Expats News Updates & advice

ID, resident cards to cost ro 1 more

Omanis and expatriates will now have to pay more for their identity and resident cards.

According to a communiqué from the Royal Oman Police, the fees for identity and resident cards have been raised by RO 1 with effect from Monday. “The decision to hike the fees was old and now it is just implemented,” said an official at the Royal Oman Police. He said the new tariff will be applicable to new cards and for renewal of old cards. Instead of RO 5 paid by the nationals, they have to now pay RO6 and expatriates have to pay RO 11 instead of RO 10 for identity and resident cards respectively, said the communiqué.

“The new tariff is being implemented as part of user fee for the e-gates at the arrival and departure points at the Seeb International Airport,” said the official. The new e-gate system was launched to make travelling easy for citizens and expatriates through Muscat International Airport, added the official. The electronic gates utilise the concepts of smart card and finger print identification to automate the registration process. The electronic gates speed up the entire process of registration in addition to providing the ROP with an improved control of the inbound and outbound travellers.

In January 2004, Oman became the first Arab country to introduce a machine-readable smart card with stored fingerprints. The card has all the personal details of the holder. With the system, nationals as well resident passengers do not have to wait in long queues to get their passports stamped as they can head straight for the machine and register their entry or exit.

Source: OmanObserver

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