Pakistani passengers flying to UAE with a single name on their passports will not be allowed to enter the UAE, according to recent reports. The news came out when Pakistan’s Serene Air said that the UAE government has revised its guidelines regarding names and will not allow passengers coming from Pakistan to enter UAE with a single name on their passports.
“The UAE government has revised the naming guidelines for allowing entry in the Emirates. As per the guideline update, passengers holding passports with only a single name and no other name – including, father name/family name – will not be accepted”, the airline said.
The South Asian carrier also said that travellers with a single name, either in the ‘first name’ or the ‘last name’ category on the passport, will not be permitted to enter the UAE.
Pakistan-UAE is one of the busiest air routes, as South Asians make up the second-largest expatriate community in the UAE, numbering around 1.6 million people.
The Australian government also issued an advisory to its citizens on Wednesday, requesting that Australian passport holders include at least two words in the name fields.”If you only have one name in your passport, you will be refused entry,” it said on its website.
Previously, Indian airlines advised passengers to correct their names on their passports because single-name travellers were not permitted to enter the UAE.
