Emirates ID prints 626,000 cards in January

The Emirates Identity Authority unveiled that 626,640 new and renewed ID cards were printed last January.

This is the highest number of cards printed in one month since the Emirates Identity Authority was established, said Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Executive Director of Population Register at the Emirates Identity Authority.

In the same month the Emirates Identity Authority delivered 506,404 cards to the Emirates Post for delivery to the post offices across the UAE, he added, noting that the said number accounted for 81 per cent of the total number of cards printed last month.

Al Mazrouei clarified that the Emirates Identity Authority launched intensive media campaigns in the past period as part of its efforts to urge people to register in the population register and ID card and renew their expired cards as soon as possible. The campaigns called on people not to wait until the last minute of the deadlines set for registration or renewal in a bid to avoid the delay penalties approved by the Cabinet’s decision no. 25 for 2011, he said.

Al Mazrouei pointed out that over the past months many government entities announced their adoption of the ID card as an essential document for benefiting from their services. This contributed to increasing the number of registrants and to issuing and renewing more cards in line with the Emirates Identity Authority’s mission and vision for rendering the ID card the most valuable card in the UAE in the near future by virtue of the solutions and applications to be provided by the Emirates Identity Authority, he said.

The above number of printed cards coincided with the growing response to registration in the population register and ID card as seen in the large numbers of customers seeking to fill out the ID card form, either through the typing centers or the Emirates Identity Authority’s website, he added, noting that more than 500,000 people filled out forms last January.

Earlier, the Emirates Identity Authority signed a service level agreement with the Emirates Post Corporation to upgrade ID card delivery to customers through the 120 Emirates Post centers across the UAE. According to the agreement, the Emirates Post will receive ID cards from the Emirates Identity Authority on a daily basis and will subsequently send SMS messages in Arabic or English – as per customer’s nationality – to customers within less than 48 hours, calling on them to pick up their cards from an Emirates Post center or private mailboxes.

The Emirates Post Group took a package of procedures to ensure easy and smooth delivery of ID cards to customers. More than 18,000 ID cards are delivered daily to customers across the UAE.