The handover of India’s consular contract to Alhind is already causing pain for some UAE residents. Parents told Khaleej Times on 2 July that delays in obtaining non-resident Indian (NRI) certificates threaten their children’s overseas university admissions. Others risk missing long-planned summer trips because passport renewals are stuck in limbo. The previous provider, BLS International, stopped accepting new files in late June, leading to a rush for the last few appointment slots. When Alhind did not open its online booking system on 1 July as anticipated, applicants were left with no channel to submit documents. The embassy’s interim walk-in window can process only a fraction of normal daily volumes. Travel agents say dozens of customers have postponed flights, while some companies have deferred onboarding dates for new hires awaiting fresh passports. UAE labour law requires at least six months’ validity to stamp a residence visa, so document backlogs can translate into lost workdays and penalties for sponsors. Alhind blamed technical integration issues and said its full e-booking portal should go live “within a week.” In the meantime, affected residents are advised to monitor mission bulletins and, where possible, visit smaller emirate offices such as Umm Al Quwain that still have shorter queues. The episode highlights the vulnerability of large expatriate populations to single-vendor bottlenecks. Mobility specialists recommend that governments and providers build overlap periods and contingency capacity into future outsourcing contracts.
Source: Khaleej Times
