily through the new online booking portal.

70 counters at flagship centre

The Bur Dubai facility, described as the largest Indian consular application centre in the UAE, has 70 service counters and can process around 600 applicants a day.

“The second-largest centre is located in Dubai Investment Park,” Haris added.

Across all 16 centres, the network has the capacity to process up to 8,000 applications a day once operations are fully scaled up.

To support the rollout, around 350 employees have been recruited to operate the centres.

Dh19 service fee

Applicants will pay a flat service charge of Dh19, in addition to the Government of India application fee.

According to Haris, the Dh19 fee includes a range of services that applicants previously paid for separately, including:

Photograph service
Photocopying
Printing
Form-filling assistance
Other ancillary application support services

“There are no premium services,” Haris said, adding that all applicants receive the same level of service in line with Government of India policy.

Application process in 30 minutes

Officials said the application submission process has been designed to be completed in around 30 minutes, provided applicants arrive with the required documents.

Indian Consulate officials said appointment slots are released twice daily at 9am and 9pm through the new online booking system.

All services under one roof

The new centres handle:

Passport applications
Visa services
Attestation
OCI-related services
Other Indian consular services

Applicants no longer need to visit the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate General of India in Dubai to submit these applications.

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