Nigerians have lamented the new requirements for a United Arab Emirates (UAE) visa after the ban was lifted on Monday.
One of the new requirements is obtaining a Document Verification Number (DVN) which according to the DV hub, is a specialised service designed to authenticate and verify documentation essential for visa applications to the UAE.
The DVN costs a non-refundable N640,000 excluding VAT for each application. This does not include the visa fee which must be paid by credit card at the UAE visa centre in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
“Your issued document verification number will be valid for 14 days from issuance, or once your visa application has been processed by the visa application department (whichever of these come first),” the DV hub said.
Interested travellers are expected to receive their DVN within five business days once payment has been successfully processed.
In addition to obtaining a UAE visa, Nigerians are required to provide proof of a six-month bank statement with a minimum balance of $10,000 as well as round-trip flight tickets and proof of hotel booking.
@Peco3D said on X, “This is just extortion in fine words. Shameless.”
@Yuceefahd: “This govt of ours have completely lost the plot.. I hope the law of diplomatic reciprocity applies as well and their Nationals subjected to same treatment (Now i think of it, who even wants to come to Nigeria).”
@Comr_lucky1: “What did I just read this is exploitation and shameful if allowed by Nigeria government…”
@Osagee24: “Don’t blame the UAE government, it was a guy in Dubai and some high ranking political office holders that suggested this to them and they have taken advantage to cash out big time. Process is okay but the extortion is a NO NO.”
However, popular investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, has suggested the DV hub is not traceable to the UAE government, alleging that a Canadian businessman, Jean Geoffrion, was trying to fleece Nigerians.
UAE government websites all end with the “.gov.ae” URL. This website is simply “.ae” which means it is not an official UAE government website. Furthermore, according to @scamadviser, the actual owner of the website is hiding their identity by using a paid proxy
So because of this… https://t.co/qPgV9NxAcL pic.twitter.com/K01jnB29VD— David Hundeyin (@DavidHundeyin) July 16, 2024
