Citizens of countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and several others in the Asian subcontinent have to get an OK to Board (OTB) on their airline tickets before boarding the flight to Dubai or anywhere else in the UAE. In short, a valid UAE visa is not enough to be able to fly to the United Arab Emirates. People who travel without the original pink coloured visa (i.e. those who only have an evisa) have to get their flight tickets electronically updated to Ok to Board. The Ok to Board was introduced to rule out visa frauds.

No, OTB is a requirement of the airlines you are travelling in and not the UAE immigration. It is done through the airline. You may be travelling to Dubai or any other Emirate city either on a tourist, visitor or work visa, but the OTB is mandatory for all passengers. If your OTB status has not been updated, the airline would not allow you to board the flight to UAE.

If your visa has been processed within the UAE, your sponsor has to send a copy of your approved visa to the airline company. Once the airline company receives it, they would update the PNR of your ticket with the OTB status.

Following are the list of companies where OTB is mandatory. If you are travelling in airlines other than these companies, you do not need to get OTB updated.

• Emirates Airlines, Air India Express, Indigo, Spice Jet: Need OTB for ECR passport holders
• Fly Dubai: Need OTB only for ECR passport holders as well as those who are travelling from Hyderabad, Kochi, New Delhi and Trivandrum.
• Air Arabia, Oman Air and Gulf Air: OTB needed for all types of passports and people travelling from all cities.