Minimum passport validity period to be 1 month instead of 6 months for violators to amend their visa status in UAE

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Ports Security (ICP) has decided to amend the passport validity period required as a condition for accepting a request to adjust the status of overstayers from six months to only one month during the amnesty period.

According to Major General Suhail Saeed Al Khaili, Director General of ICP, the passport validity of residence and visa violators, foreigners born in the country and those included in administrative lists has been changed to one month only instead of six months.

The decision is aimed to enable overstayers to adjust their status without the need to renew their passports if they are valid less than six months as was the case before the new decision was issued, he said.

This would allow overstayers to overcome the challenge of the long period taken by their passports to be renewed through their embassies in the country, he added.

Al Khaili stressed that the decision would enable overstayers to take advantage of the exceptional opportunity provided by the amnesty, adding that this exception would be applied only during the amnesty period between September 1 and October 31, 2024.

He pointed out that the decision reflects the ICP’s keenness on finding sound solutions to the challenges facing the beneficiaries of the amnesty, calling on overstayers to contact the ICP’s call centre, raise their questions and inquiries and identify the challenges they face.