Visa details must be transferred to new passport to access e-gates

Expatriates who have renewed their passports must have their visa page transferred to the new document in order to access the e-gates at Muscat International Airport, according to Royal Oman Police. “One has to go to the Directorate General of Passport & Residence located in each governorate to get this done,” a senior ROP official told Muscat Daily.

There are numerous accounts of travellers being unable to access the e-gates. Mohammed T, an Egyptian expatriate who recently travelled through Muscat International Airport, went to an e-gate which he could not access. “The first e-gate opened on inserting the resident card, but after that the system showed an error and the exit gate did not open. The entry gate reopened and I had to walk out and go through the manual immigration counters,” Mohammed said. He was disappointed with the experience as he had to wait in a long queue without knowing why he was unable to use the e-gates.

Another traveller, Rajdeep Paul said, “I could not access the e-gate when I recently travelled through Muscat Airport. I guessed it was something to do with my recent passport renewal which means I have a new passport number.” On enquiring with an immigration official at the counter, he was told that he would have to go to the directorate in Seeb and get the information updated in his new passport, after which he would be able to use the e-gates.Unable to access the e-gates, Preeti Raj, a homemaker residing in Oman, thought these were malfunctioning. “It did not strike me even once that it had to do with passport renewal,” she said, adding, “There should be some information somewhere so that people know why they are being denied e-gate access.”

According to the ROP official, once a passport is renewed, an individual has a new passport number. “The system in the e-gate counter has the database of every expat residing in Oman stored. But when the passport is renewed and if the visa page is not transferred to the new passport, the database is not updated. It still has the old passport number and so access is denied,” he explained.“At the Directorate of Passport & Residence, ask for a form to transfer the visa page to the new passport,” he explained.

“Once the form is filled, submit it and instantly all the new data, including the new passport details, will be fed into your ID card by the officials.”

This article originally appeared on: https://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/Visa-details-must-be-transferred-to-new-passport-to-access-e-gates-ROP-5ate