Chris Saul's Blog

Sunday January 07, 2007

Visa oddities

When I was working for Tech Access, Sun's distributor in Dubai, something odd happened to my residence visa - when flying out of or into Dubai, the passport control officers' computers showed my visa as having been cancelled. Our PRO* at TA went to various departments to get the issue sorted, but was always told there was no problem with my visa according to their systems. I'd then fly somewhere again and have the same problem at passport control.

The issue was solved when I got myself an eGate card, which allowed me to leave and enter Dubai using a card and a fingerprint check. (eGate is utterly brilliant - every Dubai resident should get one, regardless of how often they fly. Although as a Brit I do love a good queue, being able to queuejump legitimately and go straight through immigration in less than 1 minute never fails to bring a smile to my face).

When I joined Sun I didn't need to change my residence visa, as my sponsor hadn't changed - Sun are my employer, but Dubai Internet City are my sponsor. I did renew my residence visa without any problems in mid 2005 and also renewed my eGate card around the same time, if memory serves correctly.

Over New Year Mrs Saul and I flew to Sri Lanka via Sharjah airport, where I had to go through normal passport control procedures and have my residence visa scanned as eGate hasn't been implemented in Sharjah yet. I was amazed to be told that my new residence visa was coming up again as having been cancelled.

Although I've always been able to leave and re-enter without any issues as my British passport entitles me to a visa on arrival, it does add on thirty minutes or so whilst officials call the relevant department or simply spend some time discussing what to do before giving me a normal entry stamp.

I'm not sure what the issue is - maybe someone with similar credentials to me has had their visa cancelled, but the wrong details have been entered into one of the systems concerned.

Tony, Sun's brilliant PRO, will have to investigate on this occasion and hopefully things will be sorted out.

On all occasions the passport control officers have always been helpful, efficient and polite - streets ahead of other countries I could name. That's pretty impressive considering that it appears at first that I'm effectively trying to enter the country on an expired visa.

* A PRO is a Public Relations Office - nothing to do with talking to the media, everything to do with handling all the necessary bureaucracy that comes with living and working in the UAE. A good PRO is someone you need to keep on good terms with, as they can make life a lot easier for you!