UAE Visit Visa Extension (No Exit)
A visit visa extension lets you stay longer in the UAE without leaving the country — but only some permits can be extended, and Dubai and the rest of the UAE use different fees and different day caps. Check your visa type and your issuing emirate before you apply, because an extension filed on the wrong route will not help you.
Dubai or the rest of the UAE? Start here
ICP handles extensions outside Dubai; GDRFA handles Dubai. The fee lines below are not interchangeable: Dubai’s 600-based lines and ICP’s 100-plus-500 lines belong to different routes.
Extend through ICP (outside Dubai)
ICP’s “Visa Extension” service runs in five steps: submit, review or adjust the retrieved data, attach documents if retrieval fails, pay, and receive an electronic notification. Completion takes 2 days. A visitor needs a passport and a personal photo, plus the same documents as at issuance, depending on visa type.
Fees are listed separately on the service page:
- Application for all extension types: 100 AED
- Extend entry: 500 AED
- Extension before arriving: 50 AED
- 14-day visa (certain nationalities abroad): 250 AED
- Multiple-entry for Golden/Blue procedures (6 months): 1,000 AED
Extension terms: an entry permit’s validity may be extended once for an equivalent period before arriving; a relative or friend visit visa may be extended once or multiple times, with a total of no more than 180 days; a job or business exploration permit likewise totals no more than 180 days; a 6-month Golden/Blue multiple-entry permit may be extended once for an equivalent period. Border-area, truck-driver, tourist-ship and pleasure-boat permits are non-extendable. A single ICP “total stay cap” for tourist visas was not found as a complete statement on the pages checked, so this guide states none.
Extend a tourist visa in Dubai (GDRFA)
Dubai’s “Extending a tourist visa (single/multiple)” service needs a passport copy. Steps: log in with UAE Pass or a username, search, fill in the details, and pay. Fees: extension 600 AED plus 5% VAT; if you are inside the country, add Knowledge 10 AED, Innovation 10 AED and an inside-country fee of 500 AED. No summed total is stated — the total may vary. Completion takes 48 hours. Only accredited tourism offices in the emirate can issue this visa type.
On duration, the GDRFA page states the visa is extendable one or more times, “not exceeding (120) days in total” — but the page does not clarify whether that 120 days is the total extension period or the total stay. That ambiguity is flagged here, not resolved: do not read it as a confirmed total-stay cap.
Extend a friend or relative’s visit visa in Dubai (GDRFA)
The same fee structure, steps and 48-hour completion apply. The stated duration term is extendable one or more times, with a total of no more than 180 days — with the same ambiguity as above: the page does not clarify whether the cap counts extension time or total stay.
What the official pages do not confirm
No complete ICP total-stay cap for tourist visas was found. The Dubai 120-day wording is ambiguous on its face. And no summed Dubai total is stated — the 600, VAT and inside-country lines are separate charges. Where this guide gives no total, the official page gives none either.
Related guides
- Visa Status Check UAE
- UAE Visa Rules
- Emirates ID Status
- UAE Overstay Fine Check
- UAE Pass Registration
- UAE Guides
Sources (official only)
- ICP, Visa Extension: https://icp.gov.ae/en/services-details/?serviceid=64afe3c1035448005bd52e62
- GDRFA Dubai, Extending a tourist visa (single/multiple): https://www.gdrfad.gov.ae/en/services/1ce744f0-b801-11ed-5210-4cd98f768936
- GDRFA Dubai, Extend friend or relative’s visit visa: https://www.gdrfad.gov.ae/en/services/1ce79316-b801-11ed-5210-4cd98f768936
