Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Types of visas in UAE
Other entry permit fees unchanged
By Nissar Hoath, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: The new fee structure approved by the Cabinet for visit visas will not affect other types of entry permits, Ministry of Interior sources said yesterday.
Sources said the fees and procedures for other types of visas, such as transit, tourist and entry service permits will remain unchanged.
The Cabinet recently approved the amended fee structure for visit visas, under which a visit visa will be issued for three months for a fee of Dh600.
It can be renewed for an additional fee of Dh1,200 for another three months, resulting in a total stay of six months.
Earlier, a visit visa cost Dh100 for two months and could be renewed for another month at a cost of Dh500. The visitor then had to leave the country after 90 days and return under a new visa.
Now those who want to stay for more than three months can remain for six months at a total visa cost of Dh1,800.
Under the new regulation, the Dh600 must be paid along with the application, and the visa will be issued for three months, regardless of whether the visitor stays for a month or more.
The sources said the new fee structure is likely to be implemented next month after being published in the official gazette.
The new changes come under Cabinet decision No 16 for 2005, which amends some provisions of decision No 6 of 1994 regarding the amendment and introduction of fees levied for transactions processed by the departments of Naturalisation and Residency and Traffic.
A ministry source said the new regulation will affect only visit visas issued by immigration departments before the passenger's arrival.
"This will not affect all other types of entry visas, including those issued to citizens of 33 countries who receive visit visas for 30 days upon their arrival against a fee of Dh100," the source added.
The countries are France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Malta, Spain, Monaco, Vatican, Iceland, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Under the current visa policy, citizens of the UK are granted a free of charge 30-day visit visa upon arrival in the UAE.
It entitles the holder to remain in the country for 60 days and may be renewed once for an additional 30 days for a fee of Dh500.
Types of visas
Visit visa: It must be sponsored by an individual, such as a relative, or by an establishment. The application is submitted by the sponsor with all required documents. Currently it is issued for Dh100 for two months and is renewable for another month for a fee of Dh500.
But under the new fee structure, the visa will be issued for three months for a fee of Dh600. It is renewable for another three months for a fee of Dh1,200.
Tourist Visa: It is available for tourists sponsored by tour operating companies and hotels. It is issued for 30 days for a fee of Dh100 and an additional Dh10 for delivery. This is non-renewable.
Entry Service Permit: This is issued for a non-renewable 14 days for a fee of Dh220 and a delivery charge of Dh10. Commonly known as a transit visa, it is collected by the visitor upon arrival. It is issued to businessmen and tourists sponsored by a company or commercial establishment or a hotel licensed to operate in the UAE.
Transit Visa: It is issued to travellers transiting through UAE airports. It issued for 96 hours and must be sponsored by an airline operating in the UAE. The visitor must have a valid ticket for onward flight. There is no charge for this permit.
Multiple Entry Visa: It is an option for businessmen who are frequent visitors to the UAE and who have a relationship with a reputable company here. This multiple visa is valid for six months from the date of issue and costs Dh1,000. However, each visit must not exceed 30 days. The visitor must enter the UAE on a visit visa and obtain the multiple entry visa while he is here.
Residence Visa: A residence visa is required for those who intend to enter the UAE to live indefinitely with a person who is already a resident. It is issued to the immediate kin of a resident for three years for a fee of Dh300. The residence permit becomes invalid if the resident remains more than six months at a time out of the country.
Parents of residents are issued residence visas after special approval with a renewable validity of one year for a fee of Dh100 for each year. A refundable deposit of Dh5,000 has to be paid for each parent.
Investor Visa: It is issued to an expatriate investor in a limited liability company who holds a minimum stake of Dh70,000 in the share capital. It is issued for three years for a fee of Dh300.
Employment Visa: Employment Visa or Permit is issued by the Immigration Department to a foreign national who wishes to work for a company in the UAE upon the approval of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It allows the holder to enter the UAE once for a period of 30 days and is valid for two months from the date of issue.
When the employee has entered the country on the basis of the employment visa, the sponsoring company will arrange to complete the formalities of stamping his residence.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/NationNF.asp?ArticleID=176670
By Nissar Hoath, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: The new fee structure approved by the Cabinet for visit visas will not affect other types of entry permits, Ministry of Interior sources said yesterday.
Sources said the fees and procedures for other types of visas, such as transit, tourist and entry service permits will remain unchanged.
The Cabinet recently approved the amended fee structure for visit visas, under which a visit visa will be issued for three months for a fee of Dh600.
