Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) from UAE - Without Emirates ID

[daniyal.khalil]

Hey guys,
I submitted the spousal application for my wife through recently launched online portal back in November 2022.
I received the email couple weeks ago from IRCC stating that she needs to provide Police Clearance Certificate from UAE.

My wife was born in Sharjah, UAE, stayed in UAE for 14 years and then moved to her home country Pakistan before 2011. So she doesn't have an Emirates ID.
On Dubai Police's website it says if you do not have Emirates ID, then you need to provide the fingerprint card which needs to be attested from foreign affairs as well as UAE Embassy of home country.

She took the fingerprint card available at Dubai Police's website to the nearest police stations and they seemed so surprised as if they had seen a ghost, because they had never seen that fingerprint form before, they refused to sign it.

Long story short, she had to get that fingerprint card printed on 2 stamp papers worth 50 Pkr each, with the same format, she then went to a forensics department in Islamabad to get the fingerprints signed by an authorized individual.

Now on to the next step, she took this fingerprint form to the foreign affairs and they simply refused to attest it. She went to the UAE Embassy, and they told her to get it attested from foreign affairs.

We finally decided to go to an agency, they gathered her documents and mentioned she would receive her PCC in email within 2 business days. fast forward 2 days, the agency called her back saying she needs to get those fingerprints attested from UAE Embassy. And now we are stuck in the same vicious cycle.

My questions:
1) Has anyone applied for PCC from UAE while residing in Islamabad, Pakistan without Emirates ID? If so, how did you get the fingerprints attested from foreign affairs, because this has given us hell so far.
2) Do they really need her fingerprints? because she has lived there for 14 years. What if we apply without fingerprints?
3) Can I send POA to a relative in UAE and have him apply on behalf of my wife?

I have also been thinking of sending my wife to UAE only to get that PCC but I'm not even sure if this is going to work as we are running out of time because we only have until March 30th to submit it to IRCC.

Really need some help here folks. hope someone can rescue us. Much appreciated.

 

[h2o_o2_co2]

I'm not sure what the protocol is going back a while. I recently requested a PCC from Dubai Police and there is an option if you apply from Outside UAE. Charges are a bit higher but it was done pretty fast with them emailing the document.

Below link:
https://www.dubaipolice.gov.ae/wps/portal/home/services/individualservices/goodconductcertificate?firstView=true

 

[daniyal.khalil]

I'm not sure what the protocol is going back a while. I recently requested a PCC from Dubai Police and there is an option if you apply from Outside UAE. Charges are a bit higher but it was done pretty fast with them emailing the document.

Below link:
https://www.dubaipolice.gov.ae/wps/portal/home/services/individualservices/goodconductcertificate?firstView=true

Thanks for your reply h2o_o2_co2 , I understand there is an option, but in my case there is no Emirates ID, so we have to get the biometrics attested, which seems almost impossible.

 

[h2o_o2_co2]

Thanks for your reply h2o_o2_co2 , I understand there is an option, but in my case there is no Emirates ID, so we have to get the biometrics attested, which seems almost impossible.

Understood, if you choose 'no Emirates ID' would that option not work? I did not have a Emirates ID the last time i applied.

 

[h2o_o2_co2]

The "no Emirates ID", at least in our case, led to a frustrating journey of having to deal with the embassy, etc. With the ID, you can simply apply online. Were you able to succeed in getting PCC online without the ID. When was that?

I applied a few months back and got it within a week.
I chose 'Outside UAE' for the 'User Type'

And when asked if i have an Emirates ID i said 'No'.

It worked just fine for me.

 

[daniyal.khalil]

I have no experience with seeking UAE PCC while residing in Islamabad, Pakistan without Emirates ID.

But, we had a not dissimilar experience of applying for same while residing in Philippines. My wife worked in UAE for 3 years, ending around the time the UAE ID was implemented. She did not think she ever had one. We got her former employer on the phone. The employer thought, too, that she never had one and could not find a record of same. The employer offered to try find a way to get PCC. They gave up after a few weeks. They said we would have to figure it out on our own.

We went through dealing with the embassy here in the Phils. Most unhelpful. Then I engaged in lively correspondence with police in Dubai. Got some inconsistent answers. I wrote at one point and asked: If we come there, can we get fingerprints, photos and whatever else you want done to your specifications and get the PCC? I got back a 3-word reply, in upper case: YES YOU CAN. I replied, asking to please confirm, since we did not want to spend thousands of dollars and 2 flights each way (almost 11 hours from Manila), only to get there and be told we have received incorrect advice. I said we wanted confirmation in writing. That came back. So we went there in November for 8 days. Got the PCC on day 7.

Thanks, this is the situation i'm trying to avoid, but if there is no other way around it then i guess we will go to UAE. the Embassy and Ministry of Interior UAE is literally no help.

 

[daniyal.khalil]

Understood, if you choose 'no Emirates ID' would that option not work? I did not have a Emirates ID the last time i applied.

I am tempted to go ahead and apply but the instructions are very clear, if you choose 'no Emirates ID' then fingerprints is a must.
I have contacted Dubai Police and Ministry of interior and was able to get very little information from them.

This is what they replied:
If you do not have an Emirates ID, you must send the fingerprints stamped by the UAE embassy and send it to:

Dubai Police General Headquarters –Good Conduct Certificate Section

Contact # 00971 46096412

C.I.D Building Al Ittihad Road,

P. O. Box 1493, Dubai, U.A.E​

 

[daniyal.khalil]

As far as avoiding trip to UAE goes, I was determined, at first, to try to get out of it. However, things changed.

