RIYADH, 30 May 2007 — The Passport Department in Riyadh, in cooperation with the Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), has established a new interactive service called “Esh’ar” (Notification) that allows people to follow up on documents that are being processed at the Passport Department via their cell phones.
Feras Al-Towayan, a Passport Department spokesman, told Arab News that the service, which works through SMS service, aims to make it easy for people to follow up on passport and visa applications, and iqama issues, either for themselves, their families or their employees, without any need to visit the Passport Department.
“The Passport Department will give a password to subscribers so that they can be given updates about their applications through short SMS messages,” said Al-Towayan. “Subscribers will be able to renew passports, visas and iqamas. Moreover, they will also receive notification when their documents expire or are close to expiring,” he added.
Members of the public will also now be able to perform multiple tasks, such as transferring sponsorship, and report runaway employees and missing documents through SMS messages to the service number and by entering their passwords.
Al-Towayan added that the service is being launched in Riyadh to begin with and will then be implemented across the Kingdom. For further details, visit www.gdp.org.sa or telephone toll free 800-12344359.
Meanwhile, the Passport Department stressed that Saudi women and under-aged males are not allowed to travel to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with just their national IDs and that women needed their guardian’s letter to do so.
Saudi Arabia has signed agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Sultanate of Oman permitting their citizens to travel to each others’ countries using just their ID cards.
Meanwhile, according to the Omani and Emirati Embassies in Riyadh, foreign residents living in the Kingdom, who intend to travel to the UAE and Oman, still need visas even if they have iqamas. Both Oman and UAE operate a flexible visa policy allowing visitors to obtain visas at the airport.
