| 26 Dec 2009 |
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Saudi Arabia: Family visa not linked with salary
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JEDDAH: The Foreign Ministry will issue permanent resident visas for wives and children of expatriate workers in the Kingdom, without considering their profession, Al-Yaum Arabic daily has reported.
"The ministry's office in Riyadh issued such recruitment visas for three days last week and stopped it temporarily. It is expected that the ministry would resume the service next month," a ministry source told the paper.
The news is a relief for many of the seven million expatriate workers, who are unable to bring their families on resident visas due to their profession written on their iqamas.
The Foreign Ministry and the Recruitment Office only issued permanent resident and visit visas to those in white-collar jobs such as engineers, doctors and executives. The Al-Yaum report said the ministry would only look at the financial status of the applicant. "The family visa is no more linked with profession," the source said. He said the ministry stopped processing applications in order to implement the new criteria. "This is a great news for thousands of professionals like me who are unable to bring their wives and children to the Kingdom because of the profession in iqama," said Shabeer Ali, a computer engineer based in Jeddah.
Ali said he has been trying to bring his family to the Kingdom ever since his marriage. "Until now I could not, because they look at the profession on my iqama, which is an electrician. I had presented my Masters degree certificate in computer science attested by the Saudi Embassy, as well as my salary certificate, but they rejected my application," he said.
He said he had never known about this problem before coming to the Kingdom.
"I know that there are thousands of expatriate workers who are highly qualified and earn good salaries but cannot bring their families because of their profession. I take this opportunity to thank the Saudi government for changing this policy and consider it a great blessing from God." The Arabic daily said the ministry's branches in Jeddah and Dammam have not implemented the new system as they have not been informed about the changed criteria.
Over the past three weeks, the ministry's Riyadh office was issuing visit visas to all expatriate workers for their families without considering their profession.
K.C.M. Abdullah, a freelance journalist based in Riyadh, told Arab News that hundreds of people, including laborers, farmers and construction workers had benefited.
"Now they have stopped issuing visas to drivers and other house servants," he pointed out. Some people claimed the visa rules were relaxed to mark the return of Crown Prince Sultan to the Kingdom after a yearlong medical trip.
He said the revised service started a week before the Eid Al-Adha holidays.
After hearing the news of the relaxation in visa rules a large number of Indian workers approached the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and consulate in Jeddah to include names of their spouses in their passports.
Indian missions are now issuing new passports after including spouse names. People who want to include the names of spouses should attach attested marriage certificates. Those who have married recently should register their marriages by producing relevant documents.
By P.K. Abdul Ghafour
© Arab News 2009
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Community Comments (9)
I visited Visa office today in Riyadh to inquire abt the subject. They said No way..we will still consider the profession otherwise millions would be coming here daily. If you want visit visa go bring a profession of Engineer or Doc.
I just got married and when i was in my country i heard this news but when i came here still the situation is same that family visa is still linked with profession. we forigiener are diappointed from this issue and dont know when saudi government will relax us from this great pain. saudi arabia is only one country in the globe where bringing family is approximately impossible
i am mech engineer by profession and my profession on iqama is labour. last week on 16th jan i got to dammam visa office for family visa. but the cocerned authorities were rude and shouted me abut the same they told that they didn know abut this new rule. it is same as old that means family visa is still linked to profession
Dear all,
When this news came in Arab news, I used to visit daily to that office. They said it is in news paper not from govt. Please help me where they issuing visa.
when iheard about this good new realy i felt cool becouse we are waiting long time.
so, i say thanks god and king and goverment. thank you.
Better Late then Never - if this is really true.... they can be really flimsy.... I hope they now know to help Non-Saudis spend their money in KSA....
good news ....but how can open this visa i don't know. pls help me any one about this visa_thanks
that is really a great decision by Saudi Govt to help foreign workers to bring their families here. so that they can concentrate on their jobs and at the same time it will surely benefit Saudi Economy as the workers will spend their earnings here in the same country.
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