Indians in Muscat: the 2026 guide to Ruwi, Muttrah, Darsait, Wadi Kabir, Al Khuwair, Al Ghubra, Seeb and Al Mawaleh

Oman had 5,415,580 registered residents at the end of July 2026, the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) reports in its August 2026 bulletin: 3,068,352 Omanis (56.66%) and 2,347,228 expatriates. Muscat is the most expatriate of the eleven governorates in that table. It held 1,546,325 registered residents at the end of July, of whom 942,579 were expatriates and 603,746 Omanis, so Omanis were 39.0% of the governorate. Oman publishes no count of Indians in Muscat alone. The official count for the country is India’s: about 679,000 overseas Indians (Indian citizens and people of Indian origin) live in Oman, 678,837 in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ estimate for January 2026, made up of 676,781 Indian citizens and 2,056 people of Indian origin. That is a national figure, not one for Muscat alone.

Three other counts sit beside it, and each measures something different. The Embassy of India’s bilateral brief gives approximately 674,950 Indians, 520,437 men and 154,513 women, as on February 2026, a figure it attributes to the Government of Oman, and says 526,496 Indian nationals hold work visas (NCSI, May 2026). The NCSI’s own bulletin, which takes its worker counts from the Royal Oman Police, shows 531,001 Indian expatriate workers in July 2026 (provisional), the second-largest nationality among 1,835,939 expatriate workers, after Bangladeshis at 600,138. A count of workers is a count of people on work permits, so it is lower than the Embassy’s total; the sources do not itemise the gap.

2026 has not been an ordinary year for the Gulf. From 1 March, in the wider Iran war, drones struck ports and industrial sites in Oman; the safety section says what we found and where to follow it. There are no Oman topic guides on this site yet, so the work visa, the resident card, the labour law, the family visa and the new tax are covered in the work section below, and the events, groups and businesses for the whole country are on the Oman page. This page is about the city.

Indians have lived in Muscat for generations, and the Embassy is plain about it. Its brief says some Indian families have roots in Oman of more than 150 to 200 years, that a digitisation and oral-history project run with the National Archives of India in May 2024 copied more than 7,000 records of 32 Indian families who have lived in Oman for over 250 years (diaries, account books, invoices, passports, letters from 1838 on, in English, Arabic, Gujarati and Hindi), and that a lecture series called "Mandvi to Muscat" ran for eight months from October 2023. The Consulate of India opened in Muscat in February 1955, became a Consulate General in April 1960 and a full Embassy in 1971. The oldest institutions are the merchants’: the school that is now Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir began in 1941 as a Gujarati-medium school for the children of the business community, and the Hindu merchant community has two temples of its own. The newer community came to work, and its associations show where it came from: the Indian Social Club’s website lists wings for Gujarati, Katchi (Kutchi), Sindhi, Bohra, Marathi, Goan, Mangalorian Konkani, Karnataka, Beary, Kerala, Malayalam, Malabar, Tamil, Telugu, Telangana, Deccan, Bengali, Odia, Punjabi, Malwa, Rajasthani, Uttarakhand, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit speakers.

The numbers we have

The Muscat row is the closest thing to a local figure, and it counts all nationalities. Nobody publishes how many of the 686,371 are Indian. The Oman Observer’s report on the end-of-2024 figures (it prints two different expatriate totals, so read it with care) put Indians at 506,630, which is lower than the 2026 workers’ count.

Where Indians actually live

• Ruwi is the commercial hub and main business area of Muscat. Wikipedia says its south-eastern part has been called "Little India" and "Little Pakistan" because of the South Asians who live there (the article is flagged as needing citations), and describes Ruwi High Street as the main commercial street, with jewellery, electrical and gift shops. The Indian Social Club’s post-box address is in Ruwi, Lulu opened a store there in 2021, and Mwasalat’s buses start from Ruwi bus station.
• Muttrah is the old port district, and the Motishwar Mahadev temple complex stands there, near Al Alam Palace. The school that began as Indian School Muttrah in 1987 is now Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir.
• Darsait holds the Shri Krishna Temple, Indian School Darsait, KIMS Oman Hospital and, by its own contact page, the Indian Social Club’s office. The Embassy dates the community’s first CBSE school to Darsait in 1975, which matches Indian School Muscat’s opening date of 15 August 1975.
• Al Wadi Al Kabir is the district of Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir, and its median two-bedroom asks OMR 205, below Al Khuwair and Al Ghubra.
• Al Khuwair has the Embassy, in the Diplomatic Area, and a mix of offices and flats; the median two-bedroom asks OMR 275.
• Al Ghubra has Indian School Al Ghubra (founded in 1990) and Aster Al Raffah Hospital by the Ghubra roundabout; the median two-bedroom asks OMR 325.
• The Seeb side: Al Mawaleh, Al Khoud, Al Maabilah and Al Hail has Indian School Al Seeb at Mabella, Indian School Al Maabela, Lulu’s Al Khoud store and the lower rents of the Seeb side: median two-bedrooms of OMR 162 to OMR 265.
• Bousher and Azaiba have Indian School Bousher, the newest of the seven capital-area schools on the Board’s online admission list (2019), and two-bedroom medians of OMR 390 in Bousher and OMR 372 in Azaiba.
• Qurum, Ghala, The Wave and Muscat Hills are the costlier, newer areas. SGIVS’s passport centre is at Al Qurum, and Ghala has the Holy Spirit Catholic church.

