Dubai Residency Reveals Visa Violators Using AI

The General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA Dubai) has announced a new technology project that uses artificial intelligence to detect violators of visa, residency and visit rules without stopping or approaching them, confirming that work on the project has been completed and that it has entered its pilot phase ahead of full operation.

Lieutenant General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director General of GDRFA Dubai, said at a press conference held in early September that the project would play a vital role in detecting and identifying violators without the need to stop them, marking a shift from traditional field inspection to proactive technology-based monitoring.

The project identifies violators and analyses their data electronically before any action is taken against them, reducing reliance on checkpoints and field campaigns that were the main means of catching violators, and extending monitoring to those who never pass through an inspection point.

The announcement comes as GDRFA Dubai continues to deploy artificial intelligence across its services and enforcement operations, following its earlier international accreditation in AI governance and its action in recent months against schemes promoting fake visas and residency permits on social media.

The project targets residents whose permits have expired without renewal or departure, visitors who have overstayed their visas, sponsors who keep workers or dependants under their sponsorship with expired residency, and business owners employing irregular labour.

Overstaying a residency or visit visa incurs a daily fine of AED 50, calculated from the day after expiry, in addition to a possible entry ban and deportation procedures depending on the duration and circumstances of the violation, and the inability to complete official, banking and labour transactions in the violator's name until the status is regularised.