India-UAE agree on liberalized visa regime under newly inked FTA

India and the UAE agreed on a liberalized visa regime for Indians, under the India-UAE comprehensive trade pact inked last week.

In an interview with Mint, Commerce Secretary B.V.R Subrahmanyam said that this includes a three-year visa for intra-corporate transferees, and a 90-day visa for business visitors and contractual service suppliers.

Under the FTA, business visitors will get a 90-day visa, while contractual service suppliers can get 90-day visas that are extendable. Intra-corporate transferees will be able to get three-year visas.


The UAE-India CEPA is India's first bilateral trade agreement in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.




The CEPA will eventually cut all tariffs on each other's goods and aims to increase annual trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years.

The CEPA covers trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, technical barriers to trade, dispute settlement, telecom, customs procedures and pharmaceutical.

The pact is likely to benefit about $26 billion worth of Indian products that are currently subjected to 5% import duty by the UAE.

The virtual signing ceremony marks the first trade deal sealed by the Gulf state since it began pursuing such pacts last September in a bid to strengthen its status as a business hub.