- Pakistan rejected claims of a UAE visa ban, saying visas for Pakistanis were still being issued.
- The Foreign Office said the UAE employed 40,000 to 50,000 Pakistanis versus 7,000 to 8,000 repatriations yearly.
- By early August twenty twenty-six, visit visas resumed through registered agencies for ordinary Pakistani passport holders.
Islamabad rejected reports of a UAE visa restriction on Pakistanis on Thursday, September 10, 2026. Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said the numbers pointed in the other direction. He said the UAE was still issuing visas, not shutting them down. The figures were his proof.
Khan told reporters that the flow of jobs and visas remained much larger than the number of people sent back. Over the last five years, he said, the UAE had repatriated about 7,000 to 8,000 Pakistanis on average. In the same period, he said, 40,000 to 50,000 Pakistanis had been employed and had received UAE visas. That gap, he said, showed the complaints did not match the reality.
Khan said:
“Jobs offered by the UAE to Pakistanis are seven times more than the actual number of repatriations,”
“So, on average in the last five years, around 7,000 to 8,000 Pakistanis have been repatriated from the UAE, which is very normal. Conversely, around 40,000 to 50,000 Pakistanis have been employed and have been receiving visas for the UAE.”
The denial was aimed at claims that the UAE had imposed a ban or broad restriction. Khan said delays and extra scrutiny did not amount to a blanket stop. No official ban existed, he said. Short waits were not the same thing as a shutdown.
Pakistani officials have repeated that position before. They have also acknowledged earlier complaints about slower processing and tighter screening. Islamabad and Abu Dhabi both maintained there was no official visa ban on Pakistani nationals. Applicants, meanwhile, had described longer processing times.
Registered travel agencies kept the visa channel open
By early August 2026, UAE visit visas for ordinary Pakistani passport holders had resumed through registered travel agencies. An official at the UAE embassy in Pakistan confirmed the reopening. Travel-industry sources reported the same shift. It was already in place.
That reopening still left the process narrow. Applications moved through registered agents, and screening remained part of the system. The change came more than a month before Khan’s briefing on September 10, 2026. The timing mattered.
