The Ministry of Interior (MoI) stressed on Wednesday the importance of coordination with concerned bodies to implement the ministerial decision to cancel the requirement of residency stickers on expatriates' passports.

The first phase of the decision came to effect as of March 10 for domestic workers, the ministry's security media and public relations department said in a statement following a meeting held by undersecretary Mar. Gen. Essam Al-Nahham with several officials from government bodies.

The meeting discussed means of overcoming obstacles that may face residents if they lose their civil cards issued from the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) outside the country and to reach a legal formula for procedures taken in this case, the statement added.

The meeting included Foreign Minister's assistant for consular affairs Ambassador Sami Al-Hamad and a number of senior officials in different bodies.

All topics pertaining to the decision were discussed in the meeting, it said, noting that the conferees affirmed the importance of coordination between the Foreign Ministry, the PACI and General Department of Residency Affairs.

The meeting also stressed the need to maintain the civil card and verify the accuracy of its data as well as compare it with the passport's number and the name in Arabic and Latin (English) to make sure that it has no mistakes, it pointed out.

In a news conference held last Sunday, Director-General of the Residency Affairs Brigadier Abdul Qader al-Shaaban said that according to the law, the ordinary residency sticker in the resident's passports is canceled and replaced by a civil card issued by the PACI.

Residents can not leave or enter the country if they don't have normal valid passports and valid civil cards issued by the PACI, he stated.