Indian Embassy in UAE Awards Consular Services Contract to Alhind Tours — Replacing BLS International (April 2026)

The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi issued an official notice on 20 April 2026 awarding a contract for outsourced consular support services in the United Arab Emirates to Alhind Tours & Travels Pvt Ltd. The award concludes a procurement process that began with a tender issued in November 2025 and culminated when financial bids of four shortlisted companies — Alhind, DU Digital Global Ltd, SGIVS Global LLC, and VFS Global — were opened on 30 March 2026. Alhind was declared the Lowest Financial Bid (L1) and the contract was awarded on that basis.

The contract covers six categories of consular support work at both Indian Missions in the UAE — the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India in Dubai. The decision follows India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) order dated 9 October 2025 that debarred BLS International Service Ltd. — the previous outsourced partner — from bidding on new Indian Mission contracts for two years, citing pending court cases and complaints from applicants.

The Embassy notice covers all major consular support services that UAE-resident Indian nationals routinely access through the outsourced partner. These are intake, biometric, document collection, and dispatch services — the underlying consular decisions (issuance, rejection, OCI grant) remain with the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

• Passport services — new applications, renewal, replacement of lost passports, additional booklets, name corrections, tatkal applications.
• Visa services — Indian visa applications for non-Indian-passport spouses, family members, and other visa-required nationalities resident in the UAE.
• OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) services — registration, miscellaneous services such as new passport endorsement, and renewals, complementing the e-OCI digital channel launched under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules 2026.
• PCC (Police Clearance Certificate) — application intake, fingerprinting where required, and dispatch.
• SC (Surrender Certificate) — surrender of Indian passport on acquisition of foreign citizenship.
• GEP (Global Entry Program) verification — supporting documentation processing for US Global Entry applications by Indian nationals.
• Attestation support — supporting embassy attestation of educational, employment, and personal documents at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General in Dubai.

BLS International had been the outsourced partner for Indian consular services in the UAE for several years, operating intake centres in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai handling very high daily volumes given the UAE's ~3.5 million Indian-national resident population. The 9 October 2025 MEA debarment order against BLS — barring the company from bidding on new Indian Mission contracts for two years — meant BLS was ineligible to compete in the UAE tender opened the following month.

The MEA order cites allegations including pending court cases and complaints from visa/passport applicants. The Embassy notice does not detail the substantive findings; the formal procurement basis for awarding the new contract is the L1 (lowest financial bid) test among the four shortlisted companies that participated in the March 2026 financial bid opening.

Alhind Tours & Travels Pvt Ltd is part of the Alhind group of companies, founded in the southern Indian state of Kerala in 1992 and active in the UAE and other Middle Eastern markets since 1995. The wider Alhind Group operates across travel, IT software, luxury rentals, and foreign exchange. In 2025 the group received a no-objection certificate (NOC) from Indian aviation authorities to begin domestic airline operations in India.

The Embassy notice does not yet identify which physical centres in the UAE Alhind will operate or whether the existing BLS centre locations will be reused. Alhind's commercial track record is in travel and tourism services rather than government-contracted consular outsourcing at this scale — the 60-day setup window is intended to allow the company to establish the operational, technology, and staffing infrastructure that meets embassy criteria.

The transition primarily affects the largest single national community in the UAE: Indian passport holders, who number approximately 3.5 million people (~38% of the UAE population). It also affects non-Indian UAE residents — typically spouses, family members, and other visa-required nationalities — who use the Indian missions for Indian visa applications. Until the Embassy announces a specific implementation date, BLS International continues to handle existing consular work at its current centres.

It is important to be clear about what the contract does and does not change. The fees, eligibility rules, documentary requirements, and consular decisions are all set by the Government of India through the Embassy and Consulate; these do not move with the outsourced partner. What changes is the front-office intake — appointment booking systems, physical centres, biometric capture stations, document collection, and applicant-facing communication. Applications already submitted to BLS before the transition date will continue to be processed under the existing arrangement until the Embassy formally migrates the workload.

1. 1If you have a routine passport renewal, OCI, or PCC application that is not time-sensitive, monitor the Embassy of India Abu Dhabi and Consulate General of India Dubai official channels for the implementation announcement before booking — appointment systems may transition in the coming weeks.
2. 2If your application is time-sensitive (expiring residence visa, imminent travel, employment-linked deadlines), submit through the existing BLS process now rather than waiting; the Embassy has confirmed BLS continues to operate until the formal handover.
3. 3For OCI registration, renewal, or miscellaneous services, file through the official ociservices.gov.in portal — this online channel is unaffected by the BLS-to-Alhind transition under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules 2026.
4. 4Keep digital and physical copies of all submission receipts, application numbers, and biometric appointment confirmations from BLS — these will be needed if you must follow up on an in-flight application during the transition.
5. 5Verify any new contact information, centre addresses, or appointment platforms only through the Embassy of India Abu Dhabi and Consulate General of India Dubai official websites or their verified social media channels — never through unsolicited messages or third-party agents.
6. 6For complex consular matters (OCI grandparent qualification, dual-nationality minor cases, citizenship surrender during the transition), consider professional consultation to avoid timing risks during the handover.

This update is based on publicly available information from the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi notice dated 20 April 2026 and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India order dated 9 October 2025, as of 21 May 2026. The Embassy has awarded the contract to Alhind Tours & Travels Pvt Ltd; no implementation date for the actual transition of consular intake operations has been announced as of this writing. BLS International continues to handle existing operations until the Embassy formally communicates a handover date. This analysis is provided for informational purposes to help UAE-resident Indian nationals understand the contract change. It does not constitute legal advice. For the latest official information, always refer to the Embassy of India Abu Dhabi (https://www.eoiabudhabi.gov.in/) and the Consulate General of India Dubai (https://www.cgidubai.gov.in/).