More than 3 million expatriates working in the private sector will soon be able to renew their residence permits electronically from next October.

According to Al-Qabas daily report, the interior ministry is planning to launch online residency renewals next month, starting with expats holding article 18 residency permits, whose number is over three million.

The move allows the renewal of an expat’s residency and that of his wife, children and maids online without the need to go to residency departments. However, for a new residence permit, the process will have to be completed through the residence affairs departments in the country.

The report said that the electric link between the interior ministry, manpower authority, civil information and health ministry is already complete.

The new system will provide expats several online services, most notably residency renewal, while another service will be introduced later to issue visit visas for parents, spouses and children online. By the year 2020, the online system will start issuing visit visas for relatives of mother and father through the Ministry of Interior website and this will be followed by other types of residences which fall under the Articles (19) (24) and (22) to complete the cycle of automatic transaction process.