Expatriates and their families are crowding Passport Department offices to get fingerprinted before the May 25 deadline for the issuance of exit-re-entry visas. Exit-re-entry visas will not be issued after this deadline to those expatriates who have not been fingerprinted. All three fingerprinting offices as well as the mobile and the eight subsidiary centers are witnessing a huge rush as expatriates are preparing to travel home during the long summer school holidays. “All expatriates and their dependents must register their fingerprints as soon as possible,” said Samiha D.A.Al-Thaqafi, manager of the women's Department of General Passport Division in Al-Balad. “Children over the age of nine must also be brought for fingerprinting. All fingerprinting centers have women's sections,” she added. Expatriates should visit these centers with their passports and Iqamas. No other document is required. “The administration of my organization has issued a notice to all employees to register along with their dependents for fingerprinting at the nearest immigration office,” said Nomana Fazeel, lecturer in a private college in Jeddah. But she complained of long queues at these centers. “After four visits to four different Jawazat offices, we still could not complete fingerprinting formalities,” she added. Many expatriates complained of the lack of information about the process and places for fingerprinting. “I, along with my wife and children, have been out in the sun for five hours now, going from one location to another,” said Arif Malik, an IT worker, standing in a queue in the Palestine Road center of the Passport Department. There are three fingerprinting centers in Jeddah: at the Saudi Oger's headquarters, north of the city near Al-Sawari Mall; at Dallah Al-Barakah Company's headquarters on Palestine Street; and at the Bin Laden Company in south Jeddah. A mobile center is also available in the city's southern part. Expatriates can also make use of the services of eight subsidiary centers for fingerprinting set up in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Provinces' Passports Departments. This move has been taken to reduce overcrowding at the main fingerprinting centers. The Saudi government through its Directorate General of the Passport Department has strengthened its internal security measures and has opted to implement the fingerprinting of all expatriates effective from May 10, 2008. Now fingerprinting is a must for expatriates to obtain residence permits (Iqamas), to transfer sponsorship and to request other passport services. Several GCC countries have already put in place similar requirements. Qatar issues ‘Bataqa' to expatriates only after fingerprinting, and the UAE government has made eye
