The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Dubai, is offering residents of the UAE free e-gate cards and smart gate activation.
The service is being offered only till April 10 at the smart gate and e-gate registration kiosk located outside Hall No 6 of Dubai World Trade Centre. The kiosk is open from 9 am to 6 pm. But remember to take your original passport.
Smart gates are currently installed at Terminal 3, with e-gate facility available at Terminal 1 and 2.
“One has to visit personally our kiosk with his/her original passport in order to register their biometrics for e-gate cards and smart gate activation,” Mohammed Sultan Thani, Consultant, Organization Excellence, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Dubai, told Emirates 24/7.
The e-gate cards currently cost a little over Dh200. However, the smart gate registration is offered free at Terminal 3 departure.
Smart gates can currently be used only by people over 17 years of age.
Asked if people traveling with their children can use smart gate, Thani said: “We have immigration desks that stamp passport of the children. So families can use the smart gate facility.”
The smart gate will put an end to long queues for residents with electronically read passports.
Last year, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects and Emaratech, a technology and consulting company, had signed an agreement to build and install smart gates at Dubai International Airports and upgrade immigration counters to alleviate travellers passport control procedures.
Emaratech says “travellers using smart gates will be able to complete their passport control procedures in as little as 20 seconds.”