Abu Dhabi: National ID card applicants who do not want to wait for their card can get it within 24 hours for an additional fee thanks to the decentralised card printing system.
Four registration centres of Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) have started providing this emergency service for new cards, renewal and replacement, a top official told Gulf News on Sunday.
Al Musaffah and Al Wahda centres in Abu Dhabi, Al Barsha in Dubai, and Al Sharjah centre provide the service for an additional fee of Dh150, said Dr Ali Al Khoury, director-general of Emirates ID. The authority will extend this service to all centres across the UAE gradually, he said. The applicants can submit the application at a typing centre and visit the Emirates ID centre without an appointment but with required documents.
Meanwhile, an Emirates ID statement said it sent more than 18 million text messages to its clients within 22 months, of which 12 million messages were sent during 2012. Most of them were notifications related to ID card transactions.
The number of texts, both in Arabic and English, sent to mobile phones of clients grew 97 per cent during 2012 compared to 2011. This number does not include the texts sent to clients by Emirates Post when the ID card is ready for pick-up.
