US Visa Appointments from the UAE: What the Embassy Actually Says Right Now
Routine US visa processing is not available in the United Arab Emirates. The US Embassy’s visa page said so on 7 October 2026. A separate mission notice says limited processing is available, and a third page saying services are suspended is six months out of date but still ranks. Nonimmigrant applicants are told to apply in their country of residence or nationality.
Three official pages, three different statements, all live on the same website today. That is not a rumour problem — it is the mission’s own publishing, and it is why so much of what you will read elsewhere about US appointments in the UAE is confidently wrong. This guide sets the three statements side by side with their dates, says which one is current, and separates what the mission actually publishes from what it does not. Our United States visit visa service page covers what we can do once there is a process to join.
The three notices, and the date on each
| What it says | Where | Date on the page |
|---|---|---|
| “routine visa processing is not available in the United Arab Emirates at this time” | the visa landing page | last modified 7 October 2026 |
| “limited visa processing is available at this time” | a notice titled Resumption of Routine Visa Services | published 8 August 2026, modified 8 October 2026 |
| “Routine U.S. visa services in the UAE are currently suspended” | a notice titled Suspension of Routine Visa Services | published 1 March 2026, modified 23 April 2026 |
The first is the most recently updated page and the one a visitor lands on. Its wording is: “While the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Consulate in Dubai are open, routine visa processing is not available in the United Arab Emirates at this time. Further updates regarding visa processing will be posted here when available.”
The second is linked from an alert bar on that same page. Its title promises resumption; its body does not deliver one. The full sentence is: “The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the U.S. Consulate in Dubai are open, and limited visa processing is available at this time.” A reader who sees only the alert-bar title — Important Notice: Resumption of Routine Visa Services — will walk away with the opposite of what the notice says.
The third is the one that keeps circulating. “Routine U.S. visa services in the UAE are currently suspended. If your visa appointment was cancelled, we will contact you to reschedule when routine services resume.” That page is dated 1 March 2026 and was last touched on 23 April 2026. It was never taken down, so search engines still serve it, and people still quote it as current. It is not.
The most recent page to use the word “suspended” about visa services is dated 13 July 2026: “All routine U.S. visa services in the UAE remain suspended.” The August notice partially supersedes it.
Why services were curtailed
The mission’s only published explanation is on its travel advisory of 29 August 2026: “Following the onset of hostilities between the United States and Iran on February 28, 2026, there has been an ongoing threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran and significant disruptions to commercial flights.” The July notice adds that the Embassy and Consulate “remain on ordered-departure status, meaning that non-emergency U.S. government personnel have been relocated outside the UAE.”
One thing has eased: as of 29 August 2026, family members may again join US government employees posted to the UAE. The sitewide travel advisory remains at Level 3, “Reconsider travel”.
What “limited” covers — the mission does not say
This is the question everybody asks, and there is no published answer. Nowhere on the mission’s website is there a statement about whether, during the curtailment, any of the following continue:
- emergency or expedited visa appointments
- interview waiver renewals — the word “dropbox” does not appear anywhere on the site
- immigrant visa interviews
- appointments that were already booked
- passport and document collection for cases already in progress
The only statement about already-booked appointments is in the six-month-old March notice: the mission will contact affected applicants to reschedule when routine services resume.
Be careful with what you read elsewhere about this. Detailed, authoritative-sounding lists of “what is still processing” — specific immigrant categories, B1/B2 for urgent medical travel, student appointments, even call-centre numbers — are circulating and do not appear on the mission’s pages at all. The published customer-service numbers are +971 4 205 5981 in the UAE and +1 313 262 5702 in the United States, with support-uae@usvisascheduling.com for email, Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00 UAE time.
The one instruction that is unambiguous
The visa page gives nonimmigrant applicants a clear direction, and it is the single most consequential sentence on the site:
Read the second sentence as carefully as the first. A fee paid for an appointment in one country is not stated to be usable in another, and the mission says plainly it will not be refunded. Anyone encouraging you to pay a UAE fee now and sort the location out later is asking you to take a risk the embassy has already warned you about in writing.
