RIYADH — The General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) announced on Thursday extension of visitor identity cards for Yemeni expatriates for a period of another six months in line with a directive from Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior. The Jawazat made this announcement in view of the expiry of the validity of visitor IDs, granted earlier to Yemeni expatriates, by June 25. According to the Jawazat statement, all arrangements have been completed for online extension of the cards from Saturday until June 28. The directorate has informed that there is no need for Yemenis to visit the Jawazat offices personally to extend their ID cards. Instead, they can do it from the Abshir service of the Interior Ministry's portal (www.moi.gov.sa) after making online payment of SR100 through bank accounts. The user must log in to his personal account on Abshir and type ‘visitor identity.' The card will be printed and delivered to the concerned user through the Wasel service of Saudi Post. In the case of those who have no postal address and have not registered their address on Wasel, a link will appear for them to register their address on Abshir to receive the card, the directorate said. Earlier in December 2015, the Jawazat had extended visitor identity cards for Yemeni expatriates for a period of six months in line with a directive from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman. Meanwhile, Talal Al-Shalhoub, spokesman of Jawazat, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that around half a million Yemeni expatriates are the beneficiaries of the visitor ID cards, and they corrected their status during the three-phase campaign period. The passport authorities urged those Yemeni holders of visitor ID cards, who are yet to register their names on Abshir, should register their names quickly so as to benefit from the extension of the IDs for another six months. Those who delay in extending their IDs after making payment of fee need to pay fines for the extension.
