Experience from ‘on-the-job’ Placement of the Royal Oman Police

            I would like to mention here that I was provided the opportunity of working in the “Directorate General of Passport & Residence” department. There are so many services provided by the ROP, and each service is provided by different segregated departments like online services, mobile services as well as general directorate services so that work process can remain in right direction, and there are no considerable issues etc. All of these services are managed by Oman police including the customs, which is bit different from any other police forces in the world. The major responsibility of any police force is to maintain law and order and security of citizens, but Oman police also handled customs matters.

            The responsibility of Directorate General of Passport & Residence is to issue passport, and that is for the first time ever. There is an eligibility criteria asset for the Omani citizens to get their passport. A person who has his identity card, and his age is above 15 years, then such person is eligible to get passport, and they can file their application for the process of getting passport. My responsibility in this department was to handle applications and its data accordingly. The ROP receives so many applications on daily basis for the passport from Omani citizens. So, department has to manage everything related to passport processing. It is important for the department to make sure that applicants are eligible for the passport. So, when applicants submit their applications for passport, these applications are thoroughly checked with complete verification. No one can get his/her passport, if he/she is not eligible like below the age of 15 years etc. A person below the age of 18 years, must bring his/her parents along to get approval of passport, otherwise application cannot be processed.

            So, my major responsibilities were various in this department. First of all, I was involved in handling the applications as they come on daily basis. Each application was handled on merit, and my duty was to organize applications as the first come basis. No one was entertained before the others due to any given reasons. Every application was numbered and it went though all processes with its given number. So, my task was to manage these applications, check application file that it has all the required documents and data, which is necessary to continue with the passport process. If any application was with incomplete documentation, then it was marked with the error, and set aside to inform the applicants about the missing documents. So, I was also responsible to check any errors or missing documents as per given procedure and guidelines of ROP. The passport is a sensitive document and it cannot be given to any citizen without proper documentation and verification. The other task assigned to me was entering the details in the computer so that data can be stored in the records of ROP. The entry of this data was crucial task as any mistake cannot be viable in this regard.