UAE: How to get your Emirates ID within one hour

Dubai: If you are applying for your Emirates ID for the first time or are in the process of renewing it, you can expedite the process and receive the card within an hour, instead of having to wait for two or three days.

In an exclusive interview with Gulf News at Gitex Global 2022, Majed AlBlooshi, the Validation Gateway Section Head at the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Ports Security, explained the detailed validation process that takes place with Emirates ID applications and the journey the ID card takes from the moment you apply for it, till the time it is received.

Here are the details of the process followed by ICP when an Emirates ID is issued.

Step 1: Start the application

At the start, AlBlooshi stated that applicants must choose from any of the four available channels to apply for the Emirates and fill out the application.

He added: “After the applicant has applied for the Emirates ID, we will then check if they have their biometrics registered in the system. If it is not [available in the system], they need to register their biometrics.”

While applicants will soon be able to provide these biometric details through the ‘UAE ICP’ app, for now they must visit an ICP centre to complete this process. Click here to find details of all the ICP customer centres you can visit.

Step 2: Verification and security check

“Once the biometric [registration] is completed, we will then check if your passport or residency is valid. If the residency is valid, the application will move to the next stage where we will check if there are any security issues with the biometric details. This is a completely automated system, based on Artificial Intelligence,” Alblooshi added.

This is a completely automated system, based on Artificial Intelligence.

- Majed AlBlooshi, the Validation Gateway Section Head at the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship and Port Security (ICP)

Step 3: Emirates ID is printed and delivered

After the security checks are completed and the application is approved, it will then proceed to the printing phase of the Emirates ID.

“We have two ways in which you can receive the Emirates ID – if you need the Emirates ID urgently, you can get it within one hour through the registration centres or get it via courier in one to two days,” he said.

How much would it cost to fast-track your application?

According to ICP, to fast-track the process, applicants must pay an additional service fee of around Dh150.