The contradiction the mission has not resolved
The same page that says routine processing is unavailable still publishes a live appointment-release schedule:
Both statements were on the page at its 7 October 2026 update. We are not going to reconcile them for you, because the mission has not. Treat the Friday window as a thing worth checking and the “not available” line as the operating assumption.
The scheduling website does not work
The visa page links three times to a “GSS Contact Us” page at ustraveldocs.com/ae — in English, Arabic and Farsi. All three return a 404. So does the page the embassy links for rescheduling and expedited appointments. Every ustraveldocs.com/ae path we tested is gone, and the older ais.usvisa-info.com UAE path now redirects to a generic landing page. The domain the embassy’s own support email uses, usvisascheduling.com, is a login portal with no public content.
The practical effect: there is currently no working, publicly readable official page describing the UAE application process end to end. If you find one that looks authoritative, check whose website it is on.
There is no published UAE visa application centre
We searched every page the mission publishes. There is no mention of a Visa Application Centre, a biometrics collection centre, a courier, or a passport collection point in the UAE. Where biometrics are taken and how a passport comes back are not stated. Anyone naming a centre is not getting it from the embassy.
If you do have an appointment
The rules for attending are published, and they are strict. They are near-identical for Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
- “In general, only visa applicants with scheduled appointments are allowed to enter the Consular Section.”
- “Please do NOT arrive at the Consular Section more than 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time; applicants will be allowed to enter ONLY at their scheduled appointment time.”
- Prohibited: “Bags of any size, including women’s purses / Electronics including laptops, mobile phones, smart watches, and tablets / Weapons, firearms, explosives, knives, or any other dangerous items”
- Storage: “There is storage at the Embassy security checkpoint for small electronic items like mobile phones. However, there is NO storage available for bags of any size or for larger electronic items like laptops. If you have such items, you will be denied entry.”
- You may bring your documents in folders or envelopes, an empty water bottle, and anything needed for the care of a small child.
- Both posts say a visit may last as long as three hours. That is the length of the visit, not a processing time.
Getting there. Abu Dhabi: no parking on Embassy grounds, but paid public parking nearby, including a lot directly across from the consular entrance. Dubai: no parking on consulate grounds and limited public parking; the nearest metro is Burjuman, and taxis can drop at the consular entrance on Al Seef Road.
Who may come with you. Parents or legal guardians of applicants under 18; a person assisting an elderly or disabled applicant; a professional interpreter where the applicant does not speak the listed languages; and anyone a consular officer specifically asks for. The interpreter languages differ between the two posts — Abu Dhabi lists English, Arabic, Hindi, Urdu and Spanish; Dubai lists English, Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu.
Two rules that catch UAE applicants out
Children must now attend. The only interview-waiver rule the UAE mission publishes is this one: “Starting September 1, 2025, children of ALL ages must appear for the interview to obtain a visa in any visa category, including for renewals. Children will no longer be able to obtain visas through the Interview Waiver Program.” Families who renewed children’s visas by post in the past should plan on an interview.
Presidential Proclamation 10998. In force since 1 January 2026, it suspends or limits entry and visa issuance for nationals of 39 countries and for people applying on travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority. The mission states that affected applicants “may still submit visa applications and attend scheduled interviews, but they may be ineligible for visa issuance or admission to the United States.” The list of the 39 countries is not published on the UAE mission’s site.
Separately, applicants for a long list of visa categories — A-3, C-3 domestic workers, G-5, H-1B, H-3, H-4 dependants, F, I, J, M, K-1, K-2, K-3, Q, R-1, R-2, S, T, TN, TD and U — are instructed to set all social media accounts to public to allow vetting. B1/B2 is not on that list.