The rule of thumb is that Ruwi, Wadi Kabir and the Seeb side cost least, Al Khuwair, Al Ghubra and Azaiba cost more and Qurum, Bousher and the seafront developments cost most. Where you work and where the children’s school is decide more than the district’s name.

The national process is the employer’s: it applies for the work permit, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) issues the visa and the residence card, and you do the medical. This is the Muscat version, in the order that works. Oman is one country with one set of rules, so the district you rent in changes your commute and your rent, not your paperwork.

1. The visa comes before the flight. NRI Information’s 2026 guide, which warns that Oman’s rules have changed several times since 2024, describes the sequence: the employer applies to the Ministry of Labour for the work permit and pays the permit, visa and residence fees, ROP issues the employment visa, the medical is done in India at a centre approved through Wafid (formerly GAMCA), and a passport marked ECR needs emigration clearance through eMigrate before you leave. Confirm each step with the employer. The Embassy’s eMigrate pages tell employers how to register to recruit.
2. The residence card, within 30 days. ROP’s own page says every expatriate resident must obtain a Residence Card within 30 days of entering Oman, in person, with the application form, the original passport, the original and copies of the Manpower form issued after the medical examination and, for government jobs, a letter from the employer. The fees it prints are 6 for one year and 11 for two, plus 10 for each month of delay; the page gives no currency, but ROP fees are in rials. NRI Information’s guide adds a second medical test and fingerprints after you arrive.
3. Register with the Embassy. The Embassy asks every Indian citizen living in Muscat for work, study or a short visit to register on its website: name as in the passport, passport number and dates, profession, date of arrival, proposed period of stay, address, telephone and email.
4. Save the numbers. The Embassy’s 24-hour helpline is 80071234 (listed as toll free, and as +968 80071234 for emergencies), its consular WhatsApp line +968 98282270 and its email [email protected]; community welfare is [email protected]. The police emergency number is 9999 and civil defence and fire 999, according to Wikipedia’s list of Omani telephone numbers.
5. A phone and a bank account. Expat Arrivals’ September 2025 average for a mobile plan is OMR 12.20 a month. Keep your Indian number alive on a cheap plan for bank OTPs and UPI. We found no 2026 source for the documents a bank asks for, so ask the company’s PRO (public relations officer, who handles permits) and the bank itself.
6. Read the lease. A flat lease approved by a competent authority, in your name or your employer’s, is also what ROP asked for when it set out the family-visa papers in 2017, so keep it clean from the start (neighbourhoods and renting).
7. Ask who insures your family. Ask HR in writing which insurer covers you and your dependants and whether the policy is registered on the E Dhamani platform (health).
8. Driving. We could not open a 2026 source on exchanging an Indian licence in Oman. ROP’s phone page lists its Directorate General of Traffic on 24510117 and the vehicle registration department on 24521331; ask before you rely on a foreign licence.
9. Attest papers early. The Embassy attests documents at SGIVS Global in person, with the original passport and Resident Card; Indian educational certificates must first be verified by the state authorities. The Embassy also solemnises and registers marriages itself where one party holds an Omani residence visa.
10. Beware the call. On 20 October 2026 the Embassy warned that callers who seem to know passport, visa or immigration details are claiming a problem and asking for payment. Do not send passport or Resident Card copies to a stranger, do not pay anyone who rings, and check any call that claims to be the Embassy against its published numbers.

The official yardstick for rents is the NCSI’s consumer price index, and it does not print rents in rials. Its August 2026 bulletin says rent is collected from a sample of 1,150 rented units, and the "housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels" group, the largest in the basket with a weight of 31.7%, stood at 100.9 in July 2026 (2018 = 100), 0.55% lower than a year earlier. Over the same twelve months the all-items index rose 3.15% nationally and 3.37% in Muscat, with food up 7.29% and transport up 6.52%. So housing has been flat to slightly cheaper while most other groups rose. For rials we have asking prices: Bayut’s list of apartments to rent in Muscat, read on 23 October 2026 across its first 20 pages, gave 397 distinct listings priced at OMR 60 or more (three entries priced at OMR 10, OMR 50 and OMR 55 were dropped as likely errors or shares). The medians below are for the listings that name the area; the middle half runs between the two figures in brackets. Asking prices are not signed leases, and some listings are furnished or include utilities.

Muttrah (five apartments listed, two-bedrooms at OMR 90 to OMR 210) and Darsait (five listed, two-bedrooms at OMR 110 to OMR 220) had too few listings to give a median, which is itself a finding: the districts around the two temples have little on this portal, so ask in the groups. Expat Arrivals’ September 2025 averages for the city are OMR 240 for a one-bedroom in the centre and OMR 155 outside it, and OMR 450 for a three-bedroom in the centre against OMR 270 outside.

What the table says

• Ruwi, Al Amarat, Al Maabilah, Al Khoud and Wadi Kabir are the cheaper districts in the sample, with median two-bedrooms of OMR 137 to OMR 212 a month; Wadi Kabir and the Seeb-side districts also have Indian schools, and Ruwi and Al Khoud have Lulu stores.
• Al Khuwair, Ghala, Al Ghubra and Azaiba have median two-bedrooms of OMR 275 to OMR 372, and are where the Embassy (Al Khuwair) and several of the larger hospitals are.
• Bousher, Qurum and the developments start at medians of OMR 390 to OMR 400 and go into four figures on the seafront.

