Business travel between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to change after the two countries agreed to a liberalised visa regime as part of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed.

Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said the liberalised visa regime includes a three-year visa provision for intra-corporate transfers, a 90-day visa for business visitors, and a 90-days plus extendable visa contractual service suppliers.

“As for visa liberalisation, there are three or four categories of people such as business visitors, contractual service providers, and intra-corporate transferees. There are provisions where the visa regime has either become more liberal than what they have currently or it freezes the current regime. That means that they can’t go back once they have given the concession in the FTA,” Subrahmanyam explained.

Under the FTA, a business visitor will get a 90-day visa, while a contractual service supplier can get a 90-day visa that can be extended. Intra-corporate transferees can get three-year visas under this FTA. There’s a separate chapter on the movement of natural persons.