EIDA Registration Process

Registration for the First Time

Step 1:
Fill in the e-form at any Emirates ID authorized typing centers or online (coming soon).
(ID card applicant is not required to attend to the typing center in person).
Step 2:
Upon filling in the e-form, the customer will receive an SMS setting the date and place of registration.
Step 3:
On receiving the SMS, the customer heads for the Service Point stated in the SMS.
(Children under 15 are not required to go to Emirates ID Service Points)

Required Documents:

UAE Nationals:

• Original valid passport

• Original family book

GCC Nationals:

• Original valid passport
• UAE residence document (valid employment certificate, real estate lease or ownership contract, commercial license, school registration certificate, certificate of dependency, valid marriage contract or an employment card)

Residents:

• Original valid passport
• Residence or entry visa

Children below 15:

• Documents required for each group
• Colored passport-size (4।5 x 3।5 cm) photo with white background

Registration Fees:

Fees of registration and card issuance as of September 29, 2011:

Issuance and renewal of ID card for UAE citizens and GCC nationals (five years AED 100
Issuance and renewal of ID card for residents (for each year of residence) AED 100
Issuance of a replacement for the damaged or lost card AED 300
Change of details that require issuing a new card (The updated card expires on the same date as the old one) AED 150
Application of a mobile vehicle (for individuals, single family, for one day) AED 1000
Issuance and Renewal of card (Urgent Service) AED 150

•The above fees apply to all age groups.
•People exempted from fees (people under the Social Security Code – People with disabilities and autism).
•Services not included in fees exemption are mobile vehicle service and urgent service.

Registration Delay Fees for All people in the UAE

Delay in registration or issuance of the ID Card AED 20 per day, Maximum AED 1000
Delay in renewing the ID Card (30 days after expiry date)
Delay in reporting any change in the details (30 days after the change date)

Dates of applying delay fees

November1,2011 UAE Nationals
December1,2011 Government and semi-government employees (Federal and Local)
December1,2011 Residents of the following Northern Emirates (Umm Al-Quwain, Al-Fujairah, Raas Al-Khaimah and Ajman).
February1,2012 Sharjah Residents
April 1, 2012 Abu Dhabi Residents
June 1, 2012 Dubai Residents

•The residents of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah,with residencies expiring in 2012, will be required to enroll for the ID card along with renewing their residencies
•Delay fees will be applied to children below 15 as of October 1, 2012
•The delay charges will apply to expired cards depending on the deadlines communicated for each emirate
•It is required to renew the expired ID card within 30 days of its expiration

Important Notes for Emirates ID Customers:

• Ensure the service required at the Typing Center (new registration, renewal of ID Card or replacement for lost or damaged card).
• Should you choose the wrong service, we will contact you to pay due fees.
• Ensure that your mobile phone number and PO. Box recorded in the registration form are correct.
• The customer can receive his/her ID card through the PO Box or any office of Emirates Post.
• Ensure that all data recorded in the e-form is correct.
• Visit the typing center to edit your e-form as long as we did not contact you.
• Legal fees of typing centers are AED 30.
• If any Typing Center charges more than AED 30, please contact us.
• In all events, don’t leave your passport at the Typing Center to avoid possible loss.
• Failure to visit the Service Point on the given date for two times will cancel your form and fees.
• Should you want to change the registration date, please call us at 6005-30003
• Keep the financial receipt which proves that you filled in the e-Form.
• Children below 15 are not required to go to the Typing Centers or Service Points.
• Colored contact lenses and hand henna are not allowed at the time of registration.
• People over 15 must bring the Typing Center receipt together with the original passport.
• If the form is modified at a Typing Center other than that where the customer applied for the ID Card, the customer shall pay AED 5 as service fees.
• If you want to set a single appointment for all family members at the same Service Point, you need to ask the Typing Center staff to link these transactions together so that all family members can go to the same Service Point on the same date.
• For more information…. please contact us at our call center or visit our official website.

EIDA’s fresh warning for card collection delay

The Emirates National Identity Authority (EIDA) has issued a new warning to applicants who miss the 90-day deadline to collect their national cards, saying the card will be destroyed and holders will be fined Dh300.