Rules to know

A lease is the document a family visa asks for, with three months of bank statements: ROP’s 2017 guidelines, as the Oman Observer reported them, required a flat lease in the sponsor’s name or the employer’s name, approved by a competent authority. A lease in your own or your employer’s name is therefore the safe course if you intend to bring your family. We found no 2026 source on deposits, brokers’ fees or the rental-dispute process, so ask the group and the landlord for the terms in writing, and do not pay a deposit before you have seen the flat and the contract.

Public transport in Muscat means Mwasalat’s buses and taxis. Mwasalat, the national transport company, ran 12 city routes in Muscat and two in Salalah at the time of the Oman Observer’s report of 25 March 2026. Ruwi is the hub, as Wikipedia puts it: the local city buses and the national and international coaches leave from Ruwi bus station. The same March 2026 report, a weather-suspension notice, names four of the city routes and shows how the network threads the Seeb side: route 6 from Al Khoud via Sultan Qaboos University and back, route 7 from Al Mabelah via Al Khoud to Burj Al Sahwa, route 9 from Al Athaiba via Al Ansab to the Misfah industrial area, and route 10 from Al Mabelah via Seeb Souq to Burj Al Sahwa. The other eight routes are not named in anything we could open, so use the route map at Ruwi bus station or Mwasalat’s own pages.

Fares

Mwasalat’s own website refused our requests, and we found no 2026 fare table. The sources we could read are dated or aggregate. Expat Arrivals’ September 2025 averages give OMR 0.40 for a bus fare in the city centre, OMR 0.80 a kilometre for a taxi and OMR 0.30 a litre for petrol. The Oman Observer reported in July 2018 that the airport buses, the Mabela route (IA) and the Ruwi route (IB), would cost 500 baisa a trip to the end of that year; that is eight years old, so confirm the fare at the Ruwi station. For a taxi we have only Expat Arrivals’ average per kilometre; ask the driver for the price before you set off, and check the meter.

Driving

Petrol averaged OMR 0.30 a litre in Expat Arrivals’ September 2025 figures, and the rent gap between the Seeb-side districts (median two-bedrooms of OMR 162 to OMR 265) and Al Khuwair or Qurum (OMR 275 to OMR 400) is the trade families weigh against the commute. We could not open a 2026 source for exchanging an Indian licence, so see the first-two-weeks section for the ROP traffic numbers, and ask before you rely on a foreign licence or buy a car.

Flights home

Muscat International Airport is the city’s airport, and the NCSI bulletin tracks its movements monthly. We found no 2026 source that lists which airlines serve which Indian city, and the 2026 regional war disrupted air travel across the Gulf, so check your airline’s own status page before you buy a ticket. Keep your Indian passport’s validity and your resident card in order; the consulate section covers renewals.

A residence in Oman follows the job, and for most Indians the employer is the sponsor: NRI Information’s 2026 guide puts it plainly, that the employer sponsors you and your residence depends on the job, with the employer applying to the Ministry of Labour for the permit. Family and investor residence are the exceptions below. There are no Oman topic guides on this site yet, so this section covers the national rules and the Muscat picture together.

Where the work is

The NCSI’s August 2026 bulletin splits the 1,796,312 expatriate workers in the private, family, communal and other sectors (July 2026, provisional, all nationalities) by activity: construction 418,570, households as employers 306,455, wholesale and retail trade 263,955, manufacturing 183,758, administrative and support services 151,332, accommodation and food 138,150, agriculture, forestry and fishing 90,110, transport and storage 72,889, other services 64,465, professional, scientific and technical activities 20,604, human health and social work 15,695, education 11,340, information and communications 10,962 and finance and insurance 3,114. By occupation, principal and auxiliary engineering occupations (700,039) and service occupations (617,202) dominate, against 94,103 administrators, directors, managers and active investors and 44,766 scientific, technical and human-subject specialists. Muscat holds 686,371 of all 1,835,939 expatriate workers. The Embassy’s brief says thousands of Indians work as doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, teachers, lecturers, nurses and managers, and the India–Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed on 17–18 December 2025 during the Prime Minister’s visit, entered into force on 1 June 2026 (Embassy brief).

Omanisation and the occupations closed to new visas

Oman reserves jobs for Omanis, and in 2026 the list grew. People Matters reported on 14 January 2026 that the Ministry of Labour was blocking new work visas for expatriates in more than 200 professions, citing Ministry resolutions 235/2022 and 501/2024, across hospitality and tourism, management, administration, logistics and technical services, with digital roles such as programmers, systems analysts, computer engineers and web designers restricted in phases through 2026 and 2027; existing workers may continue until their permits expire. NRI Information’s 2026 guide says programmers and computer engineers have been reserved for Omanis since 1 January 2026 and web designers and operations analysts follow from 1 January 2027. We could not open the Ministry’s own list or find a 2026 quota percentage by sector, so check a job against the Ministry’s current rules before you accept an offer.

The 2023 Labour Law

The Labour Law issued by Royal Decree 53/2023 took effect on 31 July 2023, as the Oman Observer’s worked example of gratuity dates it. What matters to an expatriate, from the sources we could read: probation of up to three months for monthly-paid staff (two for others), once per employer, with seven days’ notice from either side during it; sick leave of up to 182 days; 98 days’ maternity leave, seven days’ paternity leave and 15 days’ leave to accompany a sick relative (Gulf News, 26 July 2023). Teamed’s guide, reviewed on 16 October 2026, lists a working day of up to 8 hours and a week of 40, annual leave of at least 30 days after six months, and 30 days’ written notice for monthly-paid staff on an open contract, with a legitimate reason required.

