Dubai Will Soon Allow Residents to Apply For a Visa Using Facial Recognition on Your Phone

By Abdullah Shahid ⏐ 3 years ago ⏐

2 min read

Once in action, this project will use facial biometric recognition and allow millions to apply for a visa from the comfort of their home

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai has plans to introduce an online visa application that uses facial recognition features on your smartphone.

According to GDRFA, this new project will allow residents to apply for a visa by simply verifying their identity through facial recognition. With facial recognition doing most of the work, visa applicants will be able to sit back and apply for a visa from the comfort of their homes.

Director of the Project Management Office at GDRFA, Fatima Salem Al Mazrouei, attended Dubai’s tech show called GITEX Global 2022. At the show, the director gave an introduction and announced that work is still underway but we can expect a release shortly.

The GDRFA is a government department that manages the entry and exit of international travelers as well as those living in Dubai as foreign nationals. With a major part of Dubai’s workforce consisting of people from other countries, the GDRFA is an important entity.

Currently Dubai has a population of 3.5 million. These numbers are only bound to increase as more workers come in from different parts of the world. Having so many applications to deal, it’s only time that the department comes up with a well designed solution.

“We aim to have all of GDRFA services and transactions processed through facial biometrics. All GDRFA services such as applying for residency or visa will be accessible and verified with facial biometrics. Dubai residents will not be required to use a passport or any other document to verify themselves,” said Fatima thus making it clear that the GDRFA plans to use facial recognition in more and more of it’s operations.

Speaking about a newer version of the GDRFA’s app, the director said that it would combine all of GDRFA services into one place and make it easier to contact authorities.