After getting birth certificate of your newborn in Saudi Arabia from Ahwal Madni and getting it attested from MOFA, you need to proceed with passport of your newborn. However, If you are a Pakistani national, you first need NICOP (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistani) for your baby and only then you can proceed with the next step of getting passport of your baby.
For my newborn baby, I applied online for NICOP and received Smart Card (NICOP) of my newborn baby within 10 days. In this post, I will explain how to apply online from Saudi Arabia for NICOP.
Apply Online for NICOP from Saudi Arabia
NADRA has provided online portal with multiple services to avail with just a few clicks without the hassle of visiting their offices physically and waiting in queues. You need to create an account on Nadra’s Pak Identity Website and then login to your account with your username and password.
Once you login to your Pak Identity account, you will see a page with all terms and conditions from NADRA about their online services. Carefully read these terms and then accept to continue. Now you will see options for various IDENTITY PRODUCTS to choose from including option for CNIC/NICOP. For Pakistani citizen living in abroad, they need NICOP instead of a normal CNIC. Click on Appy Now option Under CNIC/NICOP section and you will find multiple options to start your application. For a new NICOP as an overseas Pakistani for your newborn baby, choose “I am an Overseas Pakistani and want to get National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP)” and click on Start Application.
For newborn with no previous ID Cards issued from NADRA, choose “Start New NICOP Application” under No Previous Identity Section.
Now you will have to go through a series of steps where you will be asked to provide required information and documents at multiple steps. Below are some of the key points and guidelines to keep in mind while submitting NICOP application online for your newborn baby.
Guideline for Submitting Online NICOP Application for Newbon baby in Saudi Arabia
* Fill all the required fields with correct information as any false information or incorrect information will lead to rejection of your application. NADRA terms specifically state no refund policy so be careful and ensure that you submit your application with all information correctly provided.
* Depending on your urgency, choose priority. I chose Executive option which states that card will be delivered in 7 days.
* Fees for Smart Card was showing as 6400 PKR and when I opted for delivery option for my Saudi Arabian address, total fees was 8000 PKR. I paid fees using my Saudi Arabian Debit Card and with current exchange rates applied, a total of around 215 SAR were deducted.
* While Providing personal information of your baby and parents details, ensure that all information is as per birth certificate and as per CNIC/Passport details of parents.
* You also need to provide relatives information. I provided information of two relatives for NADRA’s reference.
* Photograph of your baby is very important and critical step as you need to capture photograph of your baby with the specifications as suggested by NADRA. Picture should be with white background and eyes of baby should be open facing towards camera. Make sure that picture size also meets NADRA’s requirement. I captured multiple shots of my baby and then chose one which was best suitable for NADRA’s processing.
* For documents to upload, I uploaded following documents for my baby’s NICOP processing:
1. Father’s NICOP
2. Mother’s CNIC (as she doesn’t have a NICOP)
3. Birth Certificate issued by Ahwal Madani and attested by MOFA ( I scanned both sides of the certificate document and uploaded)
4. Relative’s CNIC ( I uploaded CNIC of baby’s maternal mother-in-law).
* For Urdu Form, don’t just rely on auto-filled information and update it using built-in Urdu keyboard and ensure that name and other information is typed correctly in Urdu.
* I downloaded Urdu form and then scanned with with the recommended resolution setting (Grayscale with 600 dpi) after filling it with two references. For Newborn baby’s NICOP, we don’t need any fingerprints.
* The last step of the entire process is payment where you can use debit/credit card and pay the required fees. I paid using my Saudi Debit Card successfully.
How to Track NICOP Application Online
After applying online for NICOP of my newborn baby in Saudi Arabia, I received a confirmation email from NADRA about successful submission and payment. Next I logged into my Pak Identity Account and used Existing Applications option from the menu bar. I was able to see Tracking ID of my application. Under Check Status, I clicked on the search option and got the status as:
“Your request against tracking id XXXXXXXXXXXXX is still not received at NADRA HQs, please check again after two working days”
After a few days, I received an email from NADRA that your application has been approved and processed and sent to Printing Facility. I logged in again to my Pak Identity account and checked again for the status and now I found the status as:
“Your request against tracking id XXXXXXXXX is with printing facility and expected delivery in 2 working days”
After 5 days, I received email confirming the printing and stating that NICOP has been shipped to the address provided. NICOP was delivered by DHL at my given address after another 2 days.