End of service

Until the new system starts, the employer owes gratuity under Article 61 of the 2023 law: no less than one basic salary for each year of service, calculated on the latest basic pay, and for service under the older law half a month’s pay for each of the first three years and a month for each year after, as the Oman Observer explained the Ministry’s clarification on 23 October 2024. That is one reason the basic salary on the contract matters more than the allowances. A mandatory savings scheme for expatriates is coming: the employer will pay 9% of the basic salary into an individual account, to be taken at the end of employment in Oman, from a date the Social Protection Fund sets and no later than 19 July 2027 (Teamed; Gulf News, updated 11 March 2026); gratuity already earned stays owed. Separately, Social Protection Fund decision 13/2026 made sick-leave and extraordinary-leave insurance compulsory for expatriate employees in the public and private sectors from 20 July 2026 (Gulf News, 28 June 2026; DLA Piper gives 19 July), excluding domestic workers.

Tax: none today, 5% from 2028

Oman levies no personal income tax today. Royal Decree 56/2025, issued on 22 June 2025 and published in the Official Gazette on 30 June 2025, introduces a 5% tax from 1 January 2028. EY’s alert says the OMR 42,000 threshold is measured on gross income and that the tax applies to residents (present for more than 183 days in a tax year, taxed on income in Oman and abroad) and non-residents (taxed on Omani income only). It says 16 categories are exempt, and Gulf News lists them, among them contributions to up to two pension schemes, education and health expenses within limits, income from a primary residence, and zakat and donations up to 5% of gross income. The executive regulations were due within a year of publication, about 30 June 2026; we could not find them. OMR 42,000 a year is OMR 3,500 a month.

Bringing your family

The salary threshold for a family joining visa has moved, and the reports conflict. The 2013 law set OMR 600 a month; the Royal Oman Police cut it to OMR 300 in October 2017 (Oman Observer, 3 October 2017); Gulf News reported on 17 February 2023 that the ROP had lowered it to OMR 150, from OMR 350 in its words, and NRI Information’s 2026 guide repeats OMR 150, adding that older guides say OMR 300. We could not open an ROP page that prints the current figure, so confirm it with ROP or your employer before you book tickets. ROP’s 2017 guidelines asked for a bank statement covering three months and a flat lease, in your name or your employer’s, approved by a competent authority. The Indian schools admit children through the Board’s online system (schools).

The Investor Residence

For people with capital, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion relaunched its investor residency, which Deloitte’s note of 4 September 2025 calls a Golden Visa, effective 31 August 2025. Tier One, ten years, needs OMR 500,000 or more invested in a limited-liability or public joint-stock company or government bonds, property worth OMR 500,000 or more, or a company employing at least 50 Omanis. Tier Two, five years, needs OMR 250,000 in a company or property, or, for retirees, a fixed income of OMR 4,000 a month. Residency extends to spouses, children and dependent parents, and applications go through the Invest Oman platform. We could not open an official page, so check the thresholds with Invest Oman.

Complaints and scams

Indians with unpaid wages, withheld leave or other labour disputes can go to the Embassy’s Community Welfare Wing, in person or by telephone: +968 24684567 during office hours (its labour page gives 7am to 3:30pm, its other pages 8:30am to 5pm, so call first), and the 24-hour toll-free line 80071234. The Embassy holds an Open House, in person and online, on the last Friday of every month, where the Ambassador and the consular and community welfare officers meet people without an appointment.

The official yardstick is the NCSI’s consumer price index, and over the twelve months to July 2026 prices rose in most groups except housing. Its August 2026 bulletin puts the all-items index at 110.5 in July (2018 = 100), up 3.15% on July 2025, with Muscat at 109.9, up 3.37%. By group, food and non-alcoholic drinks rose 7.29% in the year, transport 6.52% (and 2.13% in July alone), restaurants and hotels 3.57%, furnishings 3.07%, education 2.15%, health 1.70% and housing and utilities fell 0.55%. Vegetables rose 19.91% and fruit 15.83% year on year. There is no income tax on salaries today, so the gross on the contract is close to what reaches the bank, until the 5% tax of 2028 reaches anyone earning above OMR 42,000 a year. We could not open Numbeo for Muscat (it limited our requests), so the shop-price table below is Expat Arrivals’, a September 2025 average.

Expat Arrivals gives no international-school fee and says only that those schools are expensive. Food prices have risen since: the NCSI’s food group is up 7.29% on July 2025, so treat the grocery lines as low.

What moves the budget

The big lines to price are rent, school fees and, if you need one, a car. Housing has been soft: the NCSI’s housing group is below its level of a year ago, and the Bayut medians above run from about OMR 115 to OMR 400 for a one- or two-bedroom flat outside the seafront developments. The Indian schools charge a fraction of the international ones: ISWK’s 2026–27 table runs from OMR 673 to OMR 853 a year in tuition and fees, and Indian School Darsait’s tuition from OMR 40 to OMR 54 a month before a small facilities fee (schools).

Where the saving is

With no income tax today, the gross on the contract is close to what reaches the bank, and the end-of-service payment (or, from 2027, the 9% savings account) adds to it at the end. How to hold the saving as an NRI, and how India’s residency rules treat a long stay abroad, are an Indian-tax question this guide does not answer; the Embassy issues an NRI certificate for OMR 16.200, including the SGIVS and welfare-fund charges, within three working days.

