We have been informed by the UAE government that all expatriates and locals must have an identity card by December 31st. Though as I am sure most expatriates living in Dubai and other Emirates will tell you that this is chaos and is never going to happen in time. The online registration form is so slow at loading it has cause masses of problems.
Today I went down to the Emirates ID centre in Al Barsha where the queue was beyong believe, out the door and choatic (see photo). Two people were manning the desk and there was a queue for gentlemen and a queue for ladies moving at what seemed a very slow pace, all these people were queing to collect a ticket to register either for an appointment for the card or for the typing office, who are officials who can help type and process your application beyond the first stage as the website is so slow.
Colleagues and I have calculated that if the centre in Al Barsha can see 500 people a day, that means for the month of December they would only be able to see a 11,000 people, though with Bank Holidays to take into account, this figure will be significantly lower. OIn the radio today it is estimated that only 60,000 out of the 600,000 expatriates have to registered so far, so this target will be missed.
Who knows what the solution will be, but I will be getting up at 2am to try and register myself so at least I am in the system.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Emirates ID Cards
