Renewing your Emirates ID card.

 A useless piece of plastic so far but a big full page advertisement in the paper announcing fees for late renewal prompted me to begin the process. My card expired last month and with the proposed 20aed per day fees (to max 1,000) it made me think twice. Now the date from which they will begin charging varies depending on the Emirate and Abu Dhabi is down quite late on that list, however, there are some conflicting bits of information about that on the page where it suggests that charges can be calculated from November 1, although they will only be applied (asked for?)  in April 2012. Better be safe than sorry.

Turns out the process is quite easy and relatively quick. But of course there is a hook.  You need your old card, and your passport with your new visa. It is 100aed per year of visa, so if you have a  3 year visa it will be 300aed. Says in the paper that the maximum fee that typing centres can charge is 30aed. So I walked in to my local typing centre with 330aed.  Actually there is a set of 5 typing centres side by side and they fought over my business, but I semi-randomly walked into the middle one which had been the first to beckon me as I wandered nearby.  I confirmed that they could do the ID cards and was ushered to a seat. There I sat for about 10 minutes. The clerk flipped back and forth through the pages of my passport and meticulously copied details from my card. Then to my surprise he stuck a hole punch through the card in two places, destroying the embedded chip. Kind of sad really since it was a virgin chip, and will now never know the joy of electronic connectivity ;-)

He then went over the details he had typed in and together we checked number for number all the digits and words.  Finally he printed out a receipt and submission confirmation form and charged me 370aed. Hold on, where did the extra 40aed come from. Govt charges he said. But, but, but. No, no buts. Just pay up. Back home I called the number on the newspaper article which said to call if you got charged more than 30aed. Yes that’s right 70aed, 40 for the typing and 30 for delivery. Hang on, it says 30 for typing in the paper, nothing about delivery and anyway I have to pick it up from the post office. It’s not being delivered at all. No, no, the 30aed rate is the new rate that comes into effect later. It hasn’t been finalised yet. Then why is it published in the paper? Anyway it says on my receipt 30 for typing, why are you, the official agency telling different figures? …

We all know the answer to that, because nothing is actually ever straightforward. There always has to be thorn on the bush.

BTW, the paper advises strongly that you do not leave your passport with the typing centre, so if they can’t do it straight away, walk out and go to another one that will.