Oman’s health insurance for private-sector staff is in law but its enforcement is the question. The scheme is called Dhamani, the Unified Health Insurance Policy, which was introduced in March 2019 for private-sector employees and visitors. Lockton’s note of 4 September 2024 says the Financial Services Authority, formerly the Capital Market Authority, runs it through an electronic platform, E Dhamani, and that the basic cover is capped at OMR 4,500 a year, with sub-limits of OMR 3,000 for inpatient care, OMR 500 for outpatient care and OMR 1,000 for repatriation of remains, that the employer pays the whole premium for employees and their dependants, and that the mandate was expected to take effect once the platform was fully operational by the end of 2025. The Oman Observer reported in September 2020 that the platform would eventually link about 1,700 providers. We found no 2026 notice saying the mandate is enforced across the board, so ask HR in writing which insurer covers you and your family, whether it is registered on E Dhamani, and what is excluded.

Sick-leave insurance, new in July 2026

A different and compulsory scheme began this summer. Social Protection Fund decision 13/2026 makes sick-leave and extraordinary-leave insurance mandatory for expatriate employees of the public sector and of private establishments under the Labour Law from 20 July 2026, as Gulf News reported on 28 June (DLA Piper gives 19 July). It pays for time off, not for treatment, and it excludes domestic workers.

Where care is

Wikipedia’s list of hospitals in Oman, which is undated and uneven, places in Muscat: Al Nahdha Hospital in Ruwi (opened 1972), Khoula Hospital, the national trauma centre, at Al Wattayah, the Royal Hospital, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Aster Al Raffah Hospital at the Ghubra roundabout, Burjeel Hospital in Al Khuwair, KIMS Oman Hospital in Darsait, NMC specialty hospitals in Ghubra, Ruwi and Al Hail, and Badr Al Samaa clinics in Ruwi, Al Khoud and Al Khuwair. The Embassy’s page on deaths names the Royal Oman Police Hospital in Qurum and Khoula Hospital at Mina Al Fahal. Check any hospital’s hours and whether it takes your insurer before you need it. We found no 2026 source on fees for expatriates at government hospitals, so ask the group.

Emergencies and the Embassy

The police emergency number is 9999 and civil defence and fire 999 (Wikipedia). For an Indian in distress the Embassy’s 24-hour helpline is 80071234. The Embassy’s page on deaths says the sponsor reports a death to the nearest police station, obtains the hospital’s death notification, and applies to the Embassy for a No Objection Certificate to airlift the body or to bury or cremate locally; it lists the embalming charges (OMR 123 at the Royal Oman Police Hospital, OMR 100 at Khoula Hospital), handling at the airport cargo terminal (about OMR 77) and a casket (OMR 180 to OMR 200). The Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana is, the Embassy says, a mandatory insurance scheme for ECR-category emigrants, and every passport fee carries OMR 0.800 for the Indian Community Welfare Fund; the Embassy’s community welfare wing can say whether either helps in your case.

The Embassy calls the Indian schools the anchor of the Indian community in Oman. Schools began in 1941 with a Gujarati-medium school for the merchants’ children, and the community opened its first CBSE school, in Darsait, in 1975. Today the Board of Directors of Indian Schools in Oman, the apex policy body, governs 22 schools: its home page shows 47,465 students, 2,086 teachers and 760 administrative staff, and the Embassy says more than 48,000 students. The Board works under bye-laws approved by Oman’s Ministry of Education, and every school teaches the CBSE curriculum from kindergarten to Class XII.

The Muscat schools

The profile pages’ student numbers are dated (Indian School Muscat’s 9,480 is "as on 10.05.2018"), so use the Board’s 2026 total instead. The Board also runs Care and Special Education for children aged 4 to 18 with special needs.

Admissions

The Board runs an online admission system for the capital-area schools: Indian School Muscat, Al Ghubra, Darsait, Al Wadi Al Kabir, Bousher, Al Seeb and Al Maabela. Parents fill in the form on the Board’s portal and see the result there; admissions for 2026–27 are on the Board’s site. A new admission also pays a deposit and fees to the school, as below.

What the schools charge in 2026–27

• ISWK (Al Wadi Al Kabir) publishes a table for 2026–27: monthly tuition of OMR 53 for nursery to KG III, OMR 55 for Classes 1 to 5, OMR 56 for Classes 6 to 8, OMR 59 for Class 9, OMR 60 for Class 10 and OMR 58, 63 or 68 for Classes 11 and 12 by combination, plus a term fee of OMR 27 and an infrastructure fee of OMR 10 once a year, so OMR 673 to OMR 853 a year in all. A new admission also pays OMR 10 non-refundable and a refundable caution deposit of OMR 100, and late fees are OMR 1 a month.
• Indian School Darsait publishes its 2026–27 structure with monthly tuition of OMR 44 in KG I, OMR 42 in KG II, OMR 40 in KG III, OMR 41 for Grades I to VIII, OMR 43 for Grades IX and X and OMR 46.50 to OMR 54 for Classes XI and XII by stream, plus facilities fees of OMR 6 to OMR 10 a month, an admission fee of OMR 10 and a refundable deposit of OMR 100 for a new non-sibling admission and OMR 10 for a sibling.

We could not open a 2026 school-transport fee table, and fees at the other Muscat schools may differ, so ask each school for its sheet. A family arriving mid-year should ask the school and the Board’s portal whether places are open in the class.

Childcare and higher education

We found no 2026 source on nurseries and childcare costs, so the groups are the way to find them. ISWK’s table shows its own nursery class. Higher education is outside this guide; the Embassy keeps pages on Indian universities recognised in Oman and on studying in India.

