“Protect Yourself by Modifying Your Status” Initiative achieves a remarkable success at response ratios exceeded 88%

“Protect Yourself by Modifying Your Status” initiative, which aimed to enable violators residing illegally in the State to correct their status in line with the law on entry and residence of foreigners, has achieved the set goals and the response ratio exceeded 88%, as tens of thousands of individuals and families have benefited from the initiative and have been exempted from legal sanctions and financial fines which reached in some cases millions of Dirhams.

ICA announces the closure of the initiative, which provided a valuable and unprecedented opportunity for those willing to modify their status and provided them with the option of traveling home with ease and without having their passports ban-stamped, or staying in the State and obtaining a job seeker’s visa for six months.

The initiative was launched at the beginning of August till the end of 2018, and it exempted the violator, who voluntarily applies for modifying his status, from all the resulted fines without being listed in the ban list; a matter which allows such violator to come back with a new visa in accordance with the applicable procedures. At the same time, the initiative provided those willing to stay in the State with a temporary residency visa for 6 months without the need of a sponsor and to be registered at the virtual labor market system so that the violator could search for a job suitable for his qualifications, experience and transfer his sponsorship to the new sponsor.

H.E. Brigadier Saeed Rakan Al Rashidi, acting Director-General of the Foreigners Affairs and Ports of CIA, said that the five-month initiative had succeeded in achieving its goals and attracting large numbers of violators who were keen to benefit from the offered advantages, which went beyond their expectations.

Brigadier Al Rashidi extended the highest thanks and appreciations to the UAE’s wise leadership for the support provided to ICA, which enabled it to fully implement the initiative and achieve the set goals according to the highest standards of efficiency, and he praises the keenness of the State leadership to delight all who reside within the UAE and give a hand to everybody to stay on the right path.

Al Rashidi thanked ICA’s Board of Directors for supporting the initiative and its implementation team; as the Board of Directors was keen to provide all the constituents that contributed to succeeding the initiative and achieving its goals. He praised the cooperation of all partners, foremost among them the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, the media, and other bodies, which gave ICA a hand and supported its endeavors to get rid of the phenomenon of illegal residents.

Brigadier Al Rashidi praised the great efforts made by the implementation team of the initiative, who spared no effort to provide the best services for those willing to modify their status, and he praises the level of performance made by the staff of the violator’s reception centers, who played a great role in facilitating the procedures of review, overcoming the obstacles and completing the transactions as easily and as quickly as possible.

Brigadier Al Rashidi stressed that ICA will continue to achieve the main goal of the campaign in order to arrive at “UAE Free of Violators” by increasing the public awareness of the dangers of phenomena of illegal entry, escaping from the sponsors, and violating the law of entry and residence of foreigners, which adversely affect not only the security and stability of the community but also the violator himself, and deprive the violator of benefiting from the state-of-the-art services provided to citizens and residents, foremost among them the health, therapeutic and educational services.

Al Rashidi added that, throughout the initiative’s days, the 9 reception centers for violators established and allocated by ICA to serve those willing to modify their status witnessed a large turnout due to the awareness campaigns organized by ICA through the media and social networking platforms as well as its direct communication with companies so as to educate their workers and those under their sponsorship to advise the violators to take advantage of the initiative, which has greatly helped to tell about the initial goals and the mechanisms to benefit from the same and affirmed the State’s keenness to provide all potential and services to those illegal residents, which encouraged many violators, who were hesitating, to take advantage of the initiative and apply for modifying their status.

Al Rashidi pointed out that ICA is, in its interest to enable all those targeted by the initiative everywhere to benefit from the same, keen to cooperate and communicate with the embassies and diplomatic missions in the UAE to facilitate the procedure for their violating nationals and accelerate the completion of their transactions easily and inform them about the details and the mechanisms of the initiative so that these missions can communicate with their violating nationals in the UAE, inform them to modify their status and avoid violating the laws of the State and urge them to cooperate fully with ICA’s efforts.

Al Rashidi pointed out that ICA extended the initiative two consecutive times until the end of 2018 in order to enable all who failed to modify their status in the first extension that ended at the beginning of October and the second extension ended at the end of November to take advantage of the initiative and avoid the actions to be taken by ICA against those who are insisting on violating the Law, and he explains that the initiative was extended for the second time under the directives of the UAE’s wise leadership in the course of the national celebrations of the 47^th National Day in order to bring happiness to all who reside in the UAE.

Brigadier Al Rashidi warned the citizens, the residents, the investors, and all concerned parties not to recruit or house violators so as not to prejudice the security of the community or the public order, calling on everyone to comply with the laws governing the entry and residence of foreigners and other laws regulating the labor market.

Brigadier Al Rashidi called on the holders of job-seeking visa (6 months) to comply with the relating conditions, foremost among them is not to engage in any work except after the transfer of the sponsorship to the new sponsor and to do his best to get a job, modify his status and obtain an official residence visa, or leave the State in case of failure to get a job before the expiry of the temporary visa so as not to re-commit the same violations, which will, in turn, make the violator lose the advantages granted by the initiative.

Al Rashidi noted that the job-seeking visa is a temporary measure designed to make it easy for those willing to stay in the State to search for a new job and transfer their residency to a new sponsor, but such visas are not subject to the conditions and regulations relating to the regular residency visas, pointing out that the temporary visa is not affixed to the passport, as it is like other entry visas.