Emirates ID Card

Here is another shocker from Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA). According to a report, ID Card renewal is a must with a job change.

Residents who change jobs will have to renew their National Identity Cards as well, according to Emirates Identity Authority (Eida).

Those who change their residency visas and do not renew their ID cards will be considered as violating law and will be required to pay fines, reported ‘Al Ittihad’ newspaper.

Eida urged residents to keep a close watch on the expiry of ID cards vis-a-vis visa validity to avoid paying fines.

Abdul Aziz Sultan Al Ma’amari, Director, Public Relations and Marketing, Eida, said: “The Authority appeals to public to check validity of their residency visas and ID cards. Those who change or renew their residence visas or transfer sponsorships must speed up their ID card renewal process in order to meet the deadline given for each emirate to avoid paying fines.”

In order to lure expats and Emiratis to register for Emirates ID Card, EIDA announced daily fines for those who have not yet came under the net. The deadline was Sept 4.

It is not clear whether any of the residents are fined yet. However, Arabian Business reports a new announcement from EIDA that seems to be a deadline extension.

According to the report, Emiratis have until October 31 to register for their Emirates ID card before they will incur fines of AED20 per day. Children under the age of 15 years old will be exempt from any penalties until October 1, 2012 while late fees will be introduced in four phases depending on the emirate of residence.

UAE residents will be charged AED20 per day for failing to register for a card, delaying the renewal of a card, or failure report changes in personal data. Penalties will not exceed AED1,000 and will be collected during the residency visa renewal process from January 2012.

The cost for a five-year card is AED100 for Emiratis, while expatriates pay AED100 for each year the card is valid.

Residents who already own an ID cards have until October 31, 2011 to apply for new cards expiring up to that date. All card holders, except children under the age of 15, have 30 days to renew their card from the expiry date.

According to EID, the waiting time at registration points has been cut from 30 to five minutes. Residents issued with a receipt following their registration will be exempt from any late penalties, providing they complete the registration by visiting the centre at the appointed time, the agency said.

Updates from Emirates 24|7:

The final deadline for UAE nationals to enrol their names in the Population Register and ID Card (PRIDC), prior to implementing the fine is October 31, 2011.

For expatriates above 15 years of age, the registration deadlines are a bit relaxed, and will be implemented in four phases:

December 1, 2011: All expatriates in the Northern Emirates (Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Ajman), in addition to all employees in the federal and local public sector and semi-government organisations and their families.

February 1, 2012: All expatriates in Sharjah

April 1, 2012: All expatriates in Abu Dhabi

June 1, 2012: All expatriates in Dubai

However, expatriates without ID Card registration looking to renew their residence visa after December 31, 2011, will have to foot the late fee.

The Emirates ID Authority (Eida) has announced to levy daily fines on residents and Emiratis if they fail to possess Emirates ID Card, with effect from Sunday, September 4.

Residents have to pay fine of AED20 for each day they fail to possess an Emirates ID card.

The ruling also lays out daily fines for residents that fail to renew their ID cards within 30 days of the expiry date, or to update key data within a 30-day period.

The decision would be effective 60 days from date of issue on July 5.

From: Arabian Business

The deadline for Emirates ID Card is becoming a matter of joke now. The EIDA has came a long way from its initial stance of issuing threats to expats and locals unable to registerd of the card by December 31, 2008. However, the deadline kept changing and extensions were provided due to number of reasons including issues with EIDA registration systems, incompetency of EIDA staff to handle load and inability of EIDA to motivate locals and expats both to get registered on time.

Now, as Khaleej Times quotes Darwish Ahmed Al Zarouni, director-general of the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA), , Expatriates residing in the UAE can obtain their national ID cards until the end of 2010. While the nationals can apply for the ID cards until the end of March 2009, failing which a fine of Dh1,000 will be imposed on each individual.

Previously EIDA blamed expats of being complacent and not taking the deadlines seriously. Now, media is also included in the blame game as Al Zarouni accuses media of misreporting the deadline.

“Deadlines have been wrongly reported by a cross-section of the English and Arabic media in the country. But, once and for all, let me put the record straight, that all non-nationals residing in the UAE have until the end of 2010 to apply for their ID cards”.

Al Zarouni recommended that non-national professional residents working in the private sector, and their family members, register before the February 28 deadline. He, however, added that if they fail to register, they could do it at their convenience by the end of 2010.

Issuing a warning to the companies, he said:

“If the companies fail to cooperate, there is a possibility that they would be denied access to various important services in the country. It’s a bit too early to comment on the consequences faced by the establishments, if they failed to comply with the rules”.

After tall claims and stern warnings, EIDA’s fall short in achieving the impossible. UAE government has extended deadline for Emirates ID Card registration for nationals by 3 months.

A UAE Interior Ministry statement said:

Citizens who were unable to register “for identity card will have sufficient time to register before fines can be imposed”,

The decision was issued by the Cabinet on the instructions of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

This decision has proved yet again the short sightedness of actions taken by the government. They set unrealistic deadlines and push public to meet them against warnings of heavy fines and punishments. If rulers of Dubai and UAE should first check ground realities and then set deadlines, they don’t have to extend them in first place and it will also save the public from loads of stress.

Well, anybody who have applied for the Emirates ID Card, in past two months, is well aware of the inefficiency of the process. From a website that stucks most of the time, to staff that is unable to manage pressure, EIDA has failed to meet its own defined deadlines.

First EIDA set unrealistic deadlines for the expatriates to get registered for Emirates ID Cards. Then, they applied pressure tactics by announcement of fines and barring services like bank transactions etc. When the panicked expats started to rush EIDA registration centers, the system collapsed under the pressure and they have to announced an extension of deadline.

However, now EIDA accuses expatriates of getting complancent following the announcement about no fines and the granting of more time. Thamer Rashid Al Qasimi, Planning Director and Project Management Director at (EIDA), says:

“About 493,000 of the estimated 600,000 expatriate professionals (by November 30, 2008) are left to register before February 28, 2009 but very few of them turn up these days.”

He cautioned that even if there are no fines, the ID card is the official identification document of expatriate professionals from January 1, 2009, and if any official body demands it for any transactions, EIDA will not be responsible.

Instead of accusing the expatriate community, EIDA officials should set realistic deadlines. It would be better if the ID cards were issues at time of visa renewal, rather than making the whole process another cause of suffering for the expatriates.