Expats from some countries are facing difficulty when entering or exiting their nation, as immigration authorities there are unaware of the recent decision by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) in Kuwait to no longer stamp residence stickers on passports of expats. Kuwait’s MoI began implementing the ministerial decision to cancel residence stickers on passports of expatriates and replace it with the civil card,from 10 March.

The decision is seen as a step to keep abreast of the latest global technological developments and to achieve an integrated service security system that enables citizens and residents to complete all transactions via the Internet. Various embassies in the country have welcomed the decision to remove residence stickers, and consider it an internal matter and an organizational procedure that could lead to an efficient e-government. Embassies operating in the country have also informed their respective foreign ministries on the decision taken by MoI.

The information was then circulated to all ports of those countries to keep them abreast of the latest developments. Unfortunately, the decision to remove residence stickers has obviously not been communicated from the foreign ministries of concerned countries to their immigration authorities. As usual, the people suffering unduly are the expats. Clarifying the issue, officials from some embassies said that though they had communicated the MoI decision to their respective governments, given the size of their countries and the number of entry and exit ports, it will take some time before the immigration authorities become aware of the lack of residence stickers in passports of workers going to or coming from Kuwait.

The embassies stressed that in order to protect their nationals and to maintain good relations with Kuwait they will take the necessary measures once again, by communicating with the concerned parties in their countries to re-circulate the decision.


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