DUBAI, 8 July 2004 — All expatriates and their dependants applying for residence visas must now obtain an electronic card for Dubai International Airport, the Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department has announced.
The card allows them to enter and exit through the airport’s “e-gate” without passing through immigration.
Col. Ali Bu Jasseim, the DNRD deputy director, opening a new registration office for e-gate cards at Jebel Ali port, said expatriates applying for residence visas for dependents can obtain the e-cards at any of the emirate’s five registration centers.
Bu Jasseim said the department “also made it a pre-requisite for investors and traders to obtain e-cards before opening company files with the department.”
He said that the department to date issued some 50,000 e-cards and is hoping that the number will double by the end of the year and will represent around 10 percent of the total number of passengers at the Dubai International Airport.
“The e-cards are being used on daily average by 700 to 800 incoming and outgoing passengers of all nationalities,” he said.
Britons and Indians top the list with around 250 users daily, followed by Lebanese with around 150, while the e-card holders from the Arab Gulf countries are fewer with only between 30 to 40 Emirati users every day and an equal number of Qataris, Bu Jasseim added.
