UAE | Government
Emirates ID website woes continue
The Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) has thrown residents into yet another confusion with an online registration that does not work.
- By Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:22 November 6, 2008
- Staff at the Emirates Identity Authority, located at the Central Post Office in Karama, serve people applying for the new Emirates Identity Card.
- Image Credit: Megan Hirons/Gulf News
Abu Dhabi/Dubai: The Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) has thrown residents into yet another confusion with an online registration that does not work.
Although the website www.emiratesid.ae allows for fixing appointments online, EIDA centres across the UAE are fully booked until November 30.
"As of December, we are no longer taking online appointments. It will be on a first-come-first-served basis," a spokeswoman told Gulf News.
The online appointment facility is still an option on the website because there is one centre in Ras Al Khaima where appointments are still available. No appointments can be made for the rest of the UAE.
Meanwhile, EIDA said it will not extend the December 31, 2008 deadline for professional expatriates to obtain the mandatory identity card despite public concern of missing the deadline due to difficulties in applying for the card.
Darwish Ahmad Al Zarouni, Director General of EIDA, told Gulf News people have been given sufficient time to obtain the cards.
"Professional expatriates" are holders of bachelors degree or higher qualifications.
The authority announced last month that professional expatriates will be given time until the end of the year to obtain the cards.
It said the suspension of governmental and semi-governmental services for those who fail to acquire the card is under discussion.
Slow network
The authority has already decided that Emiratis, who do not obtain the new card, will not be able to perform any transaction involving government agencies.
The announcement of the year-end deadline in October giving just two months for more than half a million people to obtain the card caused panic among the public and overwhelmed the authority's network.
Residents across the country have expressed concern over not being able to apply for the card because of long waiting time at the centres that extends up to eight hours.
In some cases, applications were rejected after a full day's wait because of the centre's working hours.
Residents have also complained that the EIDA website is difficult to access, and that a pre-registration form cannot be downloaded online.
"After many unsuccessful attempts on the EIDA website I went to a centre at around 7pm. What I saw there was utter chaos. People who were given valid appointments where asked to leave, this was when most of them had come a full hour in advance to avoid the crowd. The reason given was the officials would not be able to complete all the requests within the working hours. I hope the authorities rethink the current deadline," said a resident who did not wish to be named.
Trupti Dave, a Dubai resident, said she could not apply for the identity card as she could not get hold of an application form.
"After filling my application form online I took a print out along with passport copies and went to EIDA centre at Karama but the application was not accepted because the bar code was not printed," she said.
"There I got to know that we needed to buy an application form from the post office due to a technical glitch in their online system. But I could not find the application in several post offices I went to," she said.
Some residents say the reason the bar code does not print is because the page on the website is wider than an A4 paper.
Some have suggested printing the form in the printer's landscape mode to fit the bar code. "It just goes to show how unprepared the authority's planning process is," said Abbas, an Omani resident.
Thamer Rashed Al Qasemi, Planning Director at the authority, said the authority is continuously upgrading its systems to meet the growing demand and insisted that the authority is able to accommodate the large number applicants before the deadline.
"I know that our website has heavy traffic and between 7am and 4pm it is not easy to have access to the online preregistration form but after that you can access it easily," he said adding that in two weeks time they will make available offline application forms that will be available at the registration centres.
Have you tried to apply for the national ID card? How long did you have to wait? What other problems did you face? How else can the authorities assist residents in attaining the national ID card?
Your comments
I was one of the the victims of this system. I presented my pre-registration barcode in the reception after a long wait in Karama only to be told that they were only going to process 35 tokens for that day.
Dexter
Dubai,UAE
Posted: November 08, 2008, 10:37
I followed the procedure and I have been going over and over again wthout being able to finish. They are only taking 35 people per day. How will everyone be done with this before the deadline?
John
Dubai,UAE
Posted: November 08, 2008, 10:16
How can we be asked to take our children from school and wait indefinitely to be served at the overcrowded Emirates ID offices? Why did they not distribute appointments beforehand based on the survey details gathered with the 2005 census?
Stanley Hartmann
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: November 08, 2008, 09:25
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