KUWAIT: Expats spending their holidays in Europe have said they have faced problems with the new civil ID residency system after the residency sticker on the passport was cancelled. They said passport officials in those countries refused to let them depart because the civil ID does not carry the words "residency ID" and does not indicate an expiry date. Others said they contacted the emergency lines of Kuwaiti embassies, who called the airports to tell them about the new system and allow the expats to board the plane.

Meanwhile, expats face another problem in Kuwait with regards to changing names on the ID, as the civil information mentions the first and last names in Latin, which banks reject and do not update their data, which is done annually. Some expats said that while at the bank to update their data, employees reject the ID because the Latin name is only of two parts, which is contrary to the updating systems which call for the agreement of the Arabic name with that of the Latin one, which must be of four parts. - Al-Qabas