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Prior appointments must at EIDA centres

The Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) has called on applicants for ID cards to fix appointments for registration first before heading for the centres.

Those who do not have prior appointments would not be serviced by the EIDA centres from next week, the authority said on Thursday.

The decision was to prevent long queues at the centres cross the country, according to Dr Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, Director-General of the authority.

“The registration process will be limited to applicants who receive SMSes confirming appointments at the centres. They must first approach listed typing centres to get the process started,” Dr Khouri told Khaleej Times.

Centres witnessed huge crowds in the recent days and many people approached the centres for direct registration. “There is no need to hurry; the process of registration must be followed,” he added. “The authority has observed crowds at some registration centres, which might have been caused because officials were accepting applications directly. Many people, especially Asian labourers, rushed to the centres. Servicing of the applicants who had prior appointments was not affected and their processes were completed in minutes.” He stressed that the public, especially labourers, “should not panic” and must wait to receive an appointment date from the centres.

Dr Khouri said EIDA was working to develop a new e-appointment system that would send text messages within 48 hours for the completion of the registration process.

The authority began issuing new generation identity cards, capable of storing additional data of the cardholder, from the first week of October.

The new cards ensure a high level of confidentiality, reliability and usability due to the contactless communication between the card and the card reader through an embedded antenna inside. This antenna allows the card to communicate with the reader by radio frequency ‘RF’ signals.

ahmedjamal@khaleejtimes.com