Madonna and Bono Beware: Why you need two names to travel to the UAE

Travelling to the United Arab Emirates?  Not if you’re named Bono, Sting, Seal or Madonna. The UAE will no longer allow those with single names to travel to the UAE. But what happened and why? And what does this mean? Let’s take a closer look: What happened? A joint advisory from Air India and AI Express said the UAE has issued new guidelines barring entry of passengers with a single name on their passports. “Any passport holder with a single name (word) either in surname or given name will not be accepted by UAE immigration and the passenger will be considered as INAD (inadmissible),” the statement read.

INAD is an aviation industry term for ‘inadmissible’ passengers.

“As per instructions from the UAE Authorities, effective 21st November 2022, passengers with a single name on their passports travelling on tourist, visit or any other type of visa shall not be allowed to travel to/from UAE,” it added. The advisory listed the following examples:

• A passenger with only ‘Praveen’ as his given name and no surname. ‘Praveen’ as his surname and no given name, will be considered and INAD passenger and thus won’t be allowed entry in UAE, and if they have been issued visa prior to that, then they will become “INAD by immigration”
• A passenger with Praveen Kumar as surname and no given name and Praveen as given name and Kumar as surname, or Praveen Kumar as surname and no given name, will be given visa.

Why did this happen? According to Indian Express, UAE authorities have cited  3.4 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to implement the new rule. The ICAO is a United Nations agency that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, to ensure safety and growth in international air transport. As per ICAO, “the name of the holder is generally represented in two parts; the primary identifier and the secondary identifier. The issuing State or organization shall establish which part of the name is the primary identifier. This may be the family name, the maiden name or the married name, the main name, the surname, and in some cases, the entire name where the holder’s name cannot be divided into two parts. This shall be entered in the field for the primary identifier in the VIZ. It is recommended that upper-case characters be used, except in the case of a prefix, e.g. “von,” “Mc” or “de la,” in which case a mixture of upper- and lower-case is appropriate. ” ICAO recommends the use of upper-case characters throughout. It also says if a single field is used for the name, then the secondary identifier shall be separated from the primary identifier by a single comma (,). A comma is not needed if multiple fields are used, as per the report. What does this mean? Who is impacted? This means those identified as INAD will be deported by the airline to their country of origin, according to the circular. As per Business Standard, the new guidelines are applicable for passengers with visit visa / visa on arrival / employment and temporary visas.

This does not apply to existing UAE Resident card holders.

However, IndiGo said those with single names on their passports who have residence permits or employment visas will be allowed to travel as long as their ‘first name’ and ‘surname’ columns are updated, Business Today reported. IndiGo further advised contacting their account manager or visiting their website goindigo.com for more details. Meanwhile, travel agents are employing a wait and watch approach. “We are still awaiting information from the embassy regarding this issue. So currently, we are advising people to wait 48 hours before applying for a visa,” a representative from Rayna Tours and Travels told Khaleej Times. “As we are still waiting for details, we are asking people to wait before they make any changes to their documentation,” he added. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.