SAUDI ARABIA

Overstaying vacationers to cough up hefty fines

Iqama with expired reentry visa shall be surrendered after a month

July 14, 2017

Hassan Cheruppa

Saudi Gazette

THE iqama (resident permit ) of expatriate workers or their dependents, who leave Saudi Arabia on exit and re-entry visa and fail to return before its expiry date, shall be surrendered to Jawazat one month after the expiry of visa. This was announced by the General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) in an advisory to Saudis and expatriates, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The Jawazat urged Saudis and expatriates to produce the ‘Resident’ (muqeem) ID of their expatriate workers or dependents and companions of workers at the concerned Jawazat department 30 days after the expiry of the re-entry visa and surrender it so as to erase it from the computer system and change its status into “Left and not returned.”

The Jawazat statement said that in the event of any Saudi employer or expatriate sponsor of dependents failing to do so, they will face punitive measures, including fines and fees.

At present, an expatriate worker cannot come back to the Kingdom after the expiry of exit and re-entry visa unless his or her iqama has sufficient period of validity.

In such case, the return is possible only with the intervention of his sponsor. In such a case, the sponsor can bring him back within seven months after the visa expiry. For this, the sponsor should visit Jawazat office, fill the form, submit the necessary documents and should obtain a yellow slip.

After this, the sponsor should write a request letter to Saudi embassy to allow his employee to come back after overstayed vacation. This letter should be attested from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The sponsor then should send all these documents to the worker in order to submit to the Saudi embassy in his country along with the documents through an agent. Once the embassy stamps the visa, the worker shall come back before the specified date.

Earlier in June 2015, the Jawazat imposed a three-year ban on expatriate workers who fail to return to the Kingdom before the expiry of their exit and re-entry visa. A Jawazat official then termed this as a measure to stabilize the labor market.


July 14, 2017
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