The Indian Embassy has warned its citizens against leaving behind original passports at the typing centres.

Typing centres that have been authorised by the Emirates Identity Authority to fill in e-forms on behalf of applicants for the Emirates Identity card, have been collecting and keeping the applicants’ original passports.

“We understand the importance of Emirates Identity cards. However, utmost care must be taken by Indian citizens before leaving behind their passports in typing centres. There are chances that it could get lost or some pages go missing,” said a spokesperson from the Indian Consulate in Abu Dhabi. According to her, Indian expatriates should as much as possible try and get the typing centre to do the job within the same day and take the passports back with them.”

Many of the applicants who spoke to Emirates 247 had expressed their concern and reservation about leaving the original passports behind. “But we had to do so keeping in mind the urgency in getting the Emirates ID. My passport was at the typing centre for almost ten days. However, I got it back safely,” said Johny K.

However, Benny J said he had witnessed two case of missing passports at one of the typing centres in Al Qusais. “Two men were shouting and screaming at the employees of the typing centre for misplacing their passports,” he said.

Officials at some of the typing centres said it is important for the original passport to be present while completing the application. “It has to be directly scanned into the system, while we fill up the form. It cannot be done with a photocopy. Therefore we insist that the applicant has the original passport,” said one official at a typing centre located close to the Al Rashidiyah police station.

According to him if there was enough time to fill the application in the applicant’s presence there would be no need to retain the document.

“However, due to the time factor we ask them to leave behind their passports. We however warn them that we would not be responsible for it. It is at their own risk. If they do not want to leave behind their passports they don’t need to. They can come back after a month and get their typing done,” he said, pointing out to a box that contained over a thousand passports.