Keeping an Indian kitchen going in Muscat is not hard. Lulu Hypermarket, the Indian-owned chain, is the name people give first. The Oman Observer reported on 15 March 2021 that it had opened its newest store in Ruwi, 50,000 square feet on two levels and its 27th outlet in Oman, with a fresh-food section, a hot-food counter and a supermarket. In January 2019 Lulu opened a 350,000-square-foot store at Wadi Al Lawami, Al Khoudh, which replaced its Al Burj branch and has a food court, a department store and a large car park. Lulu’s own website refused our requests, so we cannot give a current branch list: check before you cross the city.

The shopping streets

Ruwi High Street is the main commercial street in Muscat, Wikipedia says, and has jewellery, electrical and gift shops. At Diwali the Oman Observer quoted a Ruwi shopkeeper on 19 October 2025 saying lights, colours and sweets were the most sought-after goods, and Times of Oman reported on 20 October that jewellery, gift and sweet shops did heavy business before the festival.

Where to eat

Kamat is a vegetarian Indian restaurant with branches in Ruwi, on Rex Road and in Al Khuwair, according to a HappyCow listing whose date we could not confirm. Wikipedia’s article on Ruwi says the district has a large number of Pakistani restaurants and names Pakistani Tea House. We could not verify a current list of Kerala, Gujarati or Bengali restaurants, or of sadhya prices for Onam 2026, from a source we could open, so this section names little: the groups are quicker than a web page that goes out of date. The weekly shop, the wedding caterer, the tailor and the grocer who stocks your region’s pulses are what the Oman directory is for, and you can add yours.

Prices

Expat Arrivals’ September 2025 averages are OMR 0.65 for a kilo of rice, OMR 0.80 for a litre of milk, OMR 1.05 for a dozen eggs, OMR 2.80 for a kilo of chicken breast and OMR 9.60 for a three-course meal for two in a mid-range restaurant; the NCSI’s food group has risen 7.29% since July 2025, so these are low.

Muscat has two Hindu temples, and according to their own site both function under the umbrella of the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. The Embassy’s brief says the Hindu merchant community has two temples, one more than a century old, and cremation grounds; that churches have been permitted; and that a gurdwara has existed for over two decades alongside at least two temporary structures used as gurdwaras.

Both temples run on a festival calendar published on their site. The Krishna temple lists Holi, Dariyalal Jayanti, Ramnavami, Vat Savitri, the Kutchhi New Year, Guru Poornima, Shravan, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Mahashtami, Diwali, Jalaram Jayanti, Chaitra Navratri, Vishu, Hanuman Jayanti and Ganga Dashera; the Shiva temple’s first page lists Vasant Panchmi, its temple anniversary, Ramnavmi, the month of Shravan, Maha Shivratri, Hanuman Jayanti and the Ganesh festival. The site’s timings page did not load text we could read, so telephone the temple for darshan and aarti times, and for any special timings at a festival.

What the two temples tell you about the community

The Krishna temple’s list reads as a Gujarati and Kutchhi calendar, with Dariyalal Jayanti, the Kutchhi New Year and Jalaram Jayanti on it, which fits the temple’s own account of its builders, and Wikipedia ties the Shiva temple to the Bhatia merchants from Sindh. Neither site says who comes to worship. The Indian Social Club’s wings for Tamil, Telugu, Kerala and others are the other side of the community’s year (associations).

Weddings, births and funerals

The Embassy solemnises and registers marriages itself, under the Foreign Marriage Act of 1969, where at least one party is Indian and holds an Omani residence visa; it also registers a marriage solemnised in a mosque, temple or church, after the couple has an affidavit of intent to marry attested by the Embassy, and a notice of intended marriage stays on the Embassy’s board for 30 days. The Embassy’s page on deaths lists a No Objection Certificate for local burial or cremation, as well as for airlifting a body to India. The Embassy’s brief says the Hindu merchant community has cremation grounds, so cremation in Oman is possible; ask the Embassy’s community welfare wing where.

The Embassy says the Indian community in Oman is organised under the Indian Social Clubs in Muscat, Salalah, Sohar and Sur, and that the clubs have sub-groups called Linguistic Wings that cater to their members’ cultural and social needs. The Muscat club’s own website, which is undated, gives 1996 as the year it was established (we found no second source for the year), 5,500 members, three branches (Salalah, Sohar and Sur), and 26 linguistic wings. The Oman Observer’s report of the club’s Independence Day event on 16 August 2026 gives two different counts, 16 and 26, in the same article.

The club and who may join

Membership is open to all Indian citizens residing in Oman, subject to the approval of the managing committee: you attach copies of your passport with the visa page and your resident card, a passport photograph and the application form, and new members are called to an introductory meeting. The office has a post-box in Ruwi (PO Box 2916, PC 112), its contact page says to visit the office in Darsait, and it is open Sunday to Thursday from 9:30am to 1:30pm and 4pm to 8pm; the telephone numbers on the site are 24701347 and 24703263. Its events page listed Club Day 2026 on 21 May 2026 at 7pm at Le Grand Hall, Al Falaj Hotel, Ruwi. The club also lists interest groups, among them Open Mic, a singers’ group, and Rangrez, an artists’ group, and its home page lists sports including tennis, badminton, table tennis, billiards and karate.

The wings

The site lists 26 wings: Beary, Bengali, Bohra, Charity, Deccan, Goan, Gujarati, Hindi, Karnataka, Katchi, Kerala, Malabar, Malayalam, Malwa, Mangalorian Konkani, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telangana, Telugu, Urdu and Uttarakhand. One, the Charity Wing, is not a language group. Each wing lists a convener with contact details on the site, so write to the wing for your language or region first. The Punjabi Wing worked with the Embassy and the Gurudwara Management Committee on the Guru Nanak anniversary event in 2019.

