USA2UAE.COM

New Rules in Abu Dhabi Lead To Swamped Health Check Centers

Medical centres performing mandatory health tests on expatriates are being swamped with patients after new rules came into effect this year.

Many expatriates are having to queue for hours for the health tests, which are required for residence visas.

There are now only four Disease Prevention and Screening Centres in the emirate permitted to issue the health certificates required to obtain residency visas.Two are in the capital, one behind Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) and the other in Musaffah. The other two are in Al Ain and in Al Gharbia.

The Government decreed last summer that only selected public health centres could issue the certificates…SOURCE

ID Card update

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.