Of course no one has really answered the question why this is needed at all. How many forms of ID documentation should we actually need? If this was my own country, I would simply refuse to get one… Oh wait a minute, my country (the US) balked and threatened to tar and feather the government officials if they approved such a national ID system. And you know what, it’s a bad idea for the UAE as well.
Expatriate professionals now have until the end of next year to obtain their national ID card, according to the head of the programme.
“Calm down, don’t panic. Your deadline isn’t until the end of 2010,” Darwish al Zarouni, the director general of the Emirates Identity Authority (Eida), said on the sidelines of the Citizen ID Forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
While it was still recommended that non-national white-collar workers registered for an ID card before the Feb 28 deadline, Mr al Zarouni said they would not be denied access to government services if they did not.
He said the decision had been taken to “make life easier” for those who had not registered, and that it was up to the individual when they applied, as long as they had obtained a card by the end of 2010.
Expatriate professionals had earlier been warned they could face problems with services such as obtaining a driver’s licence, visiting a doctor or opening a bank account if they missed the deadline.
There have been chaotic scenes at registration centres with some residents queuing overnight to get an appointment, concerned about the consequences of not getting one in time.
On Eida’s website, there are no appointments available anywhere in the UAE until several months after the Feb 28 deadline…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year ago at 3:10 pm. Add a comment
The Emirates Identity Authority is providing the necessary equipment to Emirates Post so that the latter’s staff could carry out the entire process of issuance of ID cards, said EID Director-General Darwish Ahmed Al Zarooni.
Members of the public can register, fill in application forms, submit the required documents and receive the ID cards from the Emirates Post branches countrywide, he said and added that EIDA is providing PCs to allow the Emirates Post staff to get training in using the system.
According to Al Zarooni, until Tuesday some 820,000 expats and locals had registered for the ID cards. About 80 per cent of expatriate professionals and about 22 per cent of Emiratis have yet to register. Very soon two new EIDA customer service centres will open in Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah, he said. Each of the centres will be able to handle 600 applicants a day…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 9:27 am. Add a comment
01/18/2009 09:12 AM | By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: Identity Card (ID) applicants can easily make an appointment from this week as the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) is revamping the appointment system.
The revamp will open a year-long calendar (for appointments), increase the number of centres handling applicants and allocate more capacity for registration for appointments, a senior official told Gulf News.
The applicants will also be able to track the status of their applications online, said Thamer Rashid Al Qasimi, Planning Director and Project Management Director at EIDA.
Deadlines
“The revamping of the appointment system, online tracking system and a new version of user-friendly pre-registration application software are the latest steps taken by EIDA to make the ID card registration easier.”
An appointment system on trial opened at the beginning of January and the bookings were full within a week, said the official. “We had allocated about 20 per cent of the registration capacity of about ten centres for appointments.”
Appointments were made by expatriate professionals and Emiratis whose deadlines are February and March 31, 2009, respectively, he said.
More centres
EIDA will open the yearlong calendar of 2009 for appointments soon, said Al Qasimi.
More centres will handle the appointment system instead of about ten centres (out of a total 28) at present and more than 50 per cent of the registration capacity will be allocated to handling appointments, he said…
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Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 10:01 am. Add a comment
12/28/2008 11:32 PM | By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: As many as 190,000 UAE citizens have been exempt from paying a fine of Dh1,000 for not registering for National ID card by the Wednesday deadline, thanks to a Cabinet decision on Sunday.
The December 31 deadline has been extended by three months and citizens have to pay no fine during the extended period, according to the decision taken by the Council of Ministers on the instructions of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior.
All those citizens who were unable to register “for identity card and population register will have sufficient time to register before fines can be imposed”, said the statement.
The Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) is happy to receive the ‘timely cabinet decision’ as it will benefit about 190,000 citizens who may fail to register before December 31, a senior official told Gulf News on Sunday.
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 10:19 am. Add a comment
The deadline for professionals has been extended.
12/17/2008 12:36 AM | By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: Expatriate professionals will get two more months for “hassle free” ID card registration after the December 31 deadline, according to the new schedule which was announced by the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) on Tuesday.
The schedule means that people will not face the inconvenience of long queues in January and February as registration for the next category will begin on March 1.
“It is not an extension of the deadline but we would like to refer it as ‘a transition period’ to begin with a new category,” a senior EIDA official told Gulf News.
