Expats advised to book visa medical test

Residents of the Abu Dhabi city are advised to book an appointment for the medical test requirement for residence visa stamping. This is encouraged by SEHA to avoid unnecessary delays and long ques at DPSC.

The medical test appointments can be made at DPSC (Disease Prevention and Screening Centres).  The centres will be open from 7am and booking can be made by calling the DPSC or the Ambulatory Health Services call centre.

Abu Dhabi residents mainly uses the main DPSC on Hazza Bin Zayed Street which has faced long ques in the last week with people waiting for the medical test procedure.

Dr Mubarak Al Darmaki, DPSC director at AHS, told that the centres get 3000 to 4500 applicants on a daily basis in two centres. Arriving at the centre before 8am on normal days other than Sundays and Mondays will help the people to avoid the rush.

The Hazza Bin Zayed Street centre and DPSC Mussaffah are two centres in Abu Dhabi for conducting visa related medical tests. The AHS management is planning to increase the number of DPSC centres and their capacity to process applications in line with the growing residents though details are not available for this nor it is confirmed.

The visa medical test procedure in Abu Dhabi has four steps:

• The applicant details are registered
• Applicant photo is taken in the system
• A general physical examination which includes checking for infectious diseases like leprosy is performed
• Final step is blood test followed by chest x-ray.

Fees for medical test range from Dh250 to Dh350 per person.The centres also has the facility for fast-track and premium processing at extra charges.

Residents has the option to choose the centre where they would like to perform the medical-test.
Recent rush is due to several factors such as immigration laws and financial conditions. The change in residence visa validity from 3 to 2 years for some expatriates, the linking of the Emirates ID with visa, and requirements for health insurance in other emirates in UAE.

In Abu Dhabi, medical tests for visa stamping is provided by the DPSC, which is under AHS management. The AHS is a part of the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), which manages all public health care facilities in the Abudhabi emirate.