Dubai visa: how to spot scams and fake websites

Private agency or authority?

Private visa agencies are allowed. They prepare applications, check the documents and submit them to the authority for a fee of their own. Dubaivisum.de is also such a private agency and not an authority.

It becomes dubious when a provider pretends to be the authority, keeps quiet about its fees or promises approval. A trustworthy provider states clearly that it is not an authority and tells you the final price including the government fee before you pay.

The most important warning signs

There is no complete legal notice with company name, address and responsible person, only a contact form or a mobile number.

You are asked to pay by gift card, cryptocurrency, cash transfer service or into a private person's account. Trustworthy providers accept card payments through a well-known payment provider or bank transfers to a business account.

The provider guarantees approval. Only the UAE immigration authority decides on every visa, and nobody can promise the outcome.

The price is not fixed before payment, or new fees are added after payment. This often comes with time pressure: you are told to pay immediately or the application will expire.

How to check a provider in five minutes

Open the legal notice and check the company name, address and VAT ID. Look up the address on a map: is there really an office there?

Call the phone number given during office hours. With a trustworthy provider, a real person answers who can respond to your questions about price, processing time and documents.

Before you pay, check whether the final price including the government fee is stated and how you are supposed to pay. Also read what happens to your money if the application is refused. A trustworthy provider tells you this openly.

Verify the visa with the authority yourself

Every genuine UAE eVisa is stored in the authority's system. With the visa number, your passport number and your nationality you can check it yourself on the authority's own website, no matter who you applied through.

For visas from Dubai this is the website of the Dubai immigration authority GDRFA, for the other emirates the website of the federal authority ICP. You will find step-by-step instructions on our “Check your visa” page.

If you have been scammed

Act quickly. If you paid by card, ask your bank for a chargeback. If you paid by bank transfer, ask your bank to recall the payment immediately.

Save the web address, screenshots, emails, chat histories and payment receipts and report it to the police. In Germany you can also do this online through your federal state's online police station (Onlinewache). If you sent passport copies, mention this in your report. You can get advice from the consumer advice centres (Verbraucherzentralen) in Germany, the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer) in Austria and the Swiss consumer protection foundation (Stiftung für Konsumentenschutz) in Switzerland.

Check any visa you have received with the authority. If it is not valid, you need a genuine visa in good time before departure.

How we work at Dubaivisum.de

Our office is at Jöllenbecker Str. 29 in Bielefeld, and we have a second office in Dubai. You will find our address and VAT ID in the legal notice, and you can reach us in person on +49 521 12 11 05, Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 18:00 (German time).

You see the final price including the government fee before you pay, with our agency fee shown as a separate amount next to the visa price. You pay by card through our payment provider Stripe. We do not promise approval: if the authority refuses an application, neither the government fee nor our agency fee nor the Express or Emergency surcharge is refunded. We tell you this before you pay, too.