UAE National ID card (3)

Expatriates in the UAE will have till the end of 2010 to get a National ID card. In parallel, the FNC (the Federal National Council) is contemplating restricting the card to locals. Expatriates in the UAE make up around 85% of the population. However, expatriates are split to two categories based on the authority that is issuing the cards: Professionals and workers. Now that the year is over, professionals who did not get their card will be placed at the end of the line if they apply for it. So what are the issues that need consideration:

1. How do you register 4 million people? The issue here is  having the ability to accommodate such numbers when they apply. The current method neither works nor is popular. What about if they use the census/visa data and divide the country by region/neighborhood? What about if they go further and within region/neighborhood call in people in alphabetical order? What if they approach each company, cooperate with the HR departments and have the employees fill in their applications and present them to the authority? What if they have someone stationed for a day or two in each of these companies to process these applications thus saving 200 days of work for a company that has 200 employees? 

2. Where would the workers/laborers get the money to pay for the Card?  How would a worker who earns 500 or 800 Dirhams a month pay AED 100 for each year of his residency visa? So AED 300 for 3 years. 

3. Who will pay for the ‘day off’ work that each worker will have to take to go in person and apply? You also have to remember that each expatriate who needs to apply for a card will have to lose one day of work standing in line to do that. Who will compensate for that day? Will that be deducted out of his salary? 

4. Is the only way to get people to sign is by threatening to freeze their bank accounts among other things which are not clear? That does not sit well with the majority of the people. This is an invitation for people to remove their money from the local banks and send them back home or to another country. 

5. What added value will the card give on top of the labor card and the residency visa? The government already has information on each legal resident: name, those of dependents, mail address, age, nationality, country of origin, type of job, company he works for, etc.. If the visa holder has a car, then he definitely has a driver’s license which again has all the above information. If these government agencies talk to each other and exchange information, then they would save millions of working hours, money, and avoid disruptions. Coordination is key. 

6. What added value will the card give ‘the applicant”? That has not been communicated yet. Will he be able to get in and out of the country without a passport? What is it that people will have to pay for, queue for, skip work for? What is the benefit?

~ by rafickd1 on December 28, 2008.