The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) on Tuesday set August 30 as the deadline for all foreign nationals with residence permit to register for the non-citizen Ghanacard.
It said all new applications or renewals for residence permits must be submitted with a copy of the non-citizen Ghanacard.
Residence Permit holders who do not have the Non-citizen Ghanacard will not receive services from the GIS. Members of the Diplomatic community are exempt from registering, a GIS statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra stated.
According to the statement beginning from September 2, all foreign nationals would be required to show their Non-citizen Ghanacard before they are issued with Residence Permit.
The statement said GIS is working in collaboration with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to ensure total compliance with the directive.
The Non-citizen Ghanacard is the national identity card for foreign nationals living in Ghana.
According to the statement all foreign nationals who have lived in Ghana for a total of 90 days or more in a given year are required by law to register for their Non-citizen Ghanacard.
The statement explained that the NIA exercise to register foreign nationals started in January this year as part of a comprehensive process to issue all people living in Ghana, both nationals and non nationals, with modern and highly secure identity cards.
The mass registration of Ghanaian citizens above the age of six years started in July 2008 and is almost complete with the current mass registration in the three northern regions.
The national identity card is by law required to be used as proof of identity in instances where there is the need to do so and also for access to many essential services.
According to the statement the NIA and GIS have started a mass registration exercise at the Accra International Conference Centre for Residence Permit holders and it will end on August 30.
To register, foreign nationals must first purchase a FIMS Scratch card from any CAL Bank Branch during normal banking hours at a cost of $120.00 or its Cedi equivalent.
They then have to proceed to a registration centre to fill in a form with one form of identification – a passport or residence permits. Foreign nationals can also download the forms from the internet at www.fims.org.gh and fill them before they get to the registration centres.
All foreign nationals, however, can always register at the NIA Head Office near the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange, or at the CAL Bank Headquarters at Ridge.
According to the statement, registration centres are open from 0800 hours to 1700 hours every week day and on Saturdays.
Other registration centres across the country will be announced on radio and in the newspapers.