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I am an Indian passport holder, flying in to Dubai International Airport (DXB) on Emirates. Within four hours, I am flying out to Athens via Doha on Qatar Airways, on different tickets. Emirates arrives on Terminal 3 at DXB and Qatar Airways departs from Terminal 1 at DXB.

On the return leg, I am staying over in Dubai for a day to meet friends.

A) What do I need to do about transit visa for the forward leg, since I am changing carriers and terminals? My flight is not on the same ticket/itinerary and I have check-in bags to pick up. Transit Visas are issued only for transit times over 8 hours and must include a hotel stay. Services like that of Marhaba are not confident about baggage transfer.

B) I am stopping for a few days on the return leg, and was planning to get a proper single entry visa for this. What complications can I expect here, since I cannot have more than a single valid visa at a given time.

All pointers and help appreciated. Thank you!

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    Possible duplicate of Do I need a transit visa for a layover via Dubai International Airport?
    – Giorgio
    May 15, 2017 at 13:41
  • The proposed duplicate doesn't address whether it's possible to transit airside between terminals and between airlines, which seems to be the main concern of the first part of the question.
    – Michael Seifert
    May 15, 2017 at 14:19
  • Also, can you clarify why you would "have more than a single valid visa" during your return trip? What would be the other one?
    – Michael Seifert
    May 15, 2017 at 14:21
  • @MichaelSeifert a much earlier dupe explains that airside transit can be done between T3 and T1, as does the DXD site
    – Giorgio
    May 17, 2017 at 22:08
  • @Dorothy, the concern was about transiting airside when carrying checked-in luggage. General practice everywhere is that baggage collection is not airside, and one needs to cross immigration check to access it. This is the case at DXB too. If one does not have any checked-in baggage, then airside transit is trivial.
    – H.Doe
    May 25, 2017 at 8:22

1 Answer 1

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Several years ago, TSE user @BurhanKhalid offered step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish this:

If your luggage is not checked through, then I am afraid you will have to collect it and to do that you'll need a visa as the baggage carousels are after the immigration counters.

The sequence is:

  1. De-plane.
  2. Depending on the terminal, you'll have a long walk (and then go down a few flights of stairs) or a short one, or really no walk at all (if you are at Terminal 2, as the bus will drop you right at the immigration counter).
  3. The bank counter where you pay for the on-arrival visa will be on your right (Terminal 3, 2), or on your left (Terminal 1).
  4. Go through immigration, then turn right to go through the metal detectors where they will scan your carryon luggage (in Terminal 3 its a straight walk).
  5. Collect your baggage.
  6. Go through either the Green Channel or the Red Channel (depending on what you have to declare).
  7. Welcome to Dubai.

I'm afraid you'll need a visa - the good news is a transit visa is available at the counter if you can show a continuing ticket/itinerary.

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  • I believe Berhan Khalid, but this conflicts with Timatic, which says that the transit visa on arrival requires a layover of greater than 8 hours and a "a transit package together with hotel accommodation and airport transfer." This doesn't appear to qualify, so the airline could refuse boarding if they go off Timatic.
    – Zach Lipton
    May 28, 2017 at 6:53
  • @ZachLipton indeed, and DXB offers baggage transfer services to allow TWOV and Emirates customers have the advantage of getting visas through the airline.
    – Giorgio
    May 28, 2017 at 13:39

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