ICA Launches an Initiative to Welcome UAE Visitors and Make Them Happy

ICA launched an unconventional initiative to welcome UAE visitors and make them happy by enabling them to contact their families since the first moment they step into the UAE, by providing them with a free sim for every visitor with free call balance and a mobile internet package.

By this initiative, ICA tries to express UAE welcome for its visitors upon their arrival in airports and land ports, make them happy and reflect the UAE originality and openness to different peoples and cultures and kits keenness on enhancing human relationships between the UAE people and their brothers all over the world, of whatever race, nationality or faith.

ICA signed an agreement with Telecom Now to implement this initiative, with Brigadier Khamis Mohamed Al Kaabi, Executive Director of Support Service Sector signing for ICA and Sharbel Al Laitani, Telecom Now President and CEO signing for the latter.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Maj. Gen. Rakan Al Rashidi, ICA’s Director General of Foreigners’ Affairs & Ports.

Upon signing the agreement, Maj. General Rashidi asserted that this initiative is in line with ICA’s keenness on contributing to the establishment of UAE prestigious position and global reputation in all fields and confirming that it will always remain the home of happiness for its citizens, expatriates and

everyone who visits it, along with giving the visitor an amazing first impression on the UAE by receiving them with a smile, welcoming them, completing their procedures easily, and providing all facilities that make their visit to the UAE an unparalleled experience so that they become ambassadors for the UAE in every country they visit.

He said that ICA derives all its initiatives and projects from the vision of the wise leadership who asserts the necessity for the UAE to rank first in all fields, including the economic and tourist fields, and that ICA cooperates with the public and private sectors to help the success of government plans to upgrade and develop the tourism sector so that it plays a vital role in enhancing the economy and diversifying the sources of national income, especially in view of the attractiveness the UAE enjoys, being one of the most attractive countries to tourists all over the world.

Al Rashidi added that the initiative covers all UAE visitors over 18, irrespective of the type of visa (whether a visit, tourist, first entry for residence, or transit visa), as well as all travelers coming from GCC countries, who need no visa to enter the UAE.

Al Rashidi said that the sim is handed to the visitor through the Passport Gate upon stamping the passport with the entry stamp. The sim is registered in the name of the visitor and immediately activated through the electronic link between ICA’s Foreigners’ Affairs and Ports system and the Operator’s system. He noted that the sim’s validity is linked with the legal status of the visitor in the country, such that it remains operative throughout visa validity and will be renewed if the visa is renewed. However, the sim automatically deactivated if the visitor violates the terms of his visa or exceeds its expiry period.

From his part, Sharbel Al Laitani, Telecom Now President and CEO, expressed his pride in cooperating with ICA in this leading initiative that aims at enhancing the tourist sector in the country through the first-in-kind SIM 24 project, which is based on the automatic activation of sims, to keep travelers in touch with their families during travel.

He added that the project is a digital development that solves the issue faced by every tourist when he looks for an open wi-fi or assumes additional roaming costs when he returns to his home country. It provides an interesting and comfortable experience to all visitors during their stay in the UAE from the moment they step into it.

Under this initiative, UAE visitors will get a communication package consisting of a free local sim, pre-charged with 3 minutes of voice calls, and 20 GB data, which will enable them to enjoy excellent communication services during their journey. He noted that the SIM 24 project is a safe innovative way to distribute sims and link them electronically with user profiles and then to activate them through a comprehensive digital process that reduces waiting times in airport stores, where sims are bought and charged.

Al Laitani added that the visitor can recharge the sim electronically through the credit card or at any POS, just like all other sims bought across the UAE.