UAE launches initiative to renew citizens' passport automatically

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The UAE citizens will get their passports automatically renewed six months before the expiry date within an initiative launched recently by the General Directorate of residency and Foreigners Affairs- Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai).

This was revealed by Lieutenant-General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director-General of (GDRA-Dubai) during a press conference held on Monday at the headquarters of GDRFA.

"The new initiative, which has been created by the GDRFA through the Identity and Citizenship Division, aims to renew the citizens’ near expired passports automatically and deliver them to their place of residence," Al Marri added.

He continued, “The citizens, whose passports are going to be renewed will be notified and contacted to verify their place of residence before sending them the renewed passports.”

"The initiative was launched by the GDRFA-Dubai 14 days ago as a trial service through which 90 passports were renewed and delivered to their owners," Al Marri said, stressing that the beneficiaries of the service expressed great happiness with this pioneering initiative.

The mechanism of identifying the passports’ expiry relies on the Artificial Intelligence, in terms of classifying passports and notifying employees of the imminent date of passport renewal.

Lieutenant-General Mohammad Al Marri also revealed that the number of passengers reaches 145,000 a day through Dubai airports per day and this is the average number of passengers 4 years ago. The number is anticipated to rise next 210,000 passengers a day next year, he added.

Al Marri also explained that the Expo 2020 Dubai is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of travellers through Dubai airports.

However, it is not the main reason, as the UAE is one of the top countries recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the strict adherence to the preventive precautionary measures in force to combat the spread of the virus in the country.