It can be renewed for an additional fee of Dh1,200 for another three months, resulting in a total stay of six months.
Earlier, a visit visa cost Dh100 for two months and could be renewed for another month at a cost of Dh500. The visitor then had to leave the country after 90 days and return under a new visa.
Now those who want to stay for more than three months can remain for six months at a total visa cost of Dh1,800.
Under the new regulation, the Dh600 must be paid along with the application, and the visa will be issued for three months, regardless of whether the visitor stays for a month or more.
The sources said the new fee structure is likely to be implemented next month after being published in the official gazette.
The new changes come under Cabinet decision No 16 for 2005, which amends some provisions of decision No 6 of 1994 regarding the amendment and introduction of fees levied for transactions processed by the departments of Naturalisation and Residency and Traffic.
A ministry source said the new regulation will affect only visit visas issued by immigration departments before the passenger's arrival.
"This will not affect all other types of entry visas, including those issued to citizens of 33 countries who receive visit visas for 30 days upon their arrival against a fee of Dh100," the source added.
The countries are France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Malta, Spain, Monaco, Vatican, Iceland, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Under the current visa policy, citizens of the UK are granted a free of charge 30-day visit visa upon arrival in the UAE.
It entitles the holder to remain in the country for 60 days and may be renewed once for an additional 30 days for a fee of Dh500.
Types of visas
Visit visa: It must be sponsored by an individual, such as a relative, or by an establishment. The application is submitted by the sponsor with all required documents. Currently it is issued for Dh100 for two months and is renewable for another month for a fee of Dh500.
But under the new fee structure, the visa will be issued for three months for a fee of Dh600. It is renewable for another three months for a fee of Dh1,200.
Tourist Visa: It is available for tourists sponsored by tour operating companies and hotels. It is issued for 30 days for a fee of Dh100 and an additional Dh10 for delivery. This is non-renewable.
Entry Service Permit: This is issued for a non-renewable 14 days for a fee of Dh220 and a delivery charge of Dh10. Commonly known as a transit visa, it is collected by the visitor upon arrival. It is issued to businessmen and tourists sponsored by a company or commercial establishment or a hotel licensed to operate in the UAE.
Transit Visa: It is issued to travellers transiting through UAE airports. It issued for 96 hours and must be sponsored by an airline operating in the UAE. The visitor must have a valid ticket for onward flight. There is no charge for this permit.
Multiple Entry Visa: It is an option for businessmen who are frequent visitors to the UAE and who have a relationship with a reputable company here. This multiple visa is valid for six months from the date of issue and costs Dh1,000. However, each visit must not exceed 30 days. The visitor must enter the UAE on a visit visa and obtain the multiple entry visa while he is here.
Residence Visa: A residence visa is required for those who intend to enter the UAE to live indefinitely with a person who is already a resident. It is issued to the immediate kin of a resident for three years for a fee of Dh300. The residence permit becomes invalid if the resident remains more than six months at a time out of the country.
Parents of residents are issued residence visas after special approval with a renewable validity of one year for a fee of Dh100 for each year. A refundable deposit of Dh5,000 has to be paid for each parent.
Investor Visa: It is issued to an expatriate investor in a limited liability company who holds a minimum stake of Dh70,000 in the share capital. It is issued for three years for a fee of Dh300.
Employment Visa: Employment Visa or Permit is issued by the Immigration Department to a foreign national who wishes to work for a company in the UAE upon the approval of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It allows the holder to enter the UAE once for a period of 30 days and is valid for two months from the date of issue.
When the employee has entered the country on the basis of the employment visa, the sponsoring company will arrange to complete the formalities of stamping his residence.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/NationNF.asp?ArticleID=176670
Yahoo touts its search engine index as the Internet's biggest
Posted on Tue, Aug. 09, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo Inc. said its online search engine index now spans more than 20 billion Web documents and images, giving the Sunnyvale-based company the bragging rights to a widely watched measurement for assessing the power of an Internet search engine.
The figures cited by Yahoo nearly double the material scanned by rival Google Inc.
Yahoo's expansion doesn't necessarily mean it produces more useful results than Google, which has long been considered the Internet's most comprehensive database.
Yahoo said its index, boosted by a recent upgrade, now covers 20.8 billion online ``objects,'' comprised of about 19.2 billion documents and 1.6 billion images.
