epassport.gov.sa Passport portal review

The URL "epassport.gov.sa" on several billboards around Bahrain causeway intrigued me to visit the site. Advertisement itself was in Arabic except for the URL. This portal could turn out to be a big blessing for expatriates in Saudi. It takes a couple of clicks to sign up for a new account. Well this was true till some time recently, now once you sign up you have to visit the passport office to get your account activated. :(

There are two major tabs to explore: 1) E-services 2) eDashBoard

eDashBoard

eDashboard provides you with all kinds of personal information. The options you get are

• Address
• Dependents
• Sponsorees
• Driving License
• Vehicles
• Traffic Violations
• Labor Importation
• Passports
• Travel Records

I find the last one (Travel Records) very interesting/fun since it provides details of each and every exit/entry you made to the kingdom. This includes date, carrier, flight number and destination! This is quite helpful in filling immigration and visa forms as they often require such information.

E-services

E-services portion is the more useful one. Outstanding feature of the portal is that you can issue single exit/re-entry for your dependents, more details below. There is also an options to print your exit/re-entry visa, not sure if its valid for traveling though. Once you register you also start getting SMS alerts every time a dependent of yours exits or enters Saudi Arabia. You will see following services under the eservices banner:

Query Traffic Violations

Simple and straight forward.

Query Available Funds

(This is the amount you submit for various government services for example)

• Sponsorees Deposit
• Vehicles Deposit
• Driving License Deposit
• Passports Deposit
• Labour Deposit

Query Health Insurance

Simple and straight forward.

Query Hajj Eligibility

Simple and straight forward.

Sponsoree Services

(maids, drivers e.t.c)

*Dependent Services (Coolest)

It shows you details of your dependents with photos (for males only) like Iqama number, Iqama expiry date, birth date, information on any valid exit/re-entry visa. On top of that, you can also generate single exit/re-entry for your family online. Just deposit the money using SADAD or any other payment method and you can generate a single exit/re-entry for your dependents. Currently, it does not has the option to generate multiple exit/re-entry visa online. Though, you can view/print them. However, I am not sure if the immigration is willing to except those print outs.

Query Vehicle Insurance

Simple and straight forward.

Mobily vs Jawal

Recently due to some unfortunate circumstances my Jawal STC mobile number was disconnected and I had to change my number. So I had option of going for STC, mobily or Zain. Zain is very new and I was in no mood of experimentation. So I was left with mobily vs Jawal.

People all around, encouraged me to go for mobily. Reason: its economical and services in general are a lot better. So I did.

Well the customer service of mobily is a loooooooot better then STC. Getting connected to a representative in thier call center is lightning fast. They are courteous, yes courtesy in Saudi arabia! Their technical know how is not that great, but I can live with that.

In quality of network, well they don't score that well. Calling Pakistan is a nightmare. It seems like they are making use of VOIP extensively. The receiver will not get your correct number and the voice quality sucks big time.

SMS is another problem. Either the recipient will not get your message or you will not get their replies.

Maybe mobily is economically more viable but if the core technologies (voice/sms) have problems then I think STC wins by large

Update 1st March 2009
Guess what? You cannot call 0800 toll free numbers from mobily :P Since its a STC service I guess it will never allow access from mobily :(