The Passports Department has said that foreign residents in the Kingdom will soon have to be registered in the fingerprint system if they wish to avail themselves of the various government services. “Fingerprints will be a basic requirement to obtain these services soon,” said Passports chief Salim Al-Bulaihid. “The system will help us provide better services through secure electronic channels and save both time and effort, allowing the Ministry of Interior and other ministries to make use of the database.” According to Al-Bulaihid, fingerprinting needs only be done once and requires no updating. “It will help curb forgery and impersonation, which have caused significant problems, and allow the verification of the identities of nationals and foreigners alike,” he said, adding that the system is currently being introduced for Saudi nationals at Civil Affairs. “Fingerprinting is one of the Ministry of Interior's most important technological projects to prepare the infrastructure for advanced electronic services,” he said. “It will prepare a secure and suitable environment for government sectors to properly verify and document identities and provide the best services to both nationals and foreigners.”
