Abu Dhabi: A recent news by Gulf News on February 3 confirmed that all passport and attestation centers for Indian nationals in the UAE are intended to be changed in 2025. This decision is taken with the intent to implement the plan to open a single or unified service with 14 branches in diverse locations across the country, which will not be launched before the second quarter of this year.
A renewed tender has been introduced by the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi that is inviting bids from service providers to run the Indian Consular Application Centre, a unified facility that will merge and provide all the embassy services. To assist more than four million Indian nationals living in the Emirates with embassy services and foreigners seeking Indian visa services, the Indian Embassy has proposed 14 branches in diverse locations across the Emirates under the unified facility, ICAC.
Presently, the services provided by the Indian embassy and consulates are offered by two separate service providers in the UAE. The passport and visa application processes are handled by BLS International, while the document attestation services are handled by IVS Global. However, the Indian Embassy and Consulate in the city of skyscrapers provide certain services.
Faster and Transparent Passport & Attestation Services for Indian Expats
With high requirements to streamline passport and attestation services to reduce waiting times, enhance accessibility, and improve efficiency, the new unified facility is suggested, as it can allow access to comprehensive, faster, and transparent services in prime locations.
A similar tender was issued by the Indian embassy two years ago, with plans to launch the ICAC project last year in January. However, technical reasons abolished that tender, and a new tender has been announced now.
The recently announced tender comprises revised requirements for bidders, including a dashboard to monitor applications in real-time, a new website for scheduling appointments, stricter deadlines for scheduling appointments, and finishing the application submission process. And any service provider failing to satisfy these requirements will be fined.
As per the Request for Proposal, a service provider (SP) is bound to make appointment times available for the application submission within five working days after the appointment is made. Additionally, each application processed at the ICAC must be finished in not more than 30 minutes by SP.
During the three years from Jan-2022 to Dec-2024, the Indian missions in the UAE handled approximately 1,584.175 services/transactions (nearly equal to 1760 transactions/services in a working day, assuming 300 working days annually).
Locations Proposed for New Passport & Attestation Centers in UAE
As per the latest tender announced by the Indian Embassy, a single SP will handle the process of the application for all the embassy or foreign services at the following proposed locations across the Emirates:
Abu Dhabi: Al Khalidiya, Musaffah, and Al Reem.
Dubai: JLT/Marina, Al Ain, Bur Dubai, and Ghayathi.
Sharjah: Al Majaz.
Ajman: Al Jurf.
Ras Al Khaimah: Kalba and Nakheel/Khujan.
Khor Fakkan: Corniche/Subara.
Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain.
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