Resident identity card

This refers to the news report, “Expat IDs to be sent by post from Aug. 16.” (June 21)

It’s a heartening to note that the government will provide new machine-readable identity cards to expats from Oct. 14, which will be sent to them through Saudi Post.

I earlier read that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif has already launched the new card, known as ‘Muqeem’ instead of Iqama, in Riyadh.

In general, the Passport Department is planning to start this change effective from Oct. 14. As mentioned in the news, services will be available online and companies as well as individuals would no longer need to visit passport office.

This is a good step taken by the department and we appreciate its efforts to make procedures easy for the expatriates.

This step will also help reduce the number of visitors to passport office on a daily basis. We hope that the Passport Department will take care of all the steps from printing to delivery of IDs through mail. Many people have some bad experiences while receiving cards from banks as they are sometimes lost or reach very late. This new step will be a good change and hopefully it will be working without any hassle.

Besides, the issue of exit reentry visa whereby if an expat employee fails to come back before expiry of the visa, he will not be allowed to come in KSA before three years, is also a right decision.But in case of emergencies back home or due to flight cancellation/delays, which happen often, it will become difficult for them to come back within the stipulated time.

According to some employers, if they allow more days for re-entry visa than the actual vacation, employees get benefit from this and can delay their return in case of any emergency situation. This should not necessarily for all employees; and companies or individual sponsors can take necessary action on late arrival if the employee cannot prove a genuine reason for return. These small steps will benefit employees. Otherwise, an employee will lose his job and the employer will lose his worker as well. — Muhammad Mushtaq, Riyadh