Expats stressed as LMRA ‘cleanses’
You could be technically in limbo If you are an expatriate and have five minutes to spare go check your residential status on the LMRA’s ‘expat portal’. You might be surprised and not necessarily pleasantly.
Log onto www.lmra.bh – go to the ‘expat portal’ and key in your CPR number and your passport expiry date. Chances are that the portal could display a message that says “Work visa in progress.Expat shouldn’t travel to Bahrain.” It may seem a comical situation to some that a person who is in Bahrain is being asked not to travel to the Kingdom. But it is apparently not so amusing to the person who is faced with such a situation, including a senior Tribune personnel among them.
Frantic residents told the Tribune that even though they had valid residence permits stamped on their passports the LMRA site stated that their visa was under process.
LMRA acting head of public relations, Waheed Al Balushi, when contacted, said that these residents had nothing to fear.
Are you legal or not?
“They will not be stopped at the airport or denied entry to Bahrain as long as the residence permit is on the passport,” Al Balushi said.
“The message is a default message and is removed as soon as the person’s information is updated. The process takes sometime as we have to verify each record before changing the status.”
To another concern by residents that the information shows that their pictures were not shown on the LMRA ‘expat portal’ even though they had enrolled, Al Balushi said the pictures would be displayed as and when the person’s data was cleansed.
“Data cleansing is a process to ensure that information provided by the employer matches with our records and those of our partners, including the ministries of Interior and Labour and other authorities concerned.
“If any difference is noticed we contact the employer and seek clarifications,” he said.
Residents can send emails to lmra@lmra.gov.bh to inform the authority about any discrepancy in their online information, Al Balushi said