UAE residency visa, labour card validity cut to two years

Dubai: A new decision has been approved to reduce the life of the labour card for all workers and employees in the private sector, to two years from the current three, officials confirmed on Tuesday.

A senior official at the Labour Ministry told  the rule will be implemented in January 2011. "As the labour card will be for only two years, naturally the residency visa will also be for two years," the official explained.

According to a statement by Humaid Bin Deemas, Acting Director-General of the Ministry of Labour, carried by WAM, "The UAE Cabinet has reduced the validity of labour cards of all categories of people who work in private sector from three years to two years in a bid to regulate the labour market."

The Cabinet decision aims to unify the labour card validity for all work categories to be similar to that of drivers, domestic helpers and other similar categories who are given only two-year labour cards and residence visas by the Department of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, while other professions currently get three-year labour cards and three-year residence visa.

Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Minhali, Assistant Undersecretary at the ministry's Naturalisation and Residency Affairs department told, the change in the validity of the labour card will impact the expiry date of the residence visa issued to expatriates.

"When we get an application for a residence visa we look at the validity of the labour card issued by the Ministry of Labour; if it is for two years then we will issue a two-year residence visa," he explained.

source: GulfNews.com

Canadian visiting UAE - New Rule

Abu Dhabi: Starting January 2, Canadians will have to obtain a pre-arranged visa to enter the UAE, official sources said yesterday, amid souring ties between the two countries.

The visa waiver policy will no longer apply to Canada because relations had dipped to a point where they were "neither healthy nor hopeful", the Associated Press quoted an official source in Abu Dhabi as saying. "The visa waivers are granted to countries with a special relationship ... built on economic and other areas of close and growing cooperation," the source said.

The official added that this decision has no negative impact on the bilateral relations between the two countries.

According to source Gulfnews.com this maybe due to the aviation dispute of the two contries.

Aviation dispute

* October 10: The UAE is disappointed that despite intensive negotiations over the last five years the UAE and Canada have been unable to arrive at an agreement on expanding the number of flights between the two countries.
* October 11: Canadians barred from military base, a crucial link in the supply line for its mission in Afghanistan.
* October 14: Official source announces UAE lobbied against Canada's bid to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council because of its anti-Arab policies.
* November 9: UAE cancels visa waiver policy for Canadians, in a tit for tat move.