M.A., who applied for a housemaid's visa last month, said the information on the website was useless and even telephone information given by a department officer was no help.
A number of other applicants dealing with visa desks at the department said they do not trust information given to them by the information desk. "I had to shuttle from the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) branch in Jebel Ali to my workplace in Dubai Media City and my husband's workplace in Dubai Internet City to get the right certificates," M.A. said.
She said she was told she could apply for a housemaid's visa on her own sponsorship but when she visited the section she discovered her husband had to be the sponsor.
M.A. also said she was not given accurate information about the fees and the cost of the visa. She said she was told she should bring a letter from her husband's workplace.
"I brought the letter, which was in English, but I was told that the letter should be in Arabic.
"Many departments do not provide proper information to applicants which unnecessarily adds to traffic congestion and wastes time. Dubai entered the era of e-government a few years back, but we still don't have a hassle-free application system for such a simple transaction," she added.
M.A., who is British and of Arab origin, said the department should give proper information about how to apply for a visa.
"This is not my first experience with them, they did the same with me last year when I applied for a visa for my sister," she said.
Another applicant said the information you get from either calling the DNRD operator inquiry number 043980000 or through the website www.dnrd.gov.ae is in a way outdated or contains general information and does not reflect the changes in the law.
Captain Jumaa Mubarak Khamis, Director of the Immigration Section at Jebel Ali, said: "We have received some complaints from the public that they are sometimes misinformed about how they can obtain a visa or about the fees. We update the website regularly."
He added sometimes rules changed depending on the applicants' circumstances.
Captain Khamis said that a married woman, regardless of her nationality and salary, could not sponsor a housemaid if she was living with her husband.
"Single women, divorcees or widows can sponsor a housemaid because they have no husbands. But those who are married cannot because the married woman could apply for a housemaid's visa and her husband could apply for another one. We cannot provide one family with two labour cards, it would be illogical. Maybe the woman who complained did not tell our officer she was married and lived with her husband," Captain Khamis said.
He added regarding the fees it was well known there were visa fees for expatriates to sponsor housemaids.
"These are Dh250 for a visa application, Dh4,800 returnable deposit and Dh5,000 to be paid per year as fees," he said.
He also said any document should be written in Arabic and the public should be aware of that.
"Anyone is welcome to complain, we are looking to offer the best service to the public. It would be easier for those who need to inquire about our services and about visa applications to visit the website," he said.
Autor: Bassma Al Jandaly
Quelle: Gulf News, 29.06.2005
