Family visit visa validity

Expatriates working in Saudi Arabia must always be alert to the various dates and deadlines. This particularly applies to those of you who are sponsoring your families on visit visa. I had described the detailed procedure for sponsoring your family on a visit visa in one of my earlier posts (click here). I would now like to describe on the next steps you should take, once your family arrives here.

Much as we all would like to keep our visiting family members with us for as long as possible, the hard reality is that there IS a deadline up to which they can legally stay in the kingdom. The duration of their stay can vary from one month up to 3 months depending on the validity of their visit visa, unless the visa is renewed. I had described earlier the procedure of renewing the family visit visa (click here). The most important thing you should remember is the date up to which your family is allowed to stay here.

Please note that there is a fine of SR10000 (yes, you read it right, it is ten thousand riyals!) if your family overstays in the kingdom beyond the deadline. Not only that, when your iqama expires, it will not be renewed and you would be deported out of the kingdom. What this also means is that you can never again enter Saudi Arabia, once you have the deportation seal stamped in your passport. Most expatriates working in Saudi Arabia have faced the problem with dates, more so because the officially recognized dates are from Hijri calendar and not Gregorian calendar (click here for date conversion from one to the other). I have now provided here another easy way to check the validity of your visa.

Click on this link, enter your passport number and visa number and you will straightaway know the validity of the visa. Once you know this important information, all it requires is to just renew your family's visit visa before the expiry date. This would avoid a great deal of trouble for expatriates who have sponsored their families.

Hope this post has been useful to you.

Great day

Today is a great day for your favourite blog. The visitor count has crossed the 100000 mark! All this has happened in just about 2 years time. From the bottom of my heart, a big Thank You to all of you.

As I look back in all these 12 years of my working in Saudi Arabia, the one thing which hasn't changed is the lack of information for expatriates. This, coupled with the lack of understanding of how the system works, makes life even more difficult. As the saying goes, the only thing certain in Saudi Arabia is uncertainty.

My Inbox has never been empty ever since I started this blog. At one point of time, I even discontinued giving personal replies to the queries as it became overwhelming and difficult to handle. That was when my friend and reputed software / VA expert, Mrs. Deepa Govind, suggested to start a paid service for those requiring a personalized consultancy. Thanks to her valuable inputs, I have now added a form in this blog which can be accessed using the link given on the right hand side of this blog.

More important and very dear to my heart, much more than what money can give, is the good feeling that I get when people write to me about families getting united, people returning back to the kingdom for work and expats finding solutions to problems they thought were insurmountable. If my writing has been of help to any of my dear fellow expats, then the purpose of writing this blog has been served. A very big thank you to all of you once again, dear friends!

Important announcements by Saudi Government

The Government of Saudi Arabia has made some important announcements in the past few days. As usual, your favourite blog is the first one to release this information.

The Saudi Government has issued directives on the procedures to be taken by expatriates in case of loss of passports, iqamas, driving licenses, birth certificates and car number plates.

In case you lose your passport or iqama, it must immediately be reported to the nearest Passport office. Note that if you do not report this loss within 24 hours, there is a fine of SR1000 in the first instance, SR2000 in the second instance and SR3000 in the third instance. You must also inform the police in case of criminal cases of document theft.

Loss of birth certificate must be reported to the nearest branch of Civil Status department. If you lose either your driving license or your istemara, it must immediately be reported to the nearest Traffic Police branch, whereas loss or theft of car number plates must be reported to the police station. Note that these two are different.

Expatriates owning cars must note this important point. In case your istemara is going to be renewed, new number plates are issued by the traffic police. As you may be aware, the new number plates have both Arabic and English letters and numerals. For getting the new number plates, you must first remove the existing number plates. Most cars have the existing number plates welded or screwed very tightly and it is quite common to have them removed in a nearby garage. So, for the duration of travel from the garage to the traffice police (after removing the existing number plates), and from the traffic police to the garage (for fixing the new number plates), you would be driving your vehicle without a number plates. You must be extremely careful in this period not to lose your number plates and must also ask for divine help that no cop must catch you in this period!

