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We are a group of four Indian citizens, travelling from Prague (Czech Republic) to Trivandrum via Dubai International Airport. Our flight from Prague to Dubai is with Czech Airlines and then we change to Gulf Air to travel to Trivandrum. Czech airlines flight arrives at Terminal 2 and Gulf Air departs from Terminal 1.

Since there is no arrangement between these two carriers for our luggage, do we need to take a transit visa to cross the gate, get our luggage and go to Terminal 1?

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  • 1
    Please confirm that you have Czech citizenship.
    – mkennedy
    Aug 28, 2016 at 17:20
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    Nope. We are from India.
    – iceman
    Aug 28, 2016 at 17:54
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    If you are flying Gulf Air, you will need to change planes once more in Manama, Bahrain as well. This should not require a visa if you're flying in and out on Gulf Air though.
    – lambshaanxy
    Aug 29, 2016 at 9:48

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You'll need a transit visa, or a short stay visa. You will have to collect your bags, and then check-in to Gulf Air at Terminal 1*.

You actually have two journeys; one is from Prague to Dubai (last destination Dubai), and the second separate journey is from Dubai to India. So for the purposes of immigration you will need a visa for Dubai.

In fact, if you don't have a visa for Dubai you may be refused boarding at Prague. Check with your airline to see if they can arrange it for you in advance.

* There is actually a way to transit between these two terminals, without requiring a transit visa; but it requires you already hold a boarding card for the next leg of your journey. This facility is provided because flydubai (a LCC flying out of Terminal 2) has some agreements for transfer of passengers with Emirates (which uses Terminal 3). In addition, if you are carrying your onward boarding pass, you can pay the meet and greet services to collect your luggage and check it in for you, thus eliminating the need to get a transit visa.

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  • Thanks Burhan For the info. We are planning to avail Marhaba baggage transfer service at Dubai airport to handle our baggage transfers. In this way we do not have to clear immigration at Dubai. Hence hopefully, we would not be requiring a transit visa. We should be able to get our boarding passes for the second leg of our journey from the transfer desk after deplaning at Dubai.
    – iceman
    Aug 29, 2016 at 16:06
  • I think your biggest challenge will be getting the airline to board you at Prague without having Dubai visas.
    – Burhan Khalid
    Aug 29, 2016 at 16:17
  • We checked with Marhaba services and they said we dont require a transit visa since we have confirmed tickets of the next flight. Cant we show the tickets and may be the booking reference from marhaba services to board from Prague?
    – iceman
    Aug 30, 2016 at 4:18
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I just faced a similar situation. I arrived at Terminal 2 and had to depart from terminal 1. I availed marhaba baggage service. They transferred my baggage so i didn't have to clear immigration and hence didn't need a visa.

I got my baggage without any issues on my last stop.

If possible try to carry all luggage in cabin. In that way you don't need to pay for baggage services by Marhaba and you can use the bus provided by airport to move from one terminal to another.

Also if any of your connecting flights is Emirates then this baggage transfer service is provided for free.

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