Twenty Dirhams poorer every day - Emirates ID

Twenty Dirhams poorer every day – Emirates ID

The time of grace periods and extended deadlines has dried up and the longer that unregistered residents wait, the more expensive the final payment.

October 9, 2012 12:26 by M. Aldalou

Long gone are the days where a UAE resident can afford the luxury of procrastinating the registration of their (or children’s) Emirates ID card. Shrugging your shoulders at the thought of having to queue up at a typing centre and telling yourself you’ll do it another day will now cost you a fine of AED 20 per day.

The EIDA has announced that no more favours will be done, no more extensions will be given and the daily fines have now kicked in.

Now, the longer you wait, the more you pay. However, residents (and their children) who carry visas that are set to expire before December of 2012 are naturally exempted from registration and will not be dealt any accumulating fines. They do however; need to register at the time of visa renewal.

Quite recently, as the deadline for the registration of children under the age of 15 was creeping up, the EIDA decided to stretch the doomsday by 72 hours. They stressed that the decision was prompted by the overwhelming rush of applicants that consequently put strain on the e-payment system. The consequence of said strain was the inability for many parents to register.

The three day grace period also meant that parents who had waited until the last minute to register got a second chance and boy, were they looking for one.

In the 30-day period before the PG 15 deadline, the Identity Authority received a whopping number of 250,000 applications. There were over 120,000 submitted applications in 10 days before and 52,000 during the three day grace period alone.

Now that we see the final deadline in the review mirror, Kipp stands against the notion of crying over spilt milk but also favourably encourages all unregistered residents to submit their applications at the earliest possible time. Keep track of the daily tally of fines as a strong motive to get to that typing centre quickly.

The fines, if left ignored, can stack up to a maximum of AED 1,000.

m.aldalou@mediaquestcorp.com