Earlier the EIDA granted a reprieve to expatriate professionals, saying no fines would be imposed or bank accounts blocked and they could register even after the December 31 deadline but at the cost of certain inconveniences.
“They will have to bear with the long queues of other categories of professionals and if an ID card is demanded for any official transactions, it will be their responsibility,” the EIDA said at that time.
Students and administrative staff in the private sector who fall under Category 2 can register from March 1 to June 18. From June 20 to September 30, Category 3 can register.
Construction workers in the private sector under Category 4 have been allotted the longest timeframe, from October 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010.
The EIDA will hire new staff during the “transition period” to cope with the pressure of the new categories, said Thamer Rashid Al Qasimi, planning director and project management director at the EIDA.
“On reviewing the work so far, we can rectify any mistakes and improve the strategic initiatives.”…
That last quote sounds a bit ominous.
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 9:09 am. Add a comment
Here is the latest in the ongoing ID saga:
12/13/2008 11:45 PM | WAM
Abu Dhabi: The December 31 deadline for UAE citizens to register for the national identity cards will not be extended, a top official at the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) said on Saturday.
Darwish Al Zarouni, Director-General of the EIDA, said the Cabinet decision was clear that Emiratis and professional expatriates must register for ID cards by the end of this year.
“All UAE nationals and professional expatriates should hold ID cards by the end of 2008, while expatriates of various categories should have them by the end of 2010,” Al Zarouni said.
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 9:49 am. Add a comment
Seriously, here is the latest in the ID drama.
12/05/2008 11:46 PM | Staff Report
Abu Dhabi: Nearly 500,000 expat professionals and about 229,000 Emiratis are yet to register for their ID cards before the December 31 deadline, Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) said.
It said most of them will miss the deadline because of the public holidays until December 13.
Although EIDA will continue the registration after the deadline, no services shall be provided to Emiratis without the ID card from January 1…
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Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 10:41 am. Add a comment
If you read my earlier posts you’ll know that I had a relatively easy run getting my ID card.
Frustration with the website, but I eventually got the necessary pages printed. It was easy, almost pleasant, at the EIDA Al Barsha registration office. The card has been delivered as promised.
But.
My family name isn’t on the card. Instead it has my first name and my father’s name.
Both are correct, it has my photo and I assume it has my fingerprints linked to it. But I’m sure it’s going to raise problems when I give organisations my surname, which differs from what they’re going to see on the ID card.
So I’m off to Al Barsha again next week to talk to someone.
And while I’m on the subject, the ID card debacle continues for most people.
Once again a fiasco is caused by the two things I complain about endlessly. Bad planning and bad communication.
The syndrome blights so many things, whether it’s creating a development like Dubai Marina, introducing the Salik toll system, creating the road network, introducing the national ID system.
The way it works is that the big announcement is made and a deadline/delivery date is given.
The work begins but it was badly planned and the faults start to appear. For real estate and roads that means digging it up and rebuilding to a new plan.
With initiatives like Salik and ID cards various officials start by denying there are any problems, then begin to give contradictory statements to the media. The media plays it’s part by simply repeating the confusing statements. This goes on for days or weeks, with ever-changing ‘information’ appearing each time.
The media doesn’t even seem to ask for clarification. You know, stuff like: “Official A yesterday said the opposite, would you please clarify the position. I’ll hold the story until you can come back with the definitive answer. Thank you.”
The ID card fiasco follows the pattern.
I’m absolutely certain the originally announcement was that the December 31 2008 deadline was for Emiratis. Expats had longer and I’m almost sure that I remember it as being 2010.
It was in the back of my mind and I was waiting for the announcement that we expats should start to register.
Then an official suddenly announced a few weeks ago that the deadline for ‘expat professionals’ is also December 31. There were dire threats of not being able to access government services and the freezing of bank accounts. (Denying people access to their legally obtained money is an interesting idea).
Officials maintained we all knew months ago about the deadline. In fact it transpires that some ads had run in some Arabic media – which supports my memory of the deadline applying only to Emiratis.
I loved this quote on the subject: EIDA was under no obligation to make announcements in other languages and that it was the responsibility of every resident to be aware of the country’s laws.
