In the past I had a malfunction of the egate once and I was told that was because I had used the card once for entering the UAE and once for leaving it again within 6 hours.

Since I have been given many bogus information around egate in the past I wanted to see whether anyone has confirmed information about this being true or not. Or anyone who has done this.

Thanks

I have on Doha runs, not had issues.

I have had this issue several times. I would have a flight, say SFO-DXB-HKG, and would have an 8-hour layover in DXB. If I leave the airport during this layover and come back within 6 hours, my e-gate always fails to work. The guy at immigration tells me each time that if I use e-gate within 6 hours of entering the country it won't work.

Zol, this may be a limitation for entering DXB and then exiting within 6 hours. With your DOH turn around, are you exiting DXB then entering within 6 hours? That may be ok.

Perhaps. Although I don't understand the logic behind it unless the immigration systems only update every six hours

Maybe they just want a closer look at anybody that stays less than 6 hours, such as Israeli assassination squads.

Someone already update their profile

Whatever, I'll give it a try. I'll enter the country with my Emirates Gold/egate card, and if upon exit it doesn't work I'll just see the chap behind the counter. At least leaving the country from the J/F terminal is faster than entering, even through fast lane.

PS: I guess we'll have to update our EK egate privileges once we get the Platinum card.

That's exactly what you do, when the e-gate fails the immigration guy there motions you to him, he clicks away on his computer, and you are on your way, with no passport stamp even.

Yes, I quite like how it looks. ;-)

Confirmed. The 6 hour rule hit me. But no major hassle. Entered using egate instead of spending what looked like a long time in the "Fast" lane. Upon exit, when the card didn't work I just went to the counter straight away. Much faster than all those times that I spend trying 15 times to go through egates which don't work and end up at the counter anyway.

As long as that doesn't preclude me from using egates at my next entry (maybe there is some logic by which you can only enter through egates after having left through egates) I'm fine.

Had this many times, it doesn't affect future use at all.

The "6-hour-problem" is not ony an issue with egate entry, but also with normal stamp entry.

A talkative border officer once explained to me that they process entry/exit information in "batch mode" four times a day. So, in the worst case, you enter just after a batch run and run into issues when leaving within six hours.

The situations I had:
(1) EGate entry/exit: The border officer "clicked it away", but my card was afterwards screwed and had to be reset
(2) Dubaian stamp entry/exit: You need to find the right entry-stamp in your passport (a challenge in mine) and produce evidence you entered (keep your flight stub from the inbound flight!!!). Border guys take a photocopy of stub and passport stamp, and supposedly somebody is manually exiting you once batch run occurred. Personal experience: On next reentry into Dubai you are told "you never exited" because nobody really processed the exit.
(3) Abu Dhabi entry, Dubai exit within 6 hours: Good luck to anyone who tries. Did it multiple times myself now, and it easily takes 30 mins at the Dubai border post (with lots of phone calls and required documentation). After 30 mins they still do not figure out what is going on and just stamp your passport because they are sick of looking for the correct solution.