WARDENS’ NOTICE NO: 1/2008

INTRODUCTION OF A NEW REGISTRATION SYSTEM FOR BRITISH NATIONALS: LOCATE.

With effect from 20 December 2007 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) introduced a new registration system, ‘LOCATE’, for British nationals resident in or visiting countries overseas. British nationals resident in Saudi Arabia who are currently registered with the British Embassy in Riyadh, the Consulate General in Jeddah or the British Trade Office in Al Khobar should now re-register there presence in the Kingdom using ‘LOCATE’.

‘LOCATE’ can be accessed on the internet on either the main FCO web-site at www.fco.gov.uk (click on Travel Advice under the Services heading. This will open a page headed ‘FCO Consular Services’, click on ‘Online Consular Registration’ and follow the instructions) or from the Embassy’s web-site at www.britishembassy.gov.uk/saudiarabia (click ‘Consular Services’ on the home page and follow the link through).

OVERVIEW

‘LOCATE’ is an on-line registration service that allows British nationals living abroad or visiting other countries to register with the FCO in the UK. Once you have registered your details will then be sent automatically from the UK to the Consular section at the Embassy in Riyadh who will allocate you a warden. Both you and the warden will then be notified of each other’s details via an e-mail from the Embassy. The maximum period of registration on ‘LOCATE’ is 12 months. 11 months after you register you will automatically be sent a reminder asking you to confirm your registration details or make any necessary amendments.

When you first log-in to the ‘LOCATE’ self-registration system you will be asked to enter a User ID and password of your choice. You will need to remember your password because your details are protected and you will need your password to change or alter your details. You will only need to register once no matter how many times you need to access your personal record.

Once you have registered you will be able to log-on to access your record at any time from anywhere in the world. You will be able to amend your records as you wish. For example, you can record or amend details of any temporary absences from Saudi Arabia to another foreign country. This attribute alone could prove invaluable. Should you for instance show on your record that you plan to visit a particular country where an incident has occurred (such as the bomb explosion in Bali or the Tsnunami in Sri Lanka) if we have on record the dates when you planned to be in the effected country we could either rule you out of being a possible victim or inform our Consular section in that country of your presence there. Similarly, should an incident occur in Saudi Arabia at a time when your record shows that you are absent we could let any of your relatives that might contact us know that you were not in danger.

I hope that all of you living and working in the Kingdom will see the advantage of this new system. I would therefore most strongly urge you to re-register your presence here electronically by following the links given above.

 

 

Brian Hefford

HM Consul, Saudi Arabia