The Board of Trustees of the Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) has set October 31, 2011 as the final deadline for UAE nationals to enroll their names in the Population Register and ID Card (PRIDC), prior to implementing late fees as directed by Ministerial Decision No: 25 for 2011.

A meeting of the Board of Trustees, chaired by His Highness Lieutenant-General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and Vice Chairman of the Board, also decided to roll out new fees for services provided by Emirates ID, as stated in the Ministerial Decision effective September 29, 2011.

His Highness Lt. General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed also directed to exempt all children under 15 years of age, including nationals and residents, from the late fee until October 1, 2012.

A working team will be constituted as directed by His Highness to co-ordinate with the Ministry of Health and the health authorities concerned with the registration of the newborns in the UAE, and link them with Emirates ID next year as part of facilitating the registration of newborns in the Population Register and ID Card programme.

The Board of Trustees issued clear guidelines on the time-frame and the mechanism for the application of the administrative late fees for UAE residents under the authority granted by the Federal Cabinet to the Vice Chairman of the Board. His Excellency Dr Engineer Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, Director General of Emirates ID, was also present at the meeting.

The application of late fee for expatriates (above 15 years) will be implemented in four phases as follows:

• Phase l: includes all expatriates in the Northern Emirates (Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Ajman), in addition to all employees in the federal and local public sector and semi-government organisations and their families –from December 1, 2011
• Phase II: includes all expatriates in the Emirate of Sharjah – from February 1, 2012
• Phase III: includes all expatriates in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi – from April 1, 2012
• Phase IV: includes all expatriates in the Emirate of Dubai – from June 1, 2012

The Board also directed to collect the late fee from anyone across the UAE, over the age of 15 years, applying for a residence visa renewal without ID card registration, effective January 1, 2012 as per the Ministerial Decision No: 25 for 2011.

October 31, 2011 will be the deadline for renewing all identity cards expiring up to that date. Any cardholder across the UAE, with the exception of children under 15 years, has 30 days to renew the card from the date of expiry.

As per the decision of the Board of Trustees, any change in the personal data of cardholders, except children under 15 years of age, and incidents that bring changes in personal data should be reported to the Emirates Identity Authority within 30 days from the date of such change or incident. The nature of such data and incidents will be specified later by the Emirates ID Director General shortly.

Emirates ID said it will determine shortly the personal data (name, marital status, date of birth, qualification, employer, address and nationality, among others) and incidents (birth, death, marriage, divorce, change in nationality or residence, and others) that fall under the new guidelines. To facilitate this, the Authority will link with all concerned Federal and local authorities electronically in phases starting mid-2012.

The Ministerial Decision No. 25 of 2011 stipulates that a penalty of AED 20 per day up to a maximum of AED 1000 for the following offences:

• Delay in registration or issuance of identity cards, for all categories and age groups
• Delay in renewing ID cards, for all categories and ages (effective 30 days from the expiry of the card)
• Delay in reporting any change or modification in the cardholder’s personal data or incidents, for all categories and age groups (after 30 days from the date of the change)