Emirates ID announced launching the New Registration Strategy (NRS) which is deemed a main pillar of the institutional development plan that Emirates ID began to implement. Such plan pays special attention to strategic thought by building the required strategies for Emirates ID and providing various initiatives contributing to making the necessary positive change.

Emirates ID announced launching the New Registration Strategy (NRS) which is deemed a main pillar of the institutional development plan that Emirates ID began to implement. Such plan pays special attention to strategic thought by building the required strategies for Emirates ID and providing various initiatives contributing to making the necessary positive change.

Dr. Eng. Ali Mohamed Al-Khouri, Deputy Chairman of the Higher Management Committee at Emirates ID declared that the NRS adopted recently by the Board of Directors represents the outcome of keen directions and continuous follow up by Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. It is also the outcome of continuous efforts exerted by the committee constituted by His Highness for reviewing and upgrading the registration plan with effective participation from the representatives of both the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labor, Emirates ID’s Board of Directors and the Office of the Deputy of Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.

Main Goals

The Deputy Chairman of the Higher Management Committee added that NRS will focus on the primary goal for which Emirates ID was established, i.e. establishing a population register for nationals and non nationals residing in the UAE and issuing an ID card for every person registered in the records of the UAE within the framework of an effective registration plan based upon reengineering procedures, connecting registration with the process of visa issuance and renewal and developing the system of standard electronic registration form.

Dr. Ali Al-Khouri declared Emirates ID’s intention to establish registration centers at the centers of preventive medicine and other locations; coordinate with schools and universities and activate their role in the process of registering students, referring to the cancellation of ordering those below fifteen years old to go to registration centers; and register workers at their places of residence in addition to a number of other new procedures.

It is expected that NRS will participate in lowering the period of finalizing transactions from 20 minutes to reach 8-10 minutes for eac; increasing the rate of registrants every day, gradually, through registration centers to 8,000 (one million and a half per annum); and increasing the rate of registrants, gradually, through preventive medicine centers coinciding with the process of visa issuance and renewal for residents to reach 12,000 persons per day (two million per annum).

On the other part, Deputy Chairman of the Higher Management Committee emphasized that Emirates ID will establish a greater center for registering population in Abu Dhabi City with higher capacity instead of the current center at Al Musharraf area, upon the suggestions of the public and in response to their remarks concerning the narrowness and unsuitability of the current center.

Three Themes

On the other part, Dr. Ali Mohamed Al-Khouri indicated that NRS shall deal with three themes which are: reengineering registration procedures, connecting the registration of residents with the procedures of visa issuance and registration, in addition to the use of mobile registration devices for registering workers. He noted that all these themes will be actually implemented on a gradual basis within the plans developed for achieving the desired objectives of NRS.

He explained the mechanism of registration as regards to the first theme represented in reengineering procedures which implementation is expected to start during April, God willing. He noted that registration will be made through printing centers, where the customer will finalize most of the registration procedures through printing centers including completing data in the registration form, paying transaction fees and scanning main documents.

He added that the printing office will scan photos of children below fifteen years old as per the organizational standards of taking personal photos and their consistency with the international standards of ICAO. After that, the customer will have an appointment for registration after which he/she shall go to an Emirates ID’s center for finalizing the procedures of taking fingerprints and photos for those above fifteen years old. Data will be transferred electronically from the printing offices to the auditing office affiliated to Emirates ID which shall verify the data filled in at the printing centers and compare such data with the data existing on the systems of the Ministry of Interior. He noted that. All registration centers affiliated to Emirates ID as well as mobile registration stations shall, according to this theme, be transformed into centers for taking photos and fingerprints only.

Resident Registration

Concerning the second theme of NSR, Dr. Eng. Ali Mohamed Al-Khouri stressed that it will concentrate on registering residents by connecting registration in the ID card system with the procedures followed by the Ministry of Interior for visa issuance and renewal. He noted that such mechanism would help Emirates ID finalize the registration of all residents in the UAE within a maximum period of 3 years, which is the maximum period of residence.

In order to make this strategic goal a success, Dr. Al-Khouri stated that Emirates ID’s Board of Directors issued directions to put the registration devices affiliated to Emirates ID at or besides the centers of preventive medicine in the country in order to make such service easy for customers as such centers are the only place necessitating residents to go their in person. Moreover, various workshops were held with the Ministries of Interior and Labor as well as the Preventive Medicine Department for merging the current registration form into one standard form in order to prevent double implementation of such procedures and repetition of data. In addition, the new electronic form shall include a mechanism for collecting the fees due for all entities from the printing office which prints the form. After that, fees shall be transferred to the beneficiary authorities through an electronic system of clearance.

He added that the customer, or whoever represents him/her, shall visit the printing office for finalizing the procedures of renewing the visa or issuing a new one. The registration form will contain the data related to the Department of Naturalization & Residence; Ministry of Labor; Preventive Medicine Department and the Population Register & Identity Card System. After payment of the fees, the customer shall be given an appointment for registration at one of Emirates ID’s centers located beside preventive medicine departments, with the data being sent to the beneficiary systems electronically.

Dr. Al-Khouri explained that when the customer visits the center affiliated to Emirates ID, as per the appointment assigned to him/her, fingerprints and photos shall be taken for those above fifteen years old. The customer shall complete all ordinary procedures were the status of the registration file of the customer becomes (under processing) until the Emirates ID receives an electronic notice from the system of the Ministry of Interior evidencing issuance of the visa and its data. Accordingly, the Emirates ID shall print the ID card and send it to the customer personally through the UAE mail.

Workers Registration

As regards the third theme of NRS, Deputy Chairman of the Higher Management Committee noted that it is closely related to the registration of workers through mobile registration devices by way of providing mobile devices for registering workers at their places of work or residence. He explained that the Board of Directors has approved the purchase of 200 additional registration devices as a matter of concentration on such category of population.

He indicated also that the NRS is an integral part of the general strategy of the Emirates ID which will be declared by Emirates ID soon with its main components indicated in the following figure:

HR Development

H.E. Dr. Eng. Ali Mohamed Al-Khouri emphasized that NRS is paying a lot of consideration for the development of the human resources enabling Emirates ID to attain its goal, through successful concentration on the results, keenness to promote the spirit of creativity in employees, implanting the culture of institutional development so as to be a component part of their mental and functional framework whilst stressing the necessity of finding a suitable environment and proper climate for continuous learning inside the Emirates ID as a primary method of institutional development.

He explained that NRS coincides with the continuous efforts exerted by Emirates ID for finalizing the building up and preparation of the General Strategy 2010-2013 which initial stages have commenced four months ago by analyzing, reviewing and studying Emirates ID’s Strategy 2007-2010 and continued with the stage of approaching solutions to the determined gaps and challenges in addition to the lessons learned from the previous stages and conducting the necessary comparisons with the best international practices in a set of leading countries in the projects of population register and ID card, in order to determine the overall goals of the strategy and introduce projects and initiatives that would enable Emirates ID to achieve all its strategic goals.

Dr. Al-Khouri expressed hope and trust that NRS as well as Emirates ID’s General Strategy will participate in developing and updating Emirates ID’s administrative, financial and technical policies; and reviewing and approving work procedures and regulations that support strategic plans seeking to provide an appropriate environment encouraging on innovation and participation as well as taking initiatives in suggesting vital and strategic projects followed by their implementation and embodiment in reality whilst stressing the importance of achieving customers’ satisfaction and gaining their trust, which is the goal deemed to be one of the most important priorities of the Emirates ID during the coming phase of its history.