Bony Mascarenhas

More than 50 per cent expatriates have unnecessarily been lining up to register their fingerprints and other biometric information at the  Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), an official yesterday said.

“Only those employees, whose finger prints have not been registered with LMRA, need to come to us. Photograph and signatures can be snet online, ” LMRA PR  Head Waheed Al Balushi told DT.

“We find that many workers have applied for smart cards in our offices because they received messages saying that their pictures weren’t found or signattures were submitted in wrong formats,” he added.

The solution to both problems is simple and can be done online by the employer, Mr Al Balushi said, adding “Employers can log on to LMRA’s online system, then click on ‘Update CIO Details’ and resend the workers’ required information. Enter the worker’s CPR number and click on (Send Update).”

Mr. Al Balushi further explained, “After doing this, a message will show saying the information has been updated at the CIO successfully. This means that the CIO has got the informaation to print the samrt card.”

If any problems occur it is the CIO that has to be contacted and not LMRA, he added. The only time an employer needs to send in an expatriate employee to the LMRA for fingerprinting is if they get a message stating ‘missing fingerprints’.

In this case, the worker will need come to the authority for enrolment at LMRA headquarters, with a screen shot printout of  the message.

For a message like ‘ID Card Issued ‘, it is the CIO that needs to be contacted, Mr. Al Balushi stated.

If a message different from those detailed above is recieved, then employers are advised to save the message and submit an e-ticket using LMRA ‘s eSupport helpdesk or visit www.lmra.bh/esupport.