JEDDAH: Beginning today, all foreign workers will need to provide their fingerprints to the General Directorate of Passports to avoid problems obtaining visas, driver’s licenses, vehicle deeds and other official documents.

To this end, the directorate will be helping out by providing mobile units to scan the fingerprints near the premises of companies with large numbers of foreign workers at the request of their employers.

“The offices and establishments with large numbers of expatriate workers will have to coordinate with the technology department at the Passports Directorate to determine the time and place where the mobile units have to operate to help the expatriates working in those establishments,” an informed source told Arab News yesterday.

The service will be offered at “various locations and cities in the Kingdom,” the source added.

The mobile units are operating in addition to the new branches opened by the Passports Directorate in various cities to facilitate the large number of expatriate workers and their dependents to record their biometric details before the exodus of vacationers starts for summer holidays.

“A major feature of the third phase of the campaign for registering biometric data of expatriates, which began two years ago, is the compulsory linking of the data with services, such as the issue of exit-re-entry and final-exit visa,” Director General of Passports Maj. Gen. Salim Al-Belaihid told Arab News yesterday.

Capt. Abdul Rahman Rafea, an immigration official at Dallah Tower in Jeddah, said all the fingerprinting offices in Jeddah are fully geared to receive expatriates in large numbers in morning and evening shifts.

Al-Belaihid called on all foreign workers to get their biometric data registered as soon as possible so that they can avoid snags in getting their re-entry visas stamped in time. The requirement applies to all foreign residents over the age of 18, with no exceptions based on job category or nationality, Al-Belaihid pointed out.

“An average of between 15,000 and 20,000 expatriates are expected to record their fingerprints in various passport offices every day across the Kingdom,” the official said.

The director general also said all legal procedures involving foreign residents would be suspended until expatriates concerned have submitted this data.

“The third phase of the implementation of the fingerprint system will undoubtedly simplify the iqama (residency/work visa) system on the one hand and stop illegal attempts by workers to run away from their sponsors and return under a false identity,” said Al-Belaihid.