Reprieve does not mean ID card deadline extended

Abu Dhabi: About half a million expatriate professionals who have been racing to get identity cards before the December 31 deadline won't be fined until 2011, Gulf News has learnt.

on Tuesday, Emirates Identity Authority issued a reprieve, saying fines won't be imposed on professional expatriates who fail to get the ID card before the end of December.

"Although we don't extend the deadline for them, we will be ready to continue their registration even after the deadline but at the cost of certain inconveniences," said Darwish Ahmad Al Zarouni, Director General of Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA). "But for UAE nationals, no services shall be provided without the ID from January 1, 2009 as per law," he said.

The reprieve isn't an extension of the deadline because EIDA will open the registration for another category of expatriates from January 1, 2009 as is the current plan, he said.

"So they (non-registered expatriate professionals) have to bear the inconvenience of long queues of applicants of another category also," Al Zarouni said.

They may still face difficulties if an identity card is demanded for any official transaction after January 1.

The official made it clear that no fines will be imposed on non-registered expatriates until 2011.

Thamer Rashid Al Qasimi, Planning Director and Project Management Director at EIDA said that although no punitive measures like fines or freezing of bank accounts will be imposed on non-registered expatriate professionals, EIDA cannot help if any government, semi-government or private organisation demands identity cards for official transactions after December 31.

"EIDA does not have authority to impose punitive measures, it is up to them [the organisations] whether to insist on ID for official transactions by expatriate professionals after December 31," he said.

He said a new pre-application registration software is available on the website of EIDA (www.emiratesid.ae) and a number of other organisations and it will ease the process.

"The complaints regarding non-availability of online application will end from now," he said. The free pre-application software is a big hit among desperate expatriate professional applicants as more than 30,000 people downloaded it within four hours of its introduction, a senior official told Gulf News on Tuesday.

2009: New categories

Private sector administrative workers and school/college / university students (Starting early first quarter of 2009).

Housekeepers, servants, farmers, general transport drivers, caterers and guards (Starting early second quarter of 2009). Construction workers and unskilled workers (Starting early third quarter of 2009).