ICP Zero Bureaucracy: Fifteen Service Projects Streamline UAE Government Services

The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security has completed 15 development projects under the second cycle of the Zero Bureaucracy Government Program. The projects are designed to remove procedural complexity, speed up service delivery, and create digital, proactive interactions for customers and Authority employees across all segments.

These initiatives target citizens, residents, investors, entrepreneurs, visitors, and domestic workers. They focus on shortening service times, using artificial intelligence, and enabling electronic integration with partner entities. The Authority aims to provide seamless, low-cost government services that support the UAE’s competitive standing in global performance indicators.

Major General Suhail Saeed Al Khaili, Director-General of ICP, stated that as part of the Authority’s plan to fulfill the requirements of the second cycle of the Zero Bureaucracy Program, ICP has successfully delivered 15 diverse projects focused on enhancing the customer journey, enabling access to services in the shortest possible time, eliminating duplication across procedures and services, and leveraging artificial intelligence technologies.

Al Khaili explained that these projects mark a strategic shift for the Authority. The focus is moving from operational excellence to proactive leadership in service delivery. Services are being restructured from "standalone services" into "integrated service bundles," and from a "waiting-based" model into a "proactive" model triggered by life events and data.

The integrated service bundles approach covers services delivered solely by the Authority and those provided with partners. For example, services for citizen and resident families are grouped in a single package. Data is exchanged electronically with federal and local bodies and private-sector partners to streamline procedures and support their operating models.

The second cycle portfolio includes the Facial Recognition for Entities (UAEKYC) project, the Proactive UAE Passport System, and the National Enablement and Government Data Platform. It also includes the "Taqdeer" Package for Senior Citizens and People of Determination, developed with the Ministry of Community Empowerment, as well as integrated renewal of passports and Emirates ID for citizens.

Other projects include the Resident Family Package, which offers a proactive, life-event-based residency journey. The Family Data Update Project automates changes in civil status, such as marriage and divorce, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. Additional initiatives span single-window land ports, investor journeys, tourist visa issuance, and smart electronic gates at Al Ghuwaifat Land Port.

The programme also covers the Smart Refund System for Service Fees, the Integrated Smart Customs System, the Work Package for the Domestic Workers Category, and the Smart Travel Project. Together, these initiatives form an integrated ecosystem aimed at simplifying border, residency, identity, and employment procedures for all customer groups.

Major General Suhail Saeed Al Khaili emphasised that these development projects contribute significantly to eliminating bureaucracy across the Authority’s service ecosystem for citizens, residents, entrepreneurs, and investors, thereby enhancing the UAE’s leadership and competitiveness in government service performance indicators. This is achieved by shortening customer journeys for issuance and renewal services, reducing return rates and errors through unified verification and proactive request processing, consolidating multiple requests and procedures into a single application, and enabling electronic data retrieval, medical screening, and biometric capture.

He further explained that the Authority’s Zero Bureaucracy projects implemented during the second cycle are distinguished by the diversity of their target groups, including citizens, residents, visitors, entrepreneurs, investors, and domestic workers. The projects also span a wide range of sectors, including investment, tourism, legislation, employment, family affairs, civil status, residency, identity services, and border ports.

Moreover, these initiatives reinforce values of social responsibility and reflect the UAE’s humanitarian and civilizational identity by honoring social support beneficiaries and delivering services to them proactively and automatically, without requiring any applications, and ensuring service delivery directly at their places of residence.

With inputs from WAM