UAE Residents Alert: Last day to get e-Gate card for free

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Dubai, is offering UAE residents free e-gate cards and smart gate activation - and today is the last day to get it for free.

“There were hundreds of people standing in queue this morning (Thursday) before we opened our kiosk. We have issued 100 tokens for now and will issue more once we finish with the first batch,” Mohammed Sultan Thani, Consultant, Organization Excellence, GDRFA, Dubai, told Emirates 24/7.

People queue up to get their free e-gate at GDRFA kiosk at DWTC on Thursday. (SUPPLIED)

“We issued e-gate cards and smart gate activation for over 450 people on Wednesday,” he added. 

Early visitors were issed tokens and process for their e-gate cards will be carried forward accordingly.

GDRFA set up only two counters at DWTC to coincide with the Government Achievement Summit.

We reported on Tuesday that the service was being offered only until April 10 at the smart gate and e-gate registration kiosk located outside Hall No 6 of Dubai World Trade Centre.

Smart gates are currently installed at Terminal 3, with e-gate facility available at Terminal 1 and 2.

“One has to visit personally our kiosk with his/her original passport in order to register their biometrics for e-gate cards and smart gate activation,”  Thani had told Emirates 24/7.

The e-gate cards currently cost a little over Dh200. However, the smart gate registration is offered free at Terminal 3 departure.

Smart gates can currently be used only by people over 17 years of age.

Asked if people traveling with their children can use smart gate, Thani said: “We have immigration desks that stamp passport of children. So families can use the smart gate facility.”

The smart gate will put an end to long queues for residents with electronically read passports.

Last year, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects and Emaratech, a technology and consulting company, had signed an agreement to build and install smart gates at Dubai International Airports and upgrade immigration counters to alleviate travellers passport control procedures.

Emaratech says , "Travellers using smart gates will be able to complete their passport control procedures in as little as 20 seconds.”
 

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