By comparison, Google said it tracks 11.3 billion objects. That figure consists of the nearly 8.2 billion Web pages that Google touts on its home page, 2.1 billion images, and material generated from its group discussions.
Until Monday, Yahoo hadn't publicly disclosed the size of its search index, but industry estimates had placed the figure somewhere between 6 billion and 8 billion.
``This is a great reason for more people to check us out,'' said Eckart Walther, Yahoo's vice president of products. ``We are more comprehensive than anyone else out there.''
In a statement late Monday, Google spokesman Nate Tyler questioned whether the size of Yahoo's search index had really surpassed its own. ``As of this afternoon we have not been able to verify a substantial increase to Yahoo's web index via their search results,'' Tyler said.
Verifying the index claims of the search engines is virtually impossible because there is no official auditing system, said Danny Sullivan, editor of industry newsletter Search Engine Watch.
Nevertheless, supplanting Mountain View-based Google as the biggest search engine should give Yahoo a potent marketing weapon in a tense duel for industry leadership, predicted Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. ``The Google brand stands for search and (Yahoo's) strategy has been to undercut that brand,'' she said.
Yahoo has been chasing Google since early last year when it introduced its own search technology and index.
For the previous 3 1/2 years, Yahoo licensed its search results through Google -- an arrangement that helped turn its rival into one of the Internet's biggest success stories.
Since the split, Google has maintained a comfortable lead over Yahoo. Through June, Google held a 36.9 percent share of the U.S. search engine market with Yahoo at 30.4 percent, according to comScore Networks.
Generating searches is crucial for both companies because the requests spur revenue-producing ads alongside the results. The strategy has proven highly effective for both companies, with Google earning $712 million through the first half of while year and Yahoo earning $959 million during the same time.
While index size is an important factor in the search engine equation, the relevancy of the results and the freshness of the index are even more significant, analysts said.
``You could add a billion pages about Britney Spears and that doesn't mean the quality of results will be any better,'' Sullivan said.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/12339483.htm
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo Inc. said its online search engine index now spans more than 20 billion Web documents and images, giving the Sunnyvale-based company the bragging rights to a widely watched measurement for assessing the power of an Internet search engine.
The figures cited by Yahoo nearly double the material scanned by rival Google Inc.
Yahoo's expansion doesn't necessarily mean it produces more useful results than Google, which has long been considered the Internet's most comprehensive database.
Yahoo said its index, boosted by a recent upgrade, now covers 20.8 billion online ``objects,'' comprised of about 19.2 billion documents and 1.6 billion images.
By comparison, Google said it tracks 11.3 billion objects. That figure consists of the nearly 8.2 billion Web pages that Google touts on its home page, 2.1 billion images, and material generated from its group discussions.
Until Monday, Yahoo hadn't publicly disclosed the size of its search index, but industry estimates had placed the figure somewhere between 6 billion and 8 billion.
``This is a great reason for more people to check us out,'' said Eckart Walther, Yahoo's vice president of products. ``We are more comprehensive than anyone else out there.''
In a statement late Monday, Google spokesman Nate Tyler questioned whether the size of Yahoo's search index had really surpassed its own. ``As of this afternoon we have not been able to verify a substantial increase to Yahoo's web index via their search results,'' Tyler said.
Verifying the index claims of the search engines is virtually impossible because there is no official auditing system, said Danny Sullivan, editor of industry newsletter Search Engine Watch.
Nevertheless, supplanting Mountain View-based Google as the biggest search engine should give Yahoo a potent marketing weapon in a tense duel for industry leadership, predicted Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. ``The Google brand stands for search and (Yahoo's) strategy has been to undercut that brand,'' she said.
Yahoo has been chasing Google since early last year when it introduced its own search technology and index.
For the previous 3 1/2 years, Yahoo licensed its search results through Google -- an arrangement that helped turn its rival into one of the Internet's biggest success stories.
Since the split, Google has maintained a comfortable lead over Yahoo. Through June, Google held a 36.9 percent share of the U.S. search engine market with Yahoo at 30.4 percent, according to comScore Networks.
Generating searches is crucial for both companies because the requests spur revenue-producing ads alongside the results. The strategy has proven highly effective for both companies, with Google earning $712 million through the first half of while year and Yahoo earning $959 million during the same time.
While index size is an important factor in the search engine equation, the relevancy of the results and the freshness of the index are even more significant, analysts said.
``You could add a billion pages about Britney Spears and that doesn't mean the quality of results will be any better,'' Sullivan said.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/12339483.htm
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