“To help the community of Filipinos, we’d like to be clear; we’d like them to follow our social media (and) contact us if there’s anything. We’d like also to hear from them their advices and suggestions – whatever they have to improve our services.
DUBAI: The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigner Affairs – Dubai (GDRFA) has initiated steps to be closer to the emirate’s estimated half a million Filipinos, promising weekly updates and calling their attention to a mobile application enabling them to have direct links to the agency’s services as well as top officials for their queries and suggestions.
This, according to Maj. General Mohammed Ahmed Al-Marri, GDRFA director who told The Filipino Times at a morning briefing, June 5, that the move is meant to assist the Filipino community in clearing the air on a range of concerns and to provide them with the latest immigration news
“To help the community of Filipinos, we’d like to be clear; we’d like them to follow our social media (and) contact us if there’s anything,” Maj. General Al-Marri said.
The director said Filipinos, in the absence of a credible and verifiable information, tend to group together and share mostly unconfirmed reports, hearsays or fake news. “Whatever they hear they take it (as truth),” said the top official.
Maj. General Al-Marri also indulged The Filipino Times with a video interview posted on social media where he said: “We are Dubai Immigration. We are coming to you and would like to share with you all our latest news and we’d like also to hear from you your advices, your suggestions – whatever you have to improve our services. We’ll be in touch with you weekly through The Filipino Times.”
The announcement expectedly made waves on The Filipino Times online platform, hitting the first 1,000 views in less than 15 minutes.
Meantime, the agency and its smart services can be followed and accessed at gdrfadubai on twitter, Instagram, YouTube and snapshot.
The app can also be downloaded through Playstore and Google Play for androids, and App store for iphone users, and be installed in mobile phones to learn anything from visa inquiries to visa extension, legal services. It also has a page where customers can monitor status of their papers, even contact Maj. General Al-Marri himself if the situation is so dire as to warrant doing so.
Other government agencies have earlier done similar initiatives, Dubai Police among them which, last year organized a forum with Filipino community leaders and the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in what has now become a continuing working relationship.
What the mobile app can help you do:
• Apply for a visit visa for your relatives
• Use the smart gates at the airport with the app if you are registered already for the gates
• Apply for a residence entry permit for your family members (Wife and Children)
• Apply for new residence for your family members (after they have arrived in the UAE with a residence entry permit)
• Renew residence permits for your family members
• Transfer your residence to your new passport
• Check your residence and entry permit status
• Apply for fee refund for refused applications and warranty refund for entry permits
• Apply for canceling resident for any sponsored under your sponsorship
• You can generate the “travel status report” and the list of people you sponsor (“sponsor and sponsored report”)
• Request a new or renew your UAE passport.
• As a tourist arriving in Dubai, you can extend your on arrival visa
• As a company registered in Dubai, you can:mView the list of individuals your organization sponsors; generate sponsor and sponsored report.
• You can also get an answer for any legal concern related to Dubai immigration rules and policy.
Source: GDRFA-Dubai
