Bahrain Streamlines Work Visa Procedure

MANAMA, 22 August 2007 -- Bahrain's ongoing labor reforms have entered into a crucial stage with the launch of data cleansing process enabling the concerned entities including the employer to get the work visa processed in minutes by using the state of the art eService website of LMRA.

The national initiative on data cleansing even goes beyond the consolidation of database, as no business in the Kingdom will be issued with a work visa for an expatriate workforce unless registered with the Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), a top official at the LMRA said on Sunday.

Ali Radhi, acting CEO LMRA, highlighting the salient features of data cleansing campaign that all businesses must register to establish a national database for the labor market.

The important stage of purging the labor market in Bahrain and the cleansing process of the national data of workforce will be ready by Dec. 31. Technically speaking and according to the schedule distributed by the LMRA on Monday, the cleansing process started in the last week of July.

Ali Radhi said that the registration of businesses would be carried out in various phases to control the traffic from July 23 to Nov.7, 2007 and businesses have been divided into five different categories.

The LMRA in a live demonstration showed how the process of e-Service would work from where the employer, employee and LMRA and its partners can get the documents such as work visa, CPR etc directly by using the national database.

"This process is based on a very transparent model and the employers can have access to the record of all foreign employees. Due to various inputs from other ministries and departments, any work visa application can be turned down due to lack of information or any discrepancy for a particular case."

Radhi said that the LMRA system would also add some other features at later stage, like cross checking and verifying other credentials like educational qualifications and work experience etc.

The businesses are divided into various categories with hotels and hospitality industry establishments with 100 and over expatriate workforce at the top.

This segment will be able to register by the end of August. The first batch applied on July 23.

The financial and insurance sector establishments with 50 or more employees can apply by Sept.7, retailing businesses with 20 or more employees by end of September, construction sector and allied businesses with 10 or more from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15 and all establishments with foreign workforce from Oct.7 to Nov.7, 2007.

There are steps to obtaining an eVisa through the website such as making an application by pressing Apply for eVisa and filling in the simple form.

By Mehmood Rafique