The government’s move to scrap the use of residency stickers on passports and to replace it with Civil IDs has proven to be more challenging than it is beneficial for resident expats in the Gulf State because there seems to be miscommunication with relevant departments and facilities that typically use these documents for regular transactions.
As such, there has been a steady number of complaints both locally and overseas concerning the use of these documents for immigration purposes and other transactions.
New Civil IDs Continue to Burden Expats at Banks, Airports
In relation to this, expats spending their holidays in Europe have reported that they have faced problems with the new civil ID residency system after the residency sticker on the passport was cancelled, as shared in a report by the Kuwait Times.
According to the complainants, the immigration officials in those countries refused to let them depart because the civil ID does not bear the words “residency ID” and does not indicate an expiry date.
Meanwhile, others said that they contacted the emergency lines of Kuwaiti embassies, who called the airports to tell them about the new system and allow the expats to board the plane.
On the other hand, expats face another problem in Kuwait in regard to changing the names on the ID, as the civil information only mentions the first and last names in Latin, which banks reject and do not accept for updating resident data, which is only done annually.
According to the expats who attempted to update their data at the bank, employees reject the ID because the Latin name is only composed of two parts, which does not align with the requirements set for updating systems which call for the agreement of the Arabic name with that of the Latin one, which are designed to be in four parts.
If these issues continue to persist even months after the system has already been implemented, there is clearly something amiss with the implementing rules and regulations (IRRs) of the new initiative.
Kuwaiti officials must take a firm and unified stand on this, because not only will this cause delays in processes locally and even abroad, expats can also flock immigration offices or the PACI, if no reasonable solution can be given to this issue after months of supposed polished implementing rules and regulations have been imposed.
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