National ID must for immigration transactions

Adel Arafa - Khaleej Times

3 May 2010, 10:16 PM

EIDA has announced that ID cards will be compulsory to stamp, renew residence visa at all naturalisation and residency departments countrywide.

Starting before the end of this year with the Abu Dhabi department.

Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, Deputy Chairman of Higher Management Committee at The Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA), told mediapersons on the sidelines of the ID World Abu Dhabi 2010 forum on Monday that the ID cards will be eventually obligatory to process any transaction at any ministry.

He pointed out that the EIDA is linking up with the Ministry of Labour and other bodies, which offer transaction processing services to the public, to accept nothing but the ID cards as the proof of identity. “Therefore, UAE nationals and expatriate residents have to get their cards issued,” he said.

Al Khoury said that the number of people registered in the population register and identification cards system will double after linking the Ministry of Interior’s services to the ID cards since most people, be Emiratis or expatriates, deal with the Ministry.

He added that the linking of the traffic departments and licencing services to the ID cards was declared last September to come into effect by the beginning of next November. People had been granted grace period to get these cards issued, however the total number of ID applicants stand at 3,000-4,000 a day even when the total capacity of the ID centres is 5,000-7,000 per day, he said.

As many as 1.8 million people have registered with the system out of a total of five million people being targeted in the scheme according to the census conducted in 2005. Al Khouri expected the number of applicants to increase by 60-70 per cent after linking the other departments’ services to the ID cards.

“There is now a rush of applicants at the registration centres after the compulsory linkage of traffic and licencing services to the ID cards,” he added. The EIDA has contracted to import further two million blank ID cards that conform to the recent techniques in terms of ID cards industry, said Al Khouri.

Under its policy to open new registration centres, EIDA has designated a site at Abu Dhabi Industrial City ICAD in Mussafah and another serving the Abu Dhabi city, said Al Khouri, adding that the Authority will have its permanent premises in Khalifa City (A) in three years.

Meanwhile, Lt. General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, affirmed in his address to the ID World Abu Dhabi 2010 that the UAE leadership will spare no effort to support and introduce the application of modern technology out of its firm commitment to push the wheel of prosperity and progress ahead. The address was delivered on his behalf by Al Khouri.