With some time to spare this week, many UAE residents will be heading east to Oman for the Eid Al Adha holiday.
In years gone by, that trip could be arranged last minute, but since March, when the Omani government announced that applications for visas would no longer be available on arrival, it has required a bit more planning.
But just how do you apply for an eVisa?
The first step is to visit https://evisa.rop.gov.om/en/apply-for-a-visa, where you will be asked whether you are registered. If not, you must fill out an online form with fields such as your passport number, date of birth and nationality.
Once you are registered, you can log in using your username, password and a verification code that will be texted to you to begin the process.
That will take you to the main page, where you should select the option to apply for an unsponsored visa. Citizens of more than 70 countries, including China, Russia, India, Australia, Canada, the US and the Schengen states are all eligible for an unsponsored visa. Those not on the list require an Omani sponsor.
You will be asked to select your nationality from a drop-down menu and whether you are a resident of a GCC country.
Clicking the "next" button will take you to a page where you will be asked to select the type of visa required. In late June, Oman brought in a new short-stay visa for 10 days. Tourists can also select options for a month-long visa or a year-long visa.
After entering the information in the correct fields, you will be asked to attach all of the required documents. These may include your passport; your GCC residency visa; any previous Oman visas in your passport; your hotel booking, if you have one; and a recent photo. Files should be no bigger than 512kb. Both PDF and JPEG files are accepted.
It will then show the application summary, along with options to add the details for another traveller under "add request". Once complete, click the submission and payment button, and enter your payment details when prompted. The short-stay visa costs 5 Omani rials, or about Dh48, and a month-long visa is 20 rials, or about Dh191.
You will then be given a reference number to track the status of the application. Once approved, you will be notified by both email and text message.
UAE residents, who applied for visas ahead of the Eid holiday, said it took between three to eight hours to have their visa processed and issued.
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