The Unified GCC Visa is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2025, following an update shared at the 146th meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers.
The meeting was held in Kuwait on June 2, 2025, and was chaired by the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister and Chairman of the current session of the Ministerial Council, Abdullah Al-Yahya.
During the meeting, Secretary-General of the Council, Jassim Al-Budaiwi, pointed out that preparations to launch the Unified GCC visa are underway. Specifically, he remarked that there have been noteworthy technical developments towards the GCC visa.
The Unified Tourist Visa, also called the GCC Tourist Visa or the Grand Tours Visa, is a Schengen-style system that will enable its holders to travel to multiple countries within the GCC with a single visa.
This will eliminate the need to apply for separate visas to visit each country, making the region more accessible to foreign visitors and boosting tourism revenue across the member states.
Even though talks surrounding the Unified GCC visa began in October 2023, and the expected launch of the visa was by December 2024, there have been several delays.
Jassim Al-Budaiwi’s statement at the recent meeting indicates that there has been significant progress towards the implementation of the Unified GCC Visa.