Abu Dhabi: Reducing the number of steps that Foreign Employers (FE) have to go through to recruit Indian blue-collar workers and the ability to obtain immigration clearance online are some of the revamps made to the recently launched e-Migrate system, an official told Gulf News.
The e-Migrate system recently faced technical obstacles that resulted in costing potential Indian workers their jobs. Consequently, the Indian Embassy had to readjust the system in order to streamline labourers’ recruitment from India.
“Previously, FEs seeking to hire Indian blue-workers through e-Migrate had to go through 15 steps, which was very time-consuming. The number of steps has now been reduced to seven, with many services available online to simplify the process,” Dinesh Kumar, First Secretary of Community Affairs at the Indian Embassy in the UAE, said.
“In addition, once the approval has been provided by the Indian Missions to FEs, Indian workers can apply for their immigration clearance online, a process that is believed to be more user-friendly than it previously was. Prior to the adjustments, blue-collar workers had to physically visit the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) offices in India to obtain their clearances,” he added.
“Once the clearance has been completed, workers can pay the emigration fees online via the PoE website, an option that was not accessible before. Another alternative they can resort to is to pay through the State Bank of India (SBI) and then physically submit the receipt to the PoE.”
Employment contracts are also no longer needed to be attested by the Indian Mission as they can now be generated through the e-Migrate system in the format prescribed by the Indian Mission, Dinesh explained.
“The new improved system is more user-friendly and features most of its services online to reduce users’ time as much as possible.”
Currently, approximately 400 employers have been registered through the e-Migrate system, he told Gulf News.
Maisoon Mubarak is a trainee at Gulf News