EIDA’s director general Ali Al Khoury said those who apply for a new card or renewal of their cards must collect them within three months after they receive the first notification by SMS on their mobile phone, adding that Emirates Post (Empost) normally send six notifications to card holders.

“Cards which are not collected within 90 days from the first notification will be destroyed but that does not mean the applicant’s data will be annulled…they will be retained by EIDA and in this case holders must apply for a replacement,” he told the Sharjah-based Arabic language daily Alkhaleej.

He said a replacement can be issued at registration offices or online by filling a new application for a fee of Dh300.

“We call on all applicants to collect their cards within 90 days from the first notification to avoid having their cards destroyed,” Khoury said.

He said EIDA, which is overseeing a landmark nation-wide ID project, has signed agreement with Empost to deliver cards to all applicants in their respective emirates. “Empost sends six SMS in English and Arabic to the mobile phones of the applicants asking them to come and collect their cards,” he said.

Khoury’s comments follow growing public complaints that cards end up at Empost centres located far from their areas. Others say that a 90-day deadline is not enough as they could be outside the UAE for more than three months.

“Last month, I had to take a day off work to travel nearly an hour outside Abu Dhabi to collect my card…I applied in Abu Dhabi city but Empost informed me my card is in Suweihan, which I have never visited,” Imad Hariri said.

In press remarks last week, EIDA said it is planning to replace the present delivery system with on-the-spot facility that allows holders to receive their renewed cards just after they apply at registration centres.

“Eida has gone a long way in addressing this problem,” Eida Ali Mohammed Al Khoury said after an Authority meeting on Tuesday.

“We are in the process of creating what is termed as decentralised typing centres…four such centres will be set up on a trial basis soon…they will allow applicants to receive their cards within minutes.”

A company cannot increase six-month probation period - UAE Labour Law

More than 7 months ago I worked in a company on a contract for limited period. After completing six months of service my company terminated my contract saying that this termination is within the probation period as per the company and the company has the right to do so because I did not pass the probation period, and they said I am not entitled to end of service or termination compensation because I did not complete one year in service. I have learnt from the company that the probation as per the company system is for eight months, not six months. Also, I was informed that in accordance with the Labour Law the period of six months is the minimum and maybe agreed to increase it according to the company system and interest. Is this true? What is my legal position in this case as I have signed a letter in this regard and agreed on the probation period which is eight months? What about my termination as per the labour law. Is it within the probation period or after, and what is my right in this regard?

Article no37 of the Federal Labour Law No8 of 1980 states the following. “A worker may be engaged on probation for a period not exceeding six months, during which his service may be terminated by the employer without notice or severance pay: provided that a worker shall not be engaged on probation more than once in the service of any employer. Where a worker successfully completes his period of probation and remains in his job, the said period shall be reckoned towards his period of service”. Therefore, based on this article no agreement shall be made to increase the probation period and the company has violated the labour law because they have terminated the questioner’s limited contract after the probation period and the company must compensate the questioner by paying three months full salary plus other end of service rights.

Questions answered by Advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Shaiba Advocates and Legal Consultants.

You could be signing your own prison sentence if you sign a cheque you can't honour- in UAE

Recently Gulf news XPRESS published one article about cheque bouncing and this article will some insight about UAE rules so we are publishing the same for our readers

 Expatriates and Emiratis who are jailed for issuing dud cheques may continue to languish in jail even after completing the prison term - that is, until the debt is cleared, lawyers told XPRESS.

There is this mistaken notion held by many that a debtor is freed from his financial liabilities after doing time in jail. The reality is far from it.

Ahmad Abdullah, a 48-year-old Emirati, was jailed last year after his general trading business went under and cheques worth several hundred thousands of dirhams he signed bounced. He does not know when he will walk a free man.

"The problem is after my first cheque bounced, I was jailed for it and I've been unable to do anything about my situation," said the father of six from Al Aweer Central Jail. "So, the other cheques I issued also bounced. It became a domino."