There is another very important announcement by the Saudi Government for expatriates planning to work in Saudi Arabia. With effect from 26th June, 2009, all expatriates going for employment / residence in Saudi Arabia MUST have themselves vaccinated for Cerebral Meningitis. You cannot have yourself vaccinated by any doctor / hospital, it must be done only by a GCC panel doctor. Before boarding the flight, you MUST have this certificate issued by a GCC panel doctor. Note that you face a risk of being deported soon after you land in Saudi Arabia, if you do not have this certificate.

On another note, I will shortly be publishing the form for those of you who request paid personal consultancy. I am currently sorting out some technical issues and once I am through with it, it would be published here. Please do not use the comment link below for making such requests, I cannot entertain them due to my current workload.

Of course, this blog would be the first to come out with any issue which affect the expatriates working in Saudi Arabia in any way.

Fingerprinting mess

Working in Saudi Arabia is becoming a pain for expatriates particularly when contradictory information keeps flowing in day in and day out. First, there was this announcement in the local newspapers about fingerprinting of all expatriates, including their families, compulsory. What followed was utter panic. It was well-known that the finger printing process had begun almost a year back and was being implemented in phases. What added to the confusion was the deadline of 25th May.

Long queues could be found in passport offices all over the kingdom to beat the rush before the holiday season began. News started flowing in almost on a daily basis. Expatriates, particularly those with families, were the most nervous. I personally know friends who were on the lookout for those 'mobile' units, desparate to have their families fingerprinted. Industrial Security Departments in companies were flooded with enquries. The tension in the air was quite palpable. Then came the announcement that fingerprinting was required only for males above 18 years old and that children under dependent iqamas need not be fingerprinted.

It appears that finally good sense prevailed. There was this announcement saying that no fines would be imposed and that the 25th May deadline was only a "rumour" (amazing how people contradict themselves!) The latest is that companies have been allocated certain specified days in which their employees must go to the designated passport offices and have themselves fingerprinted. One never knows whether the last word in the matter has been spoken. After all, the only thing certain in Saudi Arabia is uncertainty!

Readers might be wondering what ever happened to the request form which appeared on top of this blog. My friend Deepa Govind, the highly skilled and reputed software / VA expert, is helping me redesign this blog and a few technical glitches are being resolved before the form would be re-introduced. Do keep watching this space.

Personalized consultancy

After my last post announcing that I would stop taking queries in this blog, I have been getting repeated requests from many fellow-expats and friends for continuing this service. As already explained in my previous post, the amount of queries inundating my Inbox made it unmanageable to handle which was why I had to discontinue writing. It just proves the accute shortage of reliable information for expatriates working in Saudi Arabia.

One of my good friends, Mrs. Deepa Govind, a reputed software expert and a professional freelance VA, recently suggested that it would be a good idea if I started a paid service to potential customers. Infact, I have been getting feelers from several areas on the same. After a lot of pondering, I have accepted this idea and am now open to receiving queries from customers who require a personalized consultancy, for a nominal fee. Of course, the idea is not to make money but to help those genuinely in need of assistance and are willing to pay a nominal amount for such a service. Such customers can see fill in the contact form given below. Once the payment is received, you will get a personalized reply within 24 hours.

My blog will continue to remain as a free service for others, who can still view all the posts, but without a personalized reply to each of your queries.


Terms and conditions:

Please note that I am not a lawyer by profession nor do I hold any position in any department of the Government of Saudi Arabia. The opinions and consultancy services rendered here are purely based on my own experiences as an expatriate of long standing and are expressed in good faith to the best of my knowledge. I take absolutely no responsibility for the consequences arising out of such consultancy. Paying an upfront fee of USD5 is an indication of having read and understood these terms and conditions and having agreed to the same.