Kuwait Expats Empowered to Correct Civil ID Names Online. The Kuwaiti government’s shift towards electronic services within the Interior Ministry has led to the discontinuation of residency stickers and an enhancement in the use of the government-issued Civil ID for residents of Kuwait. This transition has been positively received by expat residents, aligning them with legal requirements. Nonetheless, the transition has encountered initial challenges stemming from errors in Civil IDs, largely attributed to personnel-related issues.

Kuwait Expats Empowered to Correct Civil ID Names Online

The Ministry of Interior has directed the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) to cease its conventional services for correcting residents’ Latin names. This procedure has now been made accessible online, as reported by the Arab Times Online. Despite this modification, the PACI will maintain its electronic service for verifying Latin names before printing Civil ID cards or after corrections are made. However, the actual corrections will no longer be conducted by PACI, in contrast to the previous practice.

Shift in Responsibilities: Correction of Names and Error Handling

The responsibility for correcting names on Civil IDs will be transferred to immigration departments’ (Computer Department) across all governorates. As a part of this transition, the PACI will no longer handle requests for name corrections through their automated system. Instead, they will only accept service requests for rectifying errors on Civil ID cards after cross-referencing with documents issued by the Ministry of Interior.

Renewal Services and Surge in Transactions

Since the introduction of renewal services in March of this year, which eliminated the need for residence stickers on passports, transaction volumes have surpassed 250,000, averaging up to 20,000 IDs processed per day. Unfortunately, many of these IDs have contained errors attributed to employees of the Interior Ministry.

Challenges Faced by Residents and Unforeseen Chaos

Certain residents reported that their names on both Arabic and English sections of their IDs were accurate prior to renewal. However, they were surprised to discover substantial mistakes and erroneous modifications post-renewal. Consequently, they were required to revisit immigration departments and endure lengthy queues for correction requests.

Divergent Experiences and Frustrations

Residents expressed frustration at the unevenness of the process. While some departments swiftly corrected names after request submissions, using SMS notifications for prompt updates, others failed to adopt this approach, resulting in widespread confusion and disorder in managing these transactions.