Rushdie, a Filipino jailed since 2008 for his inability to pay Dh74,000 in personal loans, said he also does not know when freedom day will come.

A dud cheque entails a minimum of one month in jail to a maximum of three years. But Ali, a 50-plus Arab, has been in jail for nine years after being convicted in 2003 in a financial case.

"UAE law deems it a crime when a cheque is returned due to insufficient funds," said Jafar Al Touq, a lawyer practising in the UAE for 26 years. "Those who think that sitting in jail without paying a loan is a temporary, short-term way out of debt are absolutely wrong. Otherwise, I will also do the same thing - borrow, then stay in jail for a while and keep the money."

The process in a bounced cheque goes roughly like this: a customer defaults on a loan or credit card payment, the bank recovery team hounds him and submits his security deposit cheque (which will bounce). The lender then files a criminal case for the bounced cheque and the defaulter gets jail time.

Though a subsequent civil case may not necessarily mean the defaulter stays in jail forever, Al Touq said: "He [the borrower] will stay in jail longer [than the original jail term]. It's the system's way of putting pressure on the defaulter. If there's reason to believe fraud has been committed then the judge will put him behind bars longer."

Ignorance:But some end up serving long jail terms due to ignorance.

The case of Yousuf, a 28-year-old European sentenced to nine years in Dubai, is a classic example of how Article 401 of the UAE Penal Code is applied.

Yousuf earned Dh30,000 a month as an accountant for a real estate firm and signed cheques as part of his job.

Several parties sued his company after it went bust; one complainant alone demanded Dh5 million back. In February 2011, the Court of Cassation affirmed the lower courts' decision giving him three years for each of three bounced cheques worth millions. Yousuf's day in court involved the judge asking whether he had signed the cheques that bounced - Yousuf admitted they were his signatures.

"We argued that he signed cheques as part of his job," said his lawyer, Emirati Amer Syed Al Marzouqi. "The problem is that you have this law [that criminalises bounced cheques]."

Article 401 states that bouncing cheques is punishable by confinement of one month to three years or a fine of a minimum of Dh1,000 to any individual who, in bad faith, writes a cheque with insufficient funds.

Some legal professionals argue that it's harsh and archaic.

However, the UAE has now drafted a new insolvency law which aims to address some of these issues.

Mazen Boustani, finance and banking law expert for Habib Al Mulla and Co, said: "The UAE has a comprehensive insolvency law. The main challenge concerns security asked by creditors, and post-dated cheques, if not honoured, constitute a crime with a jail sentence. This results in creditors - instead of having recourse to normal insolvency procedures - resorting to a speedier process, that of filing a criminal complaint for a dishonoured cheque."

In Yousuf's case, it is unclear whether the complainants will file a subsequent civil case that would keep him in jail longer.

But this happened to Angelito, a 49-year-old Filipino logistics executive, who served two prison terms - one in 2001 and the other in 2010 - over the same bounced cheque. When Angelito's Dh75,000 cheque bounced in 2001, he was sent to jail for six months. He thought his liabilities had disappeared and he went back home to Manila. Nine years later, when he flew back to Dubai to try his luck once more, he was arrested upon arrival due to a civil case filed by the creditor. He spent more time in jail. "I did not know I could be jailed again for the same thing," said Angelito.

Col Adel Al Suwaidi, Director of Education and Training at Al Aweer Central Jail, said there's not much recourse for someone jailed over a bounced cheque except for the amount owed to be paid.

Other offenders - with the exception of murderers - may get their sentence commuted if they memorise parts or the whole of the Quran. But this, he said, does not apply to someone jailed for a bounced cheque. "The commutation of a jail sentence only applies if the offence is committed against the state, except murder. In a bounced-cheque case, a person is free the minute the amount owed is paid."

Jailed debtors can only hope for a debt write-off, a government bail-out or a Good Samaritan.

Al Marzouqi said a write-off is rare. "It never happens, especially after the defaulter has been arrested. Most banks demand the full amount from the jailed borrower."

Latifa Khadem, head of the Humanitarian Services Section at Al Aweer Central Jail, said: "There's not a day without one of our inmates asking for financial help. We welcome any financial aid from generous people to help the inmates who are unable to pay their loans."

