Immigration Department commences online services to immigrants, stops counter services

The Department of Immigration has commenced providing all services to immigrants online, and stopped providing these services over the counter.

Project Head, Senior Immigration Officer Ahmed Nadeem said today that the new ‘Expat System’ was established in collaboration with the National Centre for the Arts, and that it would facilitate online services such as extending visas, renewing work permit cards, and payment of deposit money.

He said that this would save time as people no longer have to queue for these services, and that it would also speed up the processing time for these services.

Nadeem also pointed out that from now on, people are required to visit the office only for a few services such as collection of passports and payment of visa fees.

He explained that any person who wishes to bring in a foreign national can register online through the special portal.

He added that it is a high security system, which would help reduce fraud.

“In this system, one person will check, another will verify, and another will approve the transactions. So there will be almost no chance for fraud,” he said.

Deputy Controller of Immigration Hamid Fathullah said that the decision to switch to an online system was made to facilitate smoother immigration services to citizens. He also added that this system would eliminate fraud.

Immigration Department estimates that by 2018, the Maldives will have as many foreign nationals as Maldivians. Also, there are about 35,000 illegal immigrants currently living in the Maldives, who owe the government about MVR83 million as visa fees.