I will be travelling to Indianapolis International Airport (IND) from Kolkata International Airport (CCU) and in fact this will be my first solo international flight journey and also the first one where I will have transit points in between the origin and destination of the journey.
My flight has a transit stop at Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). Based on what I have heard from the travel helpdesk, it seems that I won't require a visa for Abu Dhabi because my transit time is lesser than 24 hours and because I won't be exiting the airport.
However, I am worried thinking about this situation that if it so happens that my connecting flight from AUH gets delayed or due to some other reason (where I have no role to play) I am required to wait for 24 hours or more at Abu Dhabi, then technically it would now require me to have an Abu Dhabi visa, which I won't have with me. In this situation, what is the standard operating procedure?
Just for information: I would be travelling with a US F1 visa and I hold an Indian citizenship.