Last year, the UAE government announced a Dh10 billion fund to help Emiratis who cannot repay their debts — to settle their personal loans through a process overseen by the UAE Central Bank.

CIVIL CASE

XPRESS posed specific questions - about the criteria for filing a post-jail civil case against a defaulter - to numerous banks. Most declined to comment.

A bank official told XPRESS: "It's a police matter."

An out-of-court settlement system implemented by Dubai Police last year has been fairly successful. It gives debtors a one-month grace period to clear bounced cheques. It led to a huge drop in bounced cheque cases. Among Emiratis, the numbers dropped to 3,760 in 2011 (January-September) from 5,623 in 2010. No data is available for expatriates.

A local bank official explained it's their legal department's call on whether or not to lodge a civil case against the jailed borrower. "It depends on the amount owed," said the official, who asked not to be named. "If it's a huge amount, a civil case will be filed," he said without elaborating.

Al Touq said, however: "If the person [defaulter] has no money, jail is not useful... it's damaging to all parties."

THE LAW

Article 401 of the UAE Penal Code:

Any individual who writes a cheque with insufficient funds - causing the same to bounce - can face imprisonment of one month to three years, or a fine of a minimum of Dh1,000.

Highway training made mandatory for new drivers in Dubai

Gulf news picture

Training to drive on the highway for a minimum of two hours has been made mandatory to obtain a driving licence in Dubai, officials announced yesterday.

"After passing the road test, drivers will now have to undergo driving lessons along the highway, with trainers beside them, before they are issued a driver's licence," said Ahmad Hashim Behroozian, CEO of the Roads and Transport Authority's (RTA) Licensing Agency.

"This will ascertain the drivers' ability to cope with the vehicle as well as other vehicles on the road."

He was speaking at the launch of the unified curriculum for all driving institutes in Dubai.

The unified curriculum for training and qualifying those wishing to obtain driving licences for light motor vehicles has been distributed to all institutes and has been put into effect since the start of this year, he said. Training on the highway is just one of the changes the new curriculum will introduce. Other significant changes include mandatory night driving lessons and lessons on sudden braking in case of emergency situations.

"It is a complete training package, which takes the learner from attitude development and road safety awareness to vehicle familiarisation, from driving in simple to complex road networks to night driving until finally to freeway driving."

At present, every driving school has its own curriculum. "They all cover the major skills but by unifying we have put a structure around the training process and based on this the schools can come up with improvements," Behroozian said.

The new curriculum — delivered in Arabic, English and Urdu — has two components. The theoretical component comprises eight basic lectures and videos — including road rules, attitude and accident case studies — which are mandatory for trainees to attend as they cover safety standards and groom them to become able drivers, he said. The practical component comprises five basic stages including emergency braking, parking exercises, night driving and highway driving.

No additional costs

The number of mandatory lessons will still continue to be 40 lessons. This way the curriculum will not mean any additional costs for the trainees, Behroozian said, adding that the drivers will benefit from better training at the same cost.

The curriculum will follow a systematic progressive teaching method, whereby trainees will have to demonstrate their proficiency before being allowed to progress to the next step.

Three specific areas along the highway have been identified by RTA for training drivers, Hussain Al Saffar, Director of Drivers Training and Qualification department at the RTA, told Gulf News.

The road connecting the Business Bay crossing to Al Hadiqa Road, Emirates Road from near the Sharjah boundary up to Al Aweer Interchange and Al Aweer road leading towards Hatta are the areas identified.

"While driving along the highway, trainees will not be assessed because they would already have passed the road test. But the training is a means of managing risk on the highways," he said.

Asked if the new curriculum will make it easier or harder for aspiring drivers, Sultan Al Marzouqi, Director of the Drivers Licensing department, said that the RTA's focus is on allowing only safe drivers on the roads.

"The pass rate at driving tests has more than doubled recently, going from 17 per cent on average between 2008 and 2010 to 30 per cent in 2011. Accidents and deaths have also come down. This means drivers are being trained better," he said.