Non-Resident Indians, including Indian expats in the UAE, with valid passports can now apply for Aadhaar, India’s unique identity card which was only issued to residents of India earlier, Gulf News has reported.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar, has rolled out the system for accepting applications from NRIs complying with the Indian government’s decision to remove the mandatory criterion of 180-day stay in India.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 20 September issued a gazette notification stating that it would come into force “from the date of publication in the official Gazette”.
“Consequent to the publication of the notification N. 3119 dated September 20, 2019, Non Resident Indian (NRI) after his arrival in India, shall be entitled to obtain Aadhaar number,” the UIDAI said in a circular on 23 September.
The circular, a copy which was also with Gulf News, has listed the procedures for the enrollment of NRIs for Aadhaar.
An NRI’s valid Indian passport shall be accepted as Proof of Identity (PoI), Proof of Address (PoA), and Date of Birth (DoB) document, it stated.
“In case NRI’s passport does not have a valid Indian address, he shall be allowed to submit any of the other UIDAI approved PoA documents as proof of address.”
The authority has issued a revised enrolment form with modified declaration for NRIs and asked verifiers at Aadhaar centres to ensure that the above procedures are complied with, for enrolment of NRIs.
K.V. Shamsudheen, chairman of the Sharjah-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, was among Indian expats to welcome the move.
He thanked the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for heeding his request for the past five years. “NRIs are struggling in the absence of Aadhaar for land registration, to get PAN [permanent account number] card, children’s admission, to get SIM cards for mobile phones, to get new driving licence and renew it. NRIs will be now very happy because they can do all these things if they can have the Aadhaar card easily,” Shamsudheen told Gulf News.