A note for Arabic readers
The mission’s Arabic visa page was updated the same minute as the English one on 7 October 2026, but it does not carry the “routine visa processing is not available” notice at all. It publishes only the Friday appointment-release schedule. If you have been reading the Arabic page, you have not been shown the warning.
What is not published anywhere official
- Any B1/B2 or MRV fee amount. The mission publishes no figure at all, and the scheduling sites are either 404 or behind a login. Treat any fee you see quoted elsewhere as unverified.
- Any appointment wait time, interview wait time or visa processing time.
- Whether emergency or expedited appointments are available in the UAE right now.
- Whether interview waiver renewals are available in the UAE right now.
- Whether immigrant visa interviews are being held in the UAE right now.
- The general interview-waiver eligibility criteria. Only the children rule above is published by the UAE mission.
- The identity of the 39 countries under Proclamation 10998.
- What is happening to appointments booked before the curtailment, beyond the March 2026 statement.
- Any UAE visa application centre, biometrics centre or document collection point.
- Whether a fee paid in the UAE can be used at a post in another country. The only statement is that fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.
- Any date on which routine services will resume. The mission says only that updates will be posted when available.
Our advice — practical guidance, not a rule
Marked as advice because no official page prescribes it.
- Check the date on any page before you act on it, including the embassy’s own. Three of the mission’s pages contradict each other and the stalest one ranks best.
- Treat the embassy website as the only source worth quoting. Where it is silent, the honest answer is that nobody knows, not that someone else’s blog knows.
- Do not pay a fee until you know which post you are applying at. The mission has told you in writing that fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.
- If your travel has a hard deadline, plan around the possibility that no UAE appointment becomes available in time, rather than waiting for one.
- If you hold a residence visa for another country, or you are a national of one, read the “country of residence or nationality” instruction carefully — that is where the mission is pointing you.
- Keep the Friday 7:30–11:30 window in mind, but do not build a plan on it while the page above it says routine processing is unavailable.
Every statement on this page was checked against the mission’s website on 12 October 2026. This is a fast-moving situation and the pages have been edited repeatedly through 2026 — check the embassy’s visa page before you rely on anything here.
Frequently asked questions
Are US visa appointments open in Dubai now?
Not routinely. The US mission’s visa page, updated on 7 October 2026, says routine visa processing is not available in the UAE. A separate mission notice says limited visa processing is available but does not say what “limited” covers. The Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate in Dubai are both open.
What is the wait time for a US visa appointment in Abu Dhabi?
The mission does not publish a wait time for Abu Dhabi or Dubai. It publishes an appointment-release window — Friday mornings between 7:30 and 11:30 — and nothing about how long a wait for one of those appointments might be.
How do I check US visa appointment availability from the UAE?
Through the scheduling account you applied with. The embassy says applicants with existing appointments can log in at any time to take an earlier slot if one appears. The page it links for that purpose currently returns a 404, so the published customer service line, +971 4 205 5981, is the working route.
Can I apply for a US visa in another country if I live in the UAE?
That is what the mission tells nonimmigrant applicants to do: schedule at the US Embassy or Consulate in your country of residence or nationality. It does not define how that applies to a UAE residence visa holder of a third nationality, and that rule sits on a US State Department page rather than the UAE mission’s.
Is my visa fee refundable if I cannot get an appointment in the UAE?
No. The mission states that visa application fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.
Do children need to attend the interview?
Yes. Since 1 September 2025, children of all ages must appear in person for any visa category, including renewals, and can no longer be processed through the Interview Waiver Program.
Is there a US visa application centre in Dubai?
The mission publishes no visa application centre, biometrics centre or document collection point anywhere in the UAE. Nothing on its website names one.
Why do I keep finding a page saying services are suspended?
Because that page is still live. It is dated 1 March 2026, was last edited on 23 April 2026, and was never removed, so it still appears in search results. The current wording is on the visa landing page, updated 7 October 2026.