The saving grace for us was that, when I mentioned our difficulty to a friend back home in Canada, he put us in touch with a friend of his in Abu Dhabi. In no time, that person contacted us and offered assistance. He and his wife were from S. Africa and had lived in UAE for 25 years. They had PR status in Canada and were planning to move to my part of Canada within the year. They wanted to meet me and ask questions about my location, buying real estate, etc.

They met us at the airport and took us to a condo they obtained for us, that was used by his company when others came there from abroad for business purposes. We paid the rate paid by his firm and it was a very favourable rate.

So, for us, the trip was not a hardship, which I had at first expected. Our new friends showed us around, gave us insights and experience we would have missed on our own. My wife was able to connect with a couple ofd old friends there. It turned into a nice holiday. My first time in that part of the world. And, we got our PCC.

Good that you got everything sorted out, did they ever ask you to submit fingerprints when you applied in person? or was the process rather simple?

 

[daniyal.khalil]

I applied a few months back and got it within a week.
I chose 'Outside UAE' for the 'User Type'

And when asked if i have an Emirates ID i said 'No'.

It worked just fine for me.

Would you be able to supply more info on that, you never had to deal with all that fingerprint fiasco? Is it because you had a different resident status there?

 

[daniyal.khalil]

Here's a copy of November 9, 2022 email from Dubai police:


If you do not have an Emirates ID, you must send the fingerprints stamped by the UAE embassy and send it to:

Dubai Police General Headquarters –Good Conduct Certificate Section

Contact # 00971 46096412 # 00971 46096829

C.I.D Building Al Ittihad Road,

P. O. Box 1493, Dubai, U.A.E

Best regards

Dubai police General H.Q

Part of our difficulty at that time was getting the NBI to agree to do prints except on a UAE form. As well, the embassy in Manila was being difficult about getting the prints there. You could not just show up there with it. You had to use one of a few agents. In my wife's town, the designated agent was a courier service that, when we went there, was locked up with a sign in the window saying the place was closed due to covid. It was just one roadblock after another. I expect we could have soldiered on and eventually have got the job done without going to Dubai, but, in the end, going there was best for us.

However, h2o says the info from Dubai police is wrong and there's a simple way. I trust he or she will come back and provide a bit more detail.

Thanks Kaibigan, appreciate the help.

 

[h2o_o2_co2]

Would you be able to supply more info on that, you never had to deal with all that fingerprint fiasco? Is it because you had a different resident status there?

I was a resident of UAE up until 2020. My Emirates ID was cancelled shortly after.
That's the only thing that i guess that makes it different for me.... I had to get a PCC for security clearance for the job i do here in Canada.

I was never asked for fingerprints. I wish i knew more details on this, but just sharing my personal experience.

 

[daniyal.khalil]

I was a resident of UAE up until 2020. My Emirates ID was cancelled shortly after.
That's the only thing that i guess that makes it different for me.... I had to get a PCC for security clearance for the job i do here in Canada.

I was never asked for fingerprints. I wish i knew more details on this, but just sharing my personal experience.

Thanks, I guess they would have had your biometrics on the system already. In our case, the application is already applied by the agency, but Dubai police came back asking for Fingerprints. So now we have to somehow get the fingerprints attested.

 

[h2o_o2_co2]

Thanks, I guess they would have had your biometrics on the system already. In our case, the application is already applied by the agency, but Dubai police came back asking for Fingerprints. So now we have to somehow get the fingerprints attested.

i believe so. Hope you get some sort of clarity and get everything sorted at your end. Wish you all the best.

 

[daniyal.khalil]

There certainly seems to be an element of "depends on who you talk to" in all of this.

We recently got a letter from IRCC saying it's time for my wife to get her Hong Kong PCC. Hong Kong won't supply one unless requested by the foreign government, so the IRCC letter has to go with the application.

If one goes to the HK police website, they ask for fingerprints. They say they will accept prints done by police in your home country, sent on the form the local police use. Great. So, we went to the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation, which issues Philippines PCCs. We asked them to fingerprint my wife and give us the prints. They asked for the HK fingerprint form. We said not needed, HK will accept whatever form NBI uses. They were adamant that it does not work that way and they would only do it if we came back with a Hong Kong form. Several people at the front desk all agreed that's how it had to be.

We asked to see the officer in charge. He came out and repeated the same line. I turned to my wife and said let's not waste anymore time here, let's just go to Hong Kong and get it done, just as we had done for Dubai PCC. At that point, for reasons not clear, the chief asked us to sit down for a minute, not be hasty. So, he ushered us into a nearby office, left, and then came back with another man, a "Fingerprint Aide", who did the job, put the NBI stamps and certifications on it and gave it to us. It and the rest of what was required were delivered to HK police a few days ago.

So, the only suggestion that arises out of that story, is to be persistent where you can. Sometimes it pays off.

Right, trust me that's what we have been trying to do, my wife has already been to the UAE Embassy twice, they have told her they would contact the authorities in the UAE and will let her know once they have more information. She will go to the embassy tomorrow as well, fingers crossed, I'm not expecting a different answer but maybe they just get tired of seeing her in the embassy every other day and will do the needful lol.

 

[daniyal.khalil]

Best o

Best of luck! These things can be very trying. One must try not become discouraged. It's not hard to become discouraged. Seems there are endless roadblocks. But then, as I mentioned, sometimes persistence pays off. In your case, as you say, the embassy staff might realize that it's better to accommodate your wife, just to get rid of her.

Appreciate all the kind responses guys, will post more on this thread once i have further updates on my case.