The Embassy’s own calendar

The Embassy holds an Open House on the last Friday of each month, in person and online, where Indians can meet the Ambassador and the consular and community welfare officers without an appointment. Its home page in October 2026 shows an Ayurveda Day programme held with Sri Sri Wellbeing Oman, a Seva Pakhwada with a blood-donation camp, a Gandhi Jayanti event and a Navratri rangoli competition, which are the Embassy’s own events, not the club’s.

Classes and sport

We could not confirm a current list of dance, music or language classes in Muscat from a page we could open, or of cricket leagues, so none is printed. The schools and the club’s wings are the places to start, and the Muscat groups and directory will fill the gap as members add them. Check any studio’s licence before paying a term in advance.

Muscat keeps Indian festivals at two temples, in homes, in the Indian Social Club’s halls and in hotels, and the calendar is the Omani one: the weekend is Friday and Saturday, and Diwali is a working day. The dates below are the rest of the Embassy’s own holiday list for 2026 and for 2027, which marks the days it is closed (Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October and Dussehra on 20 October 2026 have passed); the temples’ pages and the club carry the programmes, and the live listings below carry what organisers add.

Diwali in Muscat

Diwali is not a public holiday in Oman, and Sunday 8 November is a working day, since the weekend is Friday and Saturday. The family gatherings therefore fall on Friday 6 November, Dhanteras, and Saturday 7 November, with the Lakshmi Puja on Sunday evening after work. The Diwali page for Oman records that both temples have held the Lakshmi Puja on the festival evening in past years; the Shri Krishna Temple’s own list names Diwali. In 2025 the Oman Observer reported shopping malls and shops busy for two weeks beforehand and families visiting temples and exchanging gifts, and Times of Oman reported homes in Ruwi, Ghubrah and Qurum decorated with lights and rangoli, and one group dining at a hotel buffet. No programme for Diwali 2026 had been published on any source we could open by 23 October, and the club’s events page showed only its May Club Day. As that page records, fireworks are contraband under the GCC Common Customs Law, and the Royal Oman Police warned in 2018 that selling them can bring up to three years in prison and a fine of up to OMR 3,000, so the night is lit with lamps. Ask your child’s school about 8 November: the schools set their own calendars.

Navratri, Onam, Ganesh and the rest

The Krishna temple lists Navratri and Chaitra Navratri, Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi; the Shiva temple lists Maha Shivratri, which Wikipedia says draws more than 20,000 Hindus. The Embassy lists Onam, and the club’s Kerala, Malayalam and Malabar wings are the people to ask about it. The club marked India’s 80th Independence Day with the Ambassador as chief guest in August 2026. The Muscat events calendar has the garba nights, the concerts and the sadhyas as members and organisers post them.

Ramadan and the calendar

The Embassy’s dates for Id-ul-Fitr and Id-ul-Zuha, 10 March and 17 May 2027, are marked subject to the moon, as declared by the local government, so Oman’s own announcement decides. We did not find a 2026 source for Ramadan working hours, so ask your employer for the hours it observes.

WhatsApp is how most expatriate communities pass news around, and Oman’s Indian institutions use it directly: the Embassy answers consular questions on a WhatsApp number, as does SGIVS Global. The groups are how a new arrival finds a flat, a clinic, a school seat and a lift.

What the groups are good at, and what they are not

They are fast when they work: a question about a clinic near Ruwi or a school seat in Class 3 is answered by people who live there. But you need to know someone to get the link; the links that circulate go stale; most groups show your phone number to every member; and the answers scroll away, so the same questions about the residence card, school fees and passport slots are asked every week. The groups are also where scams start. The Embassy’s advisory of 20 October 2026 warns of callers who seem to know your passport, visa or immigration details, claim a problem and ask for money; it tells people not to share passport or Resident Card copies or to pay anyone who rings. Anything legitimate can be checked: a job against the employer’s permit, a flat against a signed lease, a consular service against the Embassy’s own page.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community’s app and website have local groups, events near you, a directory of Indian businesses and Ask, where members answer each other’s questions; you can post anonymously. The local groups for this city are listed at /groups/in/oman/muscat; open them before you land and you arrive with somewhere to ask. The Muscat events page lists Indian events in the city, and the Oman directory lists Indian businesses; the Oman page has the events, groups and businesses for the whole country.

Your first week, in practice

1. Open the Muscat groups and join the general one and the one for your area, language or interest. Read before you post; the paperwork answers are usually there already.
2. Go to one event in your first fortnight: a temple festival, a wing’s programme, a school function. It is the quickest way from "the Indian community in Muscat" as a phrase to three people whose names you know.
3. Ask the question you actually have, and say where you live and what your employer’s sector is: the answer for a nurse in Al Khuwair is not the answer for a mason in Ruwi.
4. When you have found your flat, your clinic and your grocer, leave a review or an answer for the next person from Kochi, Vadodara or Lucknow.

The groups near Muscat are listed below. If the one you need is not there yet, ask in the general Muscat group; someone is usually looking for the same thing.

