The Indian Embassy in the UAE has announced the closure of four consular service centres in the country from October 22, stating ‘administrative reasons’ in the country.

This move brings the total number of Indian Consular Application Centres (ICACs) to 12 from 16. The ICACs operate across the Emirates from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., where applicants can enter the centres 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment.

However, the Embassy announced that at all ICACs exceptional cases including Tatkal passport services, newborn applications, Emergency Certificate (EC) requests, and senior citizens aged 60 years and above can walk-in, first-come, first-served basis.

The four centres where services have been discontinued are located in Musaffah, Al Reem, Dubai Investment Park-l and Sharjah Al Majaz.

From July 1 this year, the Government of India revised passport service charges across the UAE, marking the first fee increase since 2012.  – editor@nrifocus.com