That’s hardly in harmony with the country’s official policy of welcoming expatriate guest workers, whether they can read Arabic or not, is it. Workers who make up at least 80% of the population. If laws are changed how do the expats living here know unless they’re told.
In any case, no-one had done the maths because the EIDA offices simply don’t have the capacity to process the number of registrations in the time-frame, (Dubai has only six offices) and because the website didn’t have enough bandwidth to handle the traffic.
As a result people have been queueing for half a day or more to simply get a ticket which gets them in a queue to make an appointment to be able to register.
People report having gone as directed to get application forms only to be told there aren’t any. (It was exactly the same with Salik, remember?)
The website didn’t work properly, (again, shades of Salik) arbitrarily changing information which was keyed in, as happened to me and others I know, and refusing to print the barcodes.
The mayhem starts and the frantic catch-up game is played, in place of planning correctly in the first place.
Extra bandwidth for the website, corrections for its faults, the release of CDs containing the forms.
And in the background, continuing confusing messages on an almost daily basis.
Bank accounts will be frozen. No they won’t.
Everyone missing the deadline will be fined. No they won’t, only Emiratis will be.
Government services will be denied. No they won’t.
The deadline is December 31. No it’s not, it will simply take longer if professionals register after that date.
Communication you see. And it continues with the difficulty of translation, understanding the meaning of words.
The word ‘deadline’ is, I’m sure, a key part of the problem.
They don’t mean ‘deadline’ they mean ’should do by’.
Or at least that’s what the latest information is saying.
They’re trying to spread the load by registering professional workers first, before they begin registering the massive numbers of blue collar workers from early next year. Professionals can still register after December 31 but will be in a long, long queue. So it’s not a deadline, but a suggested date to make it more convenient for everyone concerned.
Using the word ‘deadline’, especially as it was used in conjuction with the threats, predictably caused panic.
The chaos and confusion happens time and time again yet it’s so easily avoidable.
Plan it professionally and competently, communicate it clearly.
Have a look at the beginning of the chaos, here.
PS
I’ve just come across Alexander’s excellent posting on the subject, over at Fake Plastic Souks and it’s well worth a read.
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Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 12:09 pm. Add a comment
An update on the ID Card story I’ve posted about a couple of times.
I went to the Al Barsha EIDA office this morning and it was far from being the unpleasant drama that I’ve been reading and hearing about. And a far easier experience than dealing with the website!
All I took, as instructed, was my passport and the registration form/bar codes I’d printed out from their website. And cash for the Dh100 per year fee plus Dh20 delivery charge.
I went at 9.30am and found a parking space right outside. Only two people in the queue at Reception, so I was dealt with within a minute or two.
The Emirati lady looked at my registration form printout and passport and asked if I had an appointment. I didn’t because all the stories have been that it’s a waste of time, you still wait for hours. She asked if I had time to wait, which could be two hours. I said I would, she gave me a numbered ticket and directed me to the waiting area.
What a difference it is these days from the old government offices – Immigration and the like. Actually not so old, it’s only two or three years ago that it was a free-for-all in run down buildings that had long ago seen their best years.
This is a new building, clean, smart, comfortable seats, good signage and the number system rather than the rugby scrum system.
My ticket was timed at 9.32 and at 10.04 my number was called.
A pleasant, friendly Emirati lady entered my details into her computer, translating my English form into Arabic and correcting the mistakes the website had insisted on including. Two of her colleagues came through, she showed them my Australian passport and we had a chat about Australia, laughed and joked about them wanting to visit and staying with me there.
Then into the next room to have my photograph taken and on into a third office for fingerprinting. Emirati men this time and as they were as pleasant and friendly as the ladies. And they were using what to my non-tech mind seemed to be very modern equipment – the digital camera set up and linked direct to the computer, the fingerprint machine also linked direct to the computer. None of the old black ink pads to be seen.
One hour after arriving I was told it was all finished and the card would be delivered to me.
And I must add a point about interaction with the staff. There’s always a lot of negative comment about Emiratis, particularly those working in government offices, and the way they deal with expats, but I must say that I’ve very rarely had a problem. My experience has been that the majority are pleasant and friendly, as they were here.
One final observation – the queue at the typing office was fairly long and growing all the time. So although using the website to pre-register is frustrating I suggest it’s better than the typing office option.
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Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 12:10 pm. Add a comment
