Visa Info
Business Visa
For business visits, a visit visa is mandatory. The company you are doing business with should automatically co-ordinate the visa, or at the very least their side of the arrangements but they may need a gentle reminder! All prospective visitors should obtain a letter of invitation from the company or individual Saudi sponsor. This invitation letter is an acknowledgement that a visa has been obtained on the visitor's behalf and that authorisation to issue this visa has been sent to the Saudi embassy in the visitor's home country. Passports submitted in the morning, with the relevant visa number can usually be collected the same afternoon, but check this directly with the embassy.
Residency Visa
This goes hand in hand with
the Are You New and is an in-depth look at surviving the process to
get your residence visa and your work permit, known as an 'iqama'.
For those not bringing families into the Kingdom this process is
relatively straightforward.
For those with families,
patience will be required. We
take it for granted in our own country that we can move to a new town and get
a job - simple as that. As a
family in your home country there are the usual new house, new school worries
but you and your family probably move at the same time and the change over
from one life to another is relatively smooth.
When you change countries, unless you have an automatic right to live
in that other country ie you have dual nationality, work permits and family
papers will need to be processed, medicals sorted out, etc.
Saudi Arabia is no different in this aspect to other countries but that
knowledge does not make what can be a long and arduous process any easier!
Just rest assured that everyone has gone through the same procedure.
Here follows a timetable that
starts with you getting your residence visa (congratulations!), through to
your family joining you. From
experience, depending on the time of year when the process is started, this
can take around three months.
Stage One - Residence Visa
Before you get involved in
this process, your potential employer will have requested a visa for you from
the Ministry of the Interior in Jeddah. Once
this request has been approved, a visa number is sent from the Ministry in
Jeddah to the Saudi Embassy or Consulate in your country, awaiting the arrival
of your completed residence visa application form, sent by you.
To get to that stage you need to do the following:
·
Get 'Visa Medical' - this is best done by a
specialist 'visa medical clinic' - your GP will be able to advise you where
you can get this done. (Requires two photographs)
·
Obtain Residence Visa application form from Saudi
Embassy
·
Get 60 colour passport size photographs of yourself
(yes, 60! See important note under 'Stage Five - Driving Licence), 10 colour
passport photographs of your family (together in one photo, without you in the
picture) and 10 colour photographs (standard 6"x4") of you WITH your
family
Send the following to the
Saudi Embassy:
Depending on your employer the
following may be handled by your personnel department.
It is just as well to be familiar with the process though, in case you
need to chase them up.
·
Your passport - check that it has at least six
months until expiry
·
Residence visa application form, with two
photographs
·
'Visa Medical' results
·
Copy of higher education, degree certificate/s
(these need to be notarised)
·
Copy of contract
·
Company letter in Arabic confirming your
appointment
·
Copy of visa payment slip (from employer)
·
Visa fee
·
No objection certificate - if you have worked in
Saudi Arabia before within a set amount of time, your previous employer must
confirm that they permit you to return to work in the Kingdom
Your application is matched to
the visa number from the Ministry, your visa is stamped into the passport and
you are free to travel to Saudi Arabia.
Be prepared to have to make a
few reminder telephone calls to the Saudi Embassy in your country. You may
even have to visit it in person to ensure prompt completion.
Any flights that you book should be 'changeable'!
Take the following with you to
Jeddah:
They
must be originals - NOT copies.
·
Birth certificates for the whole family
·
Marriage certificate
·
Educational certificates
·
Driving Licence
·
And all those colour photos mentioned earlier!
It can be daunting on your arrival in Jeddah - perhaps you didn’t realise how much you'd miss your family and that you don't actually know anybody or where to go to get anything - time to gen up on the 'Are You New' section'! It will be hard, but remember that everyone has gone through the same process, they know how you are feeling - everyone was 'new' at some point and people are willing to help.
Stage Two - Your Iqama
Allow
eight or nine days
Your main focus, apart from
getting to grips with your new job, will be to get the family to join you as
soon as possible. You will need
equal measures of diplomacy and determination to keep the process rolling.
There is a lot of paperwork and 'to-ing and fro-ing' before your
family's passports will be stamped with their residence visas - keep as
organised as possible to keep on top of the situation.
The first step is getting your
work and residence permit, otherwise known as your 'iqama'. This is an extremely valuable document and you should
consider arranging insurance for replacing it, once it is in your possession.
On your first day in your new
job, get cracking on the Iqama
Checklist:
·
Iqama medical
-
check
with the personnel department which hospital or clinic they use. Results will
take
two to three days.
·
Request personnel to produce company letter and
copy of your contract
·
Gather together iqama medical results, passport,
two photographs, company letter and copy of contract - either you or the
Government relations officer will have to present these documents to the
Passport Office (Al Jawazat)
Once you receive your iqama (green for Muslims and brown for non-Muslims), make photocopies of it for your files. Carry your iqama with you at all times - your employer will usually keep your passport in the company safe while you are in possession of your iqama. You will now need an exit/re-entry visa every time you travel outside the Kingdom.
Stage Three - Family Visa
Allow
five to six weeks
We're getting there! Once you have your iqama, you can start the process of obtaining a family visa.
