Emirates ID card deadline extended

Oh what a surprise….. After the misery, the worry, the wasted hours spent in queues or in futile attempts to access the EIDA website, topped off by the complete lack of credible, timely, accurate information from the authority concerned, yes after all that, the National newspaper announced today that the deadline for expats to obtain the Emirates ID card has been postponed to 31 December 2011.

Of course, the way things are going in Dubai, there'll only be 40 expats left by then (one in each branch of Costas).

Gulf News?

The Gulf News, the major English language newspaper here in the UAE ran a front page story earlier this week saying that residents with certain listed occupations would be barred from getting drivers licences, with immediate effect. The article did not list the banned occupations nor give a link to any relevant government website with further information. It also intimated that eventually only people with a university degree would be allowed to hold a UAE drivers licence. Naturally, a large degree of concern resulted amongst the public who rely on their cars to get around. There's no alternative to the private car as there's no public transport system aside from a few buses and the metro is not due to open until Sept 09.

A couple of days later the GN happily informs its readers that the ban applies only to the Emirate of Sharjah. Why did nobody at Gulf News think that, instead of just printing a government press release without question, they could have asked two simple questions, which would have been of huge public interest and benefit:

1. "Does this ban apply to the whole of the UAE?" (Answer: no, only Sharjah....at the moment anyway); and
2. "Where can the public find out if their particular job is on the banned list?" (Answer: nowhere, the list is not available to the public).

In further developments, according to a government spokesman, the 31 December 08 deadline to obtain the National ID card has not been extended, but as from 1 Jan 09 residents without the ID card won't have their bank accounts frozen nor will they be refused hospital treatment etc. (There are no ID application interview appointments available until mid-Feb anyway).

This week the previously announced UAE government ban on registering cars over 20 years old has also been reversed.

National ID card: The farce continues

And the farce continues: There's a rumour going round of an extension to the 31 December deadline which has motivated the UAE government in Abu Dhabi to make an official announcement that there is *no* deadline extension and that bank account suspension will commence after the passing of the deadline.

The other recent announcement that the application forms would be available at post offices (once you pay 40 dirhams for the envelope to put them into) has proved to be a non-starter. Colin went to two post offices today. First Satwa PO: no forms available, haven't had them for a week, don't know when they are getting any and they are getting 100+ people enquiring every day. Second Rashadiyya PO: no forms available, shrugged her shoulders and told him to come back in 2 days.

We are told that without the ID card, any resident whether Emirate or expat, will be unable to access health care from 1 January 09. Does this mean that if you are hurt in a car smash they will leave you on the side of the road? If a woman is due to have a baby but she hasn't been able to get the card, will she be refused entry to the maternity hospital? Many married women in the UAE are on their husband's residence visas and will rely on his company to organise the cards but there could be a delay due to the short time frame available for communciation and implementation.

Big Brother - Dubai style

The UAE government has decided that all residents, both expat and Emirati, must obtain a National ID card by the end of December 2008. The ID card which is supposed to replace the current Labour card, medical card, e-gate and the expat residence visa costs 100AED per year for each year of the residence visa. At visa renewal time you have to go through the whole procedure again. Unfortunately in its wisdom, the ID authority has been placing information ads since June in Arabic language newspapers only, as "Arabic is the official language of the UAE" so the news has been rather late in reaching the expat community. While Arabic is the official language of the UAE, placing ads in English language papers wouldn't have been a bad idea given that the majority of expats here are likely to be able to read them.

Applications are supposed to be made via the ID authority website but the site has not been able to cope with the number of users so it continually crashes. Should you be one of the few who's successful in completing the online form and printing the form out, you are given an appointment to attend the application centre. A friend went through this a couple of weeks ago, she arrived early at the application centre, they told her the form she had filled out online was "wrong" as the bar codes had not printed out (this seems to be happening a lot) so she had to have her form typed out manually. Over to the typing centre where she had to take a ticket and wait: they were in the process of typing #13 and she was given number #81! Needless to say she would have been waiting for hours so she gave up and went back to work.

The authority, once it deigned to communicate in English, has announced that residents who fail to obtain their ID cards by the 31 December deadline, for whatever reason, will be unable to conduct any transactions with any government entities ie renewing a drivers licence or residence visa, tenancy etc but most worrying their bank accounts frozen until they obtain the card. As application appointments are now fully booked until February 2009, how is this going to work? Not that I doubt for a second that freezing of accounts couldn't happen, I've been here too long for that sort of naivety. My understanding is that if the authority was working at top speed, it can only process 7,000 ID applications per day and that it will take them 86 working days to process the number of pending applications.

So I wonder, does this mean that if you don't have the card by 31 December you're unable to leave the country?

Or is this a masterful plan to ensure that the skilled expat workforce, the engineers, project managers, architects etc don't leave the country during the current slump, never to return?