UAE suspends good conduct certificate, Indians to benefit

NEWDELHI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended the mandatory requirement of good conduct certificates for work visas until further notice, a move that is expected to benefit thousands of Indian workers who go to the country every year.

The UAE’S human resources and emiratisation ministry said on Sunday the change would be effective from April 2. The document, known as a “police clearance certificate”, had been made mandatory from February 4.

Indians going to the UAE for work was required to present a certificate from the nearest police station showing they had no criminal history or convictions.

A statement issued by Rehab Ali al-mansoori, the director of the UAE’S consular and visa centre in New Delhi, announced the change. Officials of the UAE embassy said the new rules were applicable to citizens of some Saarc countries, including India and Pakistan.

The UAE has three visa centres — in Delhi, Mumbai and Kerala. The Delhi centre alone issued about 50,000 work visas last year, when a total of 1.6 million Indians visited the UAE.

The country is home to an Indian expatriate community of more than 2.6 million, the largest in the country. Professionally qualified workers make up about 20% of the community, followed by 20% white-collar non-professionals while the remainder are blue-collar workers.

Gulf News reported that the decision to temporarily suspend the security checks of foreigners applying for work visas was made by the UAE cabinet, which did not set a time frame as to when the security vetting will be resumed.

In the past, checks on Indians applying for work visas were done in the UAE and a change was made in February to cut down hardships for applicants so that they could begin work as soon as they arrived in the emirates, UAE officials had said.

However, the introduction of the police clearance certificates had created confusion in some countries, media reports said.

“There were a lot of Pakistanis who were applying for the certificate and there was no clarity how to get it done without delay,” Mohammed Saeed Sarwar, deputy head, Pakistani embassy in Abu Dhabi, was quoted as saying by The National newspaper.

He said a number of Pakistanis faced complications while acquiring the certificate to come to work in the UAE.

THE UAE’S DOCUMENT, ALSO KNOWN AS A ‘POLICE CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE’, WAS MADE MANDATORY FROM FEB 4