When people search for a UAE visit visa online, the numbers rarely agree. Government portals list one figure, travel agencies list another, and the difference can be enormous. Understanding why requires separating two very different things: the official government fee, and the service fee charged by whoever processes the application for you.

The government fee for a standard 30-day UAE visit visa is AED 252. This is the amount that actually goes to the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) or the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA), depending on which emirate is processing the request. This figure is published and relatively stable.

What most travellers actually pay is very different: typing centres and licensed travel agencies routinely quote AED 650 to AED 1,900 for the same 30-day visa. That difference of up to 2.8x is not a government markup - it is the service charge layered on top by whichever intermediary handles the paperwork, plus optional extras like express processing, printing, and courier delivery.

The research desk at VisaForma tracks and dates these figures so that applicants can tell the government portion from the service portion before they pay. Every price is checked against the source and stamped with the date it was verified, because government fees and agency mark-ups both change without much notice.

If you are budgeting for a UAE visit visa, the practical takeaway is simple: ask any agent to itemise the government fee separately from their service fee. If they can't or won't, that is itself useful information about how the total price was built.