Immigration chiefs eye single visa for GCC travel

SINGLE VISA: Travel across the GCC could be made easier with the planned introduction of a single visa.

A single visa application scheme for visitors to the GCC, similar to the system in Europe, is expected to be approved by immigration chiefs attending a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The single visa will allow people to travel across all six Gulf states without the need for separate travel permits, according to the director general of the Kuwaiti General Administration for Immigration.

Brigadier Kamel Al Awadhi told Kuwait’s news agency KUNA that the single Gulf visa application system had bee suggested and approved in theory at a recent meeting of undersecretaries at the GCC’s interior ministries in Riyadh.

“Double residency” permits that would allow Gulf expatriates to work and study in any of the six GCC countries would also be discussed at the 24th meeting of GCC immigration chiefs in Abu Dhabi, Al Awadhi added.

Kuwaiti citizens would be issued with smart Gulf ID cards from August this year that would make it easy for them to move from one Gulf country to another, he said.

The Abu Dhabi meet will also thrash out security coordination and cooperation among the GCC member countries over the free movement of Gulf citizens and foreign residents.

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