Expatriates with traffic fines cannot leave UAE

 Expatriates who have committed road offences will not be allowed to leave the UAE unless they pay all their traffic fines in line with new Interior Ministry measures.

The ministry said the new rules would be later expanded to cover all other financial obligations by expatriates seeking to cancel their visa and leave the country.

“We have linked procedures to cancel visas for expatriates with the payment of all their traffic fines.This step is intended to ensure departing expatriates will pay all their financial dues to the state,” said Brigadier Rashid Sultan Al Khadr, Director, Legal Affairs Department at the Interior Ministry.

“This is just a first step as it affects only individuals who apply for visa cancellation and must now pay their traffic fines. The ministry is also considering expanding this experience in the near future so all visa and immigration procedures will be linked to payment of all dues, including traffic, civil defence and other fees,” he told the Dubai-based Arabic language daily Emarat Al Youm.

Khadr said the computer systems of the traffic police have already been linked to those in all immigration departments in the UAE.“This means no application for visa cancellation by expatriates will be approved and they will not be allowed to leave the UAE unless they pay all their traffic fines.”

He said the new measures are part of an overall plan designed to cope with what he described as “the new developments and changes”, adding they would help bolster security for people and protect the country’s rights.

According to Emarat Al Youm, drivers in the UAE committed around 1.95 million traffic offences in the first quarter of 2013.

Emirates ID cards to replace labour cards from next year

 “The move is part of plans to fast-track four million transactions — one million applications for new work permits, another million for renewal of these permits, a third million applications for new job contract and a million for renewing job contract every year — so that any transaction will take maximum 48 hours to complete instead of a minimum of 15 days at present,” said Humaid Bin Deemas Al Suwaidi, Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs, told a news conference.

Al Suwaidi added plans for re-engineering of transactions, which will have no impact on fees, would ease the lives of more than four million workers in 250,000 private companies across the country, allowing workers and employers to obtain work permits and job contracts online and saving time and effort.

“The move will mean that an employer will submit only a job contract signed by both the worker and the employer to obtain a work permit online, in keeping with plans to make the UAE one of the world’s top five governments by 2021,” Al Suwaidi said.

Once labour cards are scrapped, millions of dirhams of penalties levied for failing to obtain, renew or cancel these cards, will be waived.

Government fees account for more than 57 per cent of the UAE budget revenues

The Labour Ministry is the third largest revenue generator after the ministries of Finance and Interior, with revenues for this year are put at more than Dh3.5 billion.

It is also planned that the Emirates ID will also replace all other identification cards for the residents such as driving licence and health insurance card.

Al Suwaidi said that pushing towards a smart government would mean a customer-centred departments which provide efficient services.

Al Suwaidi encouraged workers, companies and other stakeholders to share their proposals an views on how to improve quality and efficiency of services being offered at present.

“We’ve received proposals to get away with job contracts, but these contract will only be developed within the framework of the labour law, others proposed a one-stop shop so that firms would deal with only the Interior Ministry to have their work permits, job contracts and residence visa completed in one step,” Al Suwaidi said.

Stressing that all these proposals and others will be addressed, Al Suwaidi vowed no effort will be saved to meet expectations of nearly 13 sectors and 2,000 professions in the private sector companies.

A one-year ban is currently being imposed on anyone who obtains a labour card with a company they are not really working for. A Dh1,000 fine is also being imposed for failing to obtain or renew labour cards after 60 days from the date the worker enters the country or from the date of the expiration of the labour card is for each month of delay or part thereof.

Abu Dhabi: As Emirates ID registration of all foreign workers in the country has been completed, work permits, better known as labour cards, will be scrapped and replaced by the Emirates ID in the first quarter of next year, said a senior Ministry of Labour official yesterday.

Dubai visit visa on your mobile-- DNRD

Dubai’s Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) says its mobile application will soon enable residents to apply for a visa using their mobile phones.

Major-General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director-General of the Directorate told  that certain services of the DNRD have been operational on the e- platform for quite a while now.

Col Khalid Nasser Al Razouqi, Assistant Director-General of e-Service at DNRD who conducted the briefing about the new mobile application said the app is being implemented in two phases.

In the first phase, users will only be allowed to renew and cancel visas.

The second phase will incorporate more extensive services like incorporating the complete visa application process through the mobile app and thereby totally avoiding the typing centre.

The  app is being developed by Emartech. ‘Naqadi’ the payment gateway built and managed by Emartech will be incorporated into the application to manage visa payments and other fees and charges of DNRD.

According to Al Razouqi the application should be completely up and running incorporating all features by the end of next year.

Health card, insurance mandatory to obtain UAE residence visa

A valid health card or valid health insurance is a prerequisite to obtain a residence visa in the UAE.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that newcomers to the UAE are obliged to have a valid health card or a valid health insurance in order to get a residence visa, reported Al Ittihad newspaper.

The ministry, in a circular sent to all departments of preventive medicine and registration centres, urged them to inform applicants to pay fees for health card or health insurance in order to complete the transaction.

The MoH circular No 1001 of 2013 stressed on the non-issuance of health fitness certificates without the health card or health insurance.

The circular also stressed that no health card or health fitness certificates can be issued without verifying the fee receipt.

Al Ittihad reported that the ministry took this step following manipulation by some companies in the Northern Emirates, which obtained health fitness certificates for workers without issuing them health cards, in order to save money