Indians share Oman with other large South Asian communities, and the NCSI counts them. Its August 2026 bulletin, taking the figures from the Royal Oman Police, lists 1,835,939 expatriate workers in July 2026 (provisional): 600,138 Bangladeshis, 531,001 Indians, 285,196 Pakistanis, 54,908 Egyptians, 44,264 Filipinos, 38,901 from Myanmar, 29,934 Tanzanians, 21,301 Sri Lankans, 17,587 Sudanese and 212,709 of other nationalities (Nepalis are not listed on their own). The bulletin’s own change column reads up 4.4% for Indians and down 3.8% for Bangladeshis on July 2025. Those are national figures for workers. Nobody publishes a nationality count for Muscat, and this page does not invent one.

What is the same for everyone

Everything on this page about the permit, the residence card, the 2023 labour law, end-of-service pay, the savings scheme coming in 2027, sick-leave insurance, the 2028 tax and Dhamani applies identically to Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Nepalis. The labour law does not depend on nationality, and the same Omanisation limits close the same professions to new work visas. Wikipedia says Ruwi’s south-eastern part is known as "Little India" and "Little Pakistan", and lists many Pakistani restaurants there; the same shops, buses and clinics serve all of them, and the Indian Social Club’s own list of wings includes both Urdu and Hindi.

Missions and festivals

Each country has its own embassy in Muscat, for passports and labour welfare. We did not open the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Sri Lankan or Nepali embassies’ websites, so no address or hours for them are printed here; use each embassy’s official pages. The festival calendars also overlap: Nepali Hindus’ Dashain and Tihar fall in the same weeks as Navratri and Diwali.

Shared ground

Where the practical problems are the same, the answers travel. A Bangladeshi electrician, a Sri Lankan accountant and an Indian engineer all need the same residence card, the same lease and a clear contract; the complaint route in the work section is for Indians, and each community’s embassy has its own. The Muscat groups and the Oman directory are open to all of them.

Consular services

Oman has one Indian mission, so there is no jurisdiction question: the Embassy of India, Muscat, at Jami’at Al-Dowal Al-Arabiya Street, Diplomatic Area, Al Khuwair (PO Box 1727, PC 112), serves the whole country. The Embassy moved to this owned complex in January 2008. Its public visiting hours are Sunday to Thursday, 8:30am to 12 noon, and its office hours Sunday to Thursday, 8:30am to 5pm; Friday and Saturday are the weekend. The Ambassador is Prashant Pise. The general number is 00968-24684500.

You will rarely need the Embassy itself for a passport. Since March 2019 it has been part of the Passport Seva Programme, and the outsourced agency, SGIVS Global LLC, receives the applications and payment. SGIVS calls itself the exclusive service provider to the Embassy for consular, visa, passport and OCI services, with 11 service centres across Oman. Its Muscat centre is at the Al Raid Business Center, Building 4819, Office 27, first floor, Al Qurum; it takes submissions from 8am to 4pm and gives collections from 8am to 5pm, Saturday to Thursday. Book an appointment on its website (it has tutorials in English, Hindi, Arabic and Malayalam); the toll-free call centre is 80055455 and the helpline +968 22496250. Its other centres include Salalah, Sohar, Nizwa, Buraimi, Ibri and Sur.

Passport fees from 1 July 2026

The Embassy’s fee sheet in force from 1 July 2026 adds an OMR 6 service fee for SGIVS and OMR 0.800 for the Indian Community Welfare Fund to the government fee:

Other services and help

The Embassy attests documents (at SGIVS, with the original passport and resident card), issues the NRI certificate (OMR 16.200, within three working days), registers marriages and runs OCI services; 2,092 people of Indian origin held OCI cards in June 2026. Labour disputes, unpaid wages, medical problems and court cases go to the Community Welfare Wing: +968 24684567 during office hours, the 24-hour toll-free line 80071234, [email protected]. The Embassy’s MADAD complaints system is at madad.gov.in. The Embassy’s Open House is on the last Friday of every month.

The numbers to save

The Embassy’s consular wing is +968 98282270 (WhatsApp) and [email protected]; its community welfare wing also lists 79964455 and 97256983 (the second is the WhatsApp number its page on deaths gives), and domestic-work queries go to 79173615 on WhatsApp. The police emergency number is 9999 and civil defence 999.

Safety in 2026: the regional war

2026 brought the Iran war to Oman. After the US and Israel struck Iran on 28 February, Iran launched drone and missile strikes on sites in Oman and the Strait of Hormuz from 1 March, according to Wikipedia’s article on the strikes: the Port of Duqm and the Port of Salalah, and ports and industrial zones in Sohar and Bukha, plus ships off the coast. On 13 March one drone fell in Sohar’s Al Awahi Industrial Area and killed two expatriates, and the Economic Times, which the article cites, headlined it as two Indians killed and ten injured. The article’s tally for Oman is 14 killed and 35 injured, including 12 crew of attacked ships and two foreign workers killed on land. The article’s opening line also lists Mina Al Fahal, an oil port in the Muscat governorate, among the targets, but its detailed entry says a report of a drone strike there was denied by Petroleum Development Oman, which said loading continued normally. The timeline we read names no strike on a residential district of Muscat. The article still describes the strikes as ongoing, and its own citations show a ceasefire between the United States and Iran strained in late June, so check the Embassy’s website and Oman’s own announcements before you travel or bring family here.

Everyday safety

The scam the Embassy has flagged is the paperwork kind: a caller who seems to know your passport, visa or immigration details and claims a problem. The Embassy’s advisory of 20 October 2026 lists the habits that protect you: never share passport or resident card copies with a stranger, never pay a caller, and verify any call that claims to be the Embassy against its published numbers. If you have already paid, call your bank, report it to the Omani authorities and write to [email protected] or [email protected].