Family
Visa Checklist
·
Send copy of contract to your wife
·
Wife to get visa medical in home country
·
You need to get official Arabic translations of all
birth, marriage and educational certificates.
These must be done by a 'recognised translator' - ask your personnel
department or government relations officer to recommend one.
Allow two days.
·
Certificates attested at your country's consulate
-
take
photocopies of the original documents and the translations (suggest at least
two copies)
-
the
attestation will recognise that your certificates are genuine and the
translations are accurate. Allow
two days and check fees beforehand to ensure you have the correct amount with
you.
·
Prepare Arabic application form and company letter
-
if
you need to get the form yourself, go to the Istekdam office which is just off
Prince Mitab Street, level with the Petromin Office, (in the very centre of O3
on the Jeddah Today map!)
Istekdam
Office Checklist
·
Iqama
·
Application form
·
Company letter
·
Certificates/translations - take your copies to
leave with the department and originals to show to the clerk
It is best to get to the
Istekdam Office for when it opens at 8.00am.
Go to the main room of the building on the left.
Do not take a number - there is a seated queue of foreigners along the
back wall and a sort of musical chairs takes you closer to the clerk.
·
Application is processed and passed to Foreign
Ministry - 10 days
·
Foreign Ministry forwards the family visa number to
the Saudi Embassy or Consulate in your home country - 10 days
·
You collect family visa number from Foreign
Ministry
·
Advise your wife that family visa number is with
the Saudi Embassy or Consulate
Embassy
in Home Country Checklist
It is worth knowing that the
numbers arrive once a week by diplomatic bag, so if the visa isn't there the
day after 'arrivals day' then it will be one more week.
There are many agents in the capital cities who do the leg work of
'visa getting' for you, for a fraction of the cost in hotels, train fares,
petrol, parking - and stress for your wife!
Ask your Consulate here who they recommend.
The following need to be
delivered to the Embassy or Consulate:
·
Wife's and children's passports
·
Residence visa application form, quoting visa
number
·
Wife's visa medical results
·
Copy of your contract
·
Copy of marriage certificate (together with a
letter of 'no objection' from former spouse if children from a previous
marriage will be travelling)
·
Visa fee
The passports can be collected
within two to five days - this may be longer during Haj or Ramadan.
If you can prove that you have flights booked when you put the visa in
ie by presentation of tickets, it is possible that the turnaround time can be
reduced to 24 hours. There is no guarantee however!
Stage Four - Family onto Iqama
Eight
or nine days
They've arrived!!
You may think you can relax now - but you can't!
All members of your family need to be added to your iqama - they can't
leave the country until they are. Your
wife will need to have an iqama medical.
Family
onto Iqama Checklist
·
Iqama
·
Application form
·
Iqama medical results
·
Previously attested certificates
·
Company letter
·
Family photographs - two 6"x4" 'entire'
family and two passport sized of just wife and children
You
should make a copy of your iqama for your wife to carry with her as
identification.
Stage Five - Driving Licence
Some national driving licences
are valid within the Kingdom for three months from arrival.
After this point you will need a Saudi driving licence.
Driving
Licence Checklist
·
Translation of national driving licence - this does
not need to be attested at your Consulate as there is an office at the Driving
Licence Office (DLO) which will translate your national licence and certify it
'OK'.
·
Get green hanging file folder from personnel
department and place in it a copy of your national licence, a translation of
your national licence, a copy of your iqama, company letter and application
form
·
Four colour passport size photographs.
PLEASE NOTE: When you present yourself at the DLO you have to look exactly
as you do in your photograph ie if you wear glasses to drive and need to wear
glasses to complete your eye test, then you must be wearing glasses in
the photographs you give to the DLO. If
you do not, you will not receive your Saudi Licence and will have to complete
the entire process again!
·
Take green hanging folder to DLO
·
Have blood test at DLO (your blood type is shown on
your Saudi Licence)
·
Have eye test at DLO
·
Pay fee
·
Collect licence
Notes:
Some nationalities will be required to complete an actual driving test.
Well
done! You now have all the
paperwork completed!!
*
* * * * * *
As a final addendum, the above
may cover how to get yourself and your family all the paperwork to live and
work in Saudi Arabia but one vital part of your family may have been forgotten
- your pet! The process is possibly more complicated than that to get your
family out so be absolutely certain you cannot be without them!
There is a long list of
inoculations, issued by the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture, that the animal
must have. Telephone the airline
that your pet will be travelling to Saudi Arabia with - they will refer you to
a vet that is recognised by the Saudi authorities as the relevant health and
rabies certificates need to be issued by a recognised vet, before being
attested by your country's Ministry of Agriculture and then authenticated by
the Saudi Embassy or Consulate in your country.
All this, and the actual transportation of your animal to Saudi Arabia
must happen within a 28-day time frame!
Cultural tradition means that
dogs must be imported as 'guard dogs' or 'hunting dogs', so decide before hand
which yours is. Pets can often
travel free if accompanied, but their container has to be 'airline approved'
and they can be quite expensive. Cats
they are fairly relaxed about - importation of any other animals should be
investigated thoroughly to ensure they are permitted.