Passport and Visa services outsourced to Empost

Talmiz Ahmad, the Indian Ambassador, when speaking at a press conference, said -The new arrangement will be effective within two months after signing the agreement, and the community will be kept aware of it. There may be some teething problems, as we have not entered in to such a deal before. But we will surely sort it out with Empost,Talmiz said.

He revealed that until these centers get operational, the Indian mission will continue to accept passport applications.

At present, the Indian Embassy, together with the Consulate, offer about 200,000 passport services and 63,000 visas in the UAE.

The agreement will enable setting up of 12 dedicated centers by Empost to receive visa and passport applications. This is expected to considerably reduce any inconvenience caused to public, who face heavy crowds at two offices, who can seek services only during specific hours on working days.

The new arrangement will enable public to submit applications at various centers across the country, after and before their office hours, as well as during weekends. Arrangements will be made for fast-track processing of applications in cases of emergency. The applicants will be digitally photographed, and hence will not have to provide photographs with their applications.

The documents will be couriered to their residence or office address or can be personally collected at the collection centers. Even appointments with the Indian mission officials for interviews will be arranged by these centers.

An additional service fee of Dh.12 will be charged for each passport service and Dh.50 for each visa service. The attestation of documents will however be done at the Indian missions as before.

Posted on 8/4/2008

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