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E-processing of group visas from Oct. 15

The project for automating the system for issuing group employment visas was launched on the instructions of Mattar Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, to enhance the level of performance and to streamline the control mechanism. Acting upon suggestions from Under-Secretary for Labour Affairs Dr Khalid Al Kharzaji, the computer department at the ministry developed a system that overcomes the shortcomings of the manual system and ensures a high level of productivity in processing applications in the least possible time, explained Ahmed Khajoor, the ministry’s assistant under-secretary for Planning.

Under the new system, which is now in its final stages and in the testing process before its official launch by mid October, applications for group employment visas will be entered in the computer system and will be processed electronically without being physically moved from one person to another, Mr Khajoor said.

He said that at present, when an application for group visas is submitted, it passes through more than seven people before it is being finalised and processed. “This causes lots of problems, and on some occasions, it leads to misplacement of the documents. besides consuming a lot of time.

Many of the persons involved in the handling these types of applications are members in committees or involved in other tasks at the ministry, which prevent them from being physically present at their desks all the time to check and work on the applications for group visas.

Eventually, it takes several days for a group employment visa application to reach the desks of the under-secretary and the minister for final approvals,” Mr Khajoor explained, observing that under the existing laws, the signatures of the minister and the under-secretary are essential for processing group visas.

“With the new system, the people involved can easily access the application on the computer , without physically handling the paper file, and can make their observations concerning the nationalities, qualifications and other details of the candidates, which need verification. Once all the officials involved give their remarks, the person in charge at the group visa section will take print outs of their remarks and send them to the applicant if the application is lacking more documents. If the application is approved, it will also be notified,” Mr Khajoor said.

One of the the advantages of the new system is its role in controlling companies’ attempts to turn around the rule of cultural diversity, which compels establishments to recruit employees from different nationalities. “Currently, when the ministry approves a number of collective visas it grants the approval for recrfuiting certain numbers of nationalities, mostly Asians, and suspends the processing of the visas until the company diversifies in nationalities of the remaining number of required employees,” Mr Khajoor said, noting that it takes companies several weeks to find the required manpower from other nationalities, which results in delaying their projects.

It it at this stage that companies try to exploit the loopholes and apply again, mentioning the same nationalities, but the ministry had no mechanism to strictly control the practice.

According to Mr Khajoor, the new system will do away with many such problems, since the ministry will grant approval for a number of workers of certain nationalities and allow the applicant to start processing their visas and bringing them into the country, while it issues a seperate paper to the applicant company with the remaining number of workers whose nationalities should differ from those already granted the approval,” Mr Khajoor said.

He explained that this paper shows that the company is still entitled to a certain number of workers and can within the certain period of time look for the suitable candicades and apply again, mentioning the nationalities for the ministry to consider and issue the priliminary approval.

“We are thinking of allowing a company to make use of the paper twice. If the number remaining to be recruited is 50 for example, the company might be allow to reapply twice, every time for a batch of the 50. But if a company fails within a certain period of time to find the required manpower from different nationalities, the initial approval will be cancelled and new applications have to be submitted from the beginning, which will cost the firm more expense as they have to pay Dh200 for each employee on the group visa application,” Mr Khajoor said.

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