Well one of the Docu A,B,C,D needed in my great battle of the Red Tape ridge happenes to be a Sharjah Police Clearance certificates or the proper name being. Sharjah Police Clearance certificate of good character and conduct.
That was also one of the things I needed my Emirates ID for. Anyway off to the "Muderiya" or head quarters in English. Up to the counter which for a change had no people waiting so right up there. He looks at my papers...You have your Emirates ID..Yes OK.
Types my details in the computer, takes out a little paper ticks a few boxes and hands it over says go to the immigration and get this done. I look at the paper its in Arabic but since I can read a little bit. It say details modification تعديل of certain details ????
So off to Sharjah NRD. Hmmmm six or seven buildings. FInd a guy working there as show it to him he points to the 1st building which I know is only for Emarati passports. Hmm maybe they want to give an Emarati passport after all these years ...Yeah right.
Anyways go inside. 4 ladies on 6 counters. Three were geniuely busy one was just chatting it up with a shabab. Waited for five minutes, seems like this was not going anywhere. So I butt in "Excuse me, can you help me with this" She looks at it all confused, go inside door to your left. " Ok thank you very much"
Go inside, its the "mudeer" of that section an aged gentle man, a bit busy. This time I wait for my turn. " Yes " "Sir, I need to get this done" and hand him the paper. "Whats its for ?" ." Do you have any kind of case lodged against your something, whats the deal ?" "Not, that I know of but I need it for the PCC" " Ah, must be the information in the system is not up to date, go see Captain K****** N****** " these gives me very vauge directions. As all the buildings look the same and each has like four or five seperate entrances around each building. I ask him again if he could be precise, he was a very nice gentle man but still his directions were very vauge.
Anyways trying to follow those set of vague directions I entered what might be what I was looking for. A lady sitting in a small office. I showed her the paper and asked for Capt K N. She says " Door at the back of this building. Trodded of to the back and entered a busy hall. Thankfull this time most of the counters were labled. Except two. since non other were relevant so I thought those must be it.
One very sharp dressed man in his green uniform handling some kind of issue with a Pakistani fellow and the other had a line of people while the young chap sitting behind it was playing with three of his phones while talking to someone on another. Taking out of the sim card from one and plonking it into another " Hey man its not working on this one either " takes it out puts another SIM into another phone " hey man, even my DU sim doesn't work on the other phone aswell" This went on for a good five minutes all the while the crowd swelled at this counter. The sharp gentle man was still busy with the Pakistani fellow.
The other young chap, looks up with a ed look at the crowd and does the twisting hand motion and shouts" Shooo" ( what ) ? And then one by one everyone is set off to a different direction. Thankfully by that time the sharp dessed man gets free so I go to him. From his shiny gold name plate I can see its not Capt K N. But I had over that piece of paper to him. He looks at it "whats this ?" and I go on to explain once again the whole reason I need this. " No I've got nothing to do with this " " But SIr the 'Mudeer' of that section sent me here and told me to talk to Capt K N " " No he does the same job I do, it also does not concern him, anyways go out of this building and the first entrance on your right, you should most probably find what your looking for "
Now I know that paticular hall, that is where you go to collect your visa's stamped on your passport. Anyways I head out there, thankfully once again all the counters here also have signs. Its a big hall with a lot of counters. I scan through and in one corner I see a small counter which reads modifications ! AHA I've hit paydirt. I go up to the lady and shows her the piece of paper. " you have your original passport with you " you betcha" Ok have a seat.
After three other people ahead of me its my turn. I go up and hand her my passport and the paper. She starts typing away and in around a minute hands it back. " Ok done " " thats it " "yes" " No reciept paper or anything " " NO " " Ok Thank you " This whole ordeal took around an hour.
Back to the HQ. " Done" sit down and the nice gentle man gentle man starts typing away while we make small talk. Then hands me back a form go get it typed. Right opposite is a man sitting with a type writer. I pass him my "file" he types away stuff while again making small talk, staple everything "15 dhs" I pay go back " Ok go down this hall and get your finger prints done " I go down a long corridor with no doors at the end there is a room with no one in it , with a wash basin some ink pads and a steel top table blackend with ink.
I go back " Er, there is no one there " "wait I'll send someone" After around 10 mins a young police man comes "basmat" ( fingerprints) "Yes" "ok, he pulls out a card and a roller , starts to "re ink" the steel top. Then goes on to finger print both my hands on the card. Thankfully the wash basin had water and soap.
I go back and hand over everything and pay the 50 dhs, say comeback tommorow by midday and it should be done. " OK thanks a lot Sir " But I know there is a good chance that it wont be done by tommorow so I thought to myself I'll give it two days just in case and on my way. BTW this was yesterday after my EID ordeal.
Today when I got up there are three missed calls two from mobile phones one from a Sharjah land line and all look "wastafied numbers" as in 050 ababcca and 06 abccccc. Hmmmm ??? Anyways before I could call back I get a call again from the wastafied landline number calls again. I pick up and instantly recognise the voice of that nice chap at the HQ who I was making small chat to at the HQ. He goes to identify himself, talking in a friendly and casual voice " Ya DDS you didn't put your EID copy with your app, I think the typist must have forgotten to do so" "Yallah come quickly so I can get it done" " But I'm in Jebel Ali now bro" " Oh Ho ! Thats means your file's then stuck until I get it, hmmmm...ok do one thing take down this number and fax it to me" " Ok thanks a lot dude " Since he was being informal so was I . So I faxed it to him.
I must say after such a hoop jumping operation I was very pleasantly surprised to get such a friendly call and that too from a police man for official bussiness. Kudos to Mr Abdul Kareem ( I read his name tag aswell when I was there ) and Mr Yousuf ( he was the other police man who does this and got a chance to make some small talk with him aswell while I was there, and also don't remember their ranks ) as later I found out he was the person with the wastafied mobile number , but If I could I'd give them a huge round of applause to them. These are the kind of people that break the "lazy Emarati stereotype" and more and more of such should be working in govt depts rather than the chap playing with his mobile phones at the SNRD. Usually what would have happened is I show up two days later and then get the bad news and a trip down to Sharjah gets wasted plus adding another additional trip !
Hopefully when I go to collect it on Sunday it will be ready.