The Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) has urged parents to get separate passports issued for their children instead of adding their names to the mothers’ passports, to be able to register the children for their national ID cards before the deadline of September 30.

The announcement was made in response to concerns raised by some residents who asked Eida if they will face fine if they did not register their children.

An Egyptian woman, who preferred not be named, asked: “My kid is registered under my passport. Both share one passport. I obtained my ID card, but my daughter did not. Should I wait till the passport expires in 2014 and then apply for my daughter’s own passport, or should I cancel the passport now and apply before the deadline?”

According to an Eida spokesperson, the child must obtain a passport now with her own residency permit stamped to be eligible to apply for the Emirates ID card. The authority recently announced that the resident children under 15 years across the UAE, whose residences expire before December 31, 2012, are excluded from the children’s registration deadline.
Meanwhile, the authority has been sending messages through fliers, news alerts and social websites urging all UAE nationals and residents to register their children before the coming deadline.

October 31 will be the deadline for renewing all identity cards expiring up to that date.

Any cardholder across the UAE, with the exception of children under 15 years, has 30 days to renew the card from the date of expiry. A working team will be constituted to coordinate with the Ministry of Health and the health authorities concerned with the registration of the newborns in the UAE, and link them with Emirates ID next year as part of facilitating the registration of newborns in the Population Register and ID Card programme.

Ministerial Decision No 25 of 2011 stipulates a penalty of Dh20 per day up to a maximum of Dh1,000 for delay in registration or issuance of identity cards, for all categories and age groups; any delay in renewing ID cards, for all categories and ages, effective 30 days from the expiry of the card; delay in reporting any change or modification in the cardholder’s personal data or incidents, for all categories and age groups, after 30 days from the date of the change.