Abu Dhabi: Low-income Bangladeshi workers living in remote areas of the UAE can now pay the fees to convert their hand-written passports into Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) without having to make the long trip to the Embassy.
The Bangladesh Embassy today signed a deal with UAE Exchange that will enable Bangladeshis across the capital to fill out the online MRP application form, apply for the Birth Registration Number (a mandatory step in the application process), and to finally request a date to complete their biometrics at the embassy.
“This is a unique and experimental step we are taking to reduce the pressure on our employees at the embassy. Usually the fees are deposited at the embassy and this can prove challenging with the limited manpower we have. We understand that some of our low-paid nationals spend a large amount of money commuting to and from the embassy to complete the process of applying for an MRP. Now we have shortened the three visits into two, and will hopefully reduce this even further as we plan to outsource the entire process,” Mohammad Imran, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the UAE, said.
A special counter at the UAE Exchange’s branches across Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region will cater especially to this service.
“Bangladeshis will be met by customer service representatives who will speak to them in their mother tongue. They will fill out the online MRP form for them and give them a bar code which they will have to take to the embassy when completing their biometrics one or two weeks after paying the fees, depending on the rush,” said Sudhir Kumar Shetty, COO – Global Operations, UAE Exchange.
However, those applying for MRPs, whether through UAE Exchange or the embassy, must present their original hand-written passport.
“We can normally talk to companies and tell them that they must hand over the passports to their employees for renewal, so, hopefully, this shouldn’t be a problem,” Shetty said.
By November 2015, officials said, all hand-written passports have to be converted into MRPs or else visas for those passports will not be issued.
“If this deadline is true, we plan on converting all hand-written passports six months before the deadline. So if we want to get this done, we will have to work diligently with UAE Exchange and other partners if our pilot project is successful. Currently, immigration officials treat those with hand-written passports differently and this may cause delays in paper processing,” the Ambassador said.
“We have even asked UAE Exchange employees to be sympathetic and helpful to illiterate Bangladeshis approaching them for this process. If this project is successful, we will expand this service to Dubai which will then cater to those who have Dubai and northern emirates-issued visas,” he added.
