New Delhi: The United Arab Emirates will now no longer accept immigration of passengers with single names, stated an advisory issued by Air India and Air India Express based on new guidelines issued by the Emirate, reported the Times of India. The new rule has come into immediate effect.
The circular issued by Air India and AI Express dated November 21 said: “As per National Advance Information Center, UAE, the following guideline has been implemented with immediate effect for travel to UAE. Any passport holder with a single name (word) either in surname or given name will not be accepted by UAE immigration and the passenger will be considered as INAD.”
In terms of aviation, INAD stands for inadmissible passenger implying people who are not allowed to enter the country that they want to travel. The airline has to take back INAD passengers to their country.
The circular by Air India illustrated examples of INAD passengers: A person with only ‘Praveen’ as his given name and no surname or ‘Praveen’ as his surname and no given name will be an INAD passenger. “Such a passenger will not be issued a visa and in case the visa was issued previously then he will be INAD by immigration,” the circular stated.
Meanwhile, giving examples of passengers who will not be considered INAD the circular said that if a person has Praveen Kumar as their given name and no surname or Praveen Kumar as surname but no given name. A person with given name Praveen and surname Kumar in their passport will also not be considered as INAD and will be accepted for immigration in the Emirate.
The new rule “applies only to passengers with visit visa/visa on arrival/employment and temporary visas and is not applicable to existing UAE Resident card holders,” the circular added.