Effective 11^th April 2022, UAE’s residency visa stickers affixed on passports have now been replaced with Emirates ID, and the former visa stickers shall be issued and available online. This new changes merges residence and identity cards application, further reducing the task of processing each of them separately.
 

According to ICA (Federal Authority for identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security), Emirates ID card shall now be the proof of residents as the EID card itself contains the resident visa status.

As per last year’s move, new form of Emirates IDs were revealed and residents received their new cards.
In order to verify residency, the ICA Authorities have established all important technical facilities to obtain residents details. Such new changes shall streamline the visa application process by reducing the burden of a number of steps.

Emirates ID remain as a mandatory requirements for all residents and citizens residing within UAE.

Although changes shall apply to visa issued post Aril 11 2022, information from older visas shall be also available through the ICA Smart application.