Back in March I entered Dubai for an STPC. Went through normal immigration and asked the immigration guy if I could register for smart gate at the same time. He nodded and put a sticker on my passport, did not appear to do anything else. Some 8 hours later I tried to go through the smart gate when leaving the country. It did not recognise my passport and I was directed to an immigration officer who quickly processed and stamped my passport. Two possibilities: I was never registered on arrival or the registration takes some time to propagate through the system and my short stay was not sufficient to do this.
Any similar experiences?