UAE visit visas not tied to Emirates ID… for now

Is Emirates ID card mandatory when applying for a visit visa?

As per Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department call centre, it is mandatory for all applicants to have an Emirates ID card. However, typing centres do not ask for it.

“You need to have an Emirates ID if you want to apply for a visit visa for your spouse or parents,” the call centre staff told Emirates 24|7.

MP, who recently applied for the three-month visit visa at the Jebel Ali DNRD branch, however, was not asked about it.

“I was told over the phone to bring the Emirates ID card, but when I went over to apply no one asked me if I had the ID card. Even when I asked if they wanted to see my Emirates ID, they said ‘no’ at the typing centre.”

On February 3, Dr Ali Mohammed Al Khouri, director-general of Emirates Identity Authority (Eida), told this website: “There is full co-ordination between Eida and all federal and local departments and institutions. Already, many government departments provide services only if the applicant has an ID card. Currently, it is not compulsory to have the ID card to avail of government services, but it will become so at the beginning of next year.”

He added that having the ID card will become compulsory after Eida’s linking with all government institutions is completed.

The authority had fixed November 1, 2011 as the deadline for Emiratis to registered for the ID card. December 1, 2011 was the final deadline for employees of the government and quasi-government (federal and local) bodies and their families.

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