Expats must pay dependents fees before Iqama renewal, re-entry visa: Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: The General Directorate of Passports of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) of Saudi Arabia has made the issuance of exit/re-entry visas and renewal of Iqama (residence permits) for expatriates conditional with the advance payment of fees levied on dependents of foreign workers.

The government agencies and banks are now updating data for accepting these fees.

To inquires received on its Twitter account, the Passports Department said that fees levied on the head of the family “should be paid before issuance of exit/re-entry visa or renewal of residence permits.”

Read More: Saudi Arabia to fire all expats from govt jobs within three years

The new fee for dependents of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, which was announced by the Ministry of Finance in 2016, went into force since July 1, 2017.

The fee called ‘family tax’ or ‘expat levy’  is 100 Saudi riyals per dependent this year. It will be doubled to 200 Saudi riyals for every dependent from July 2018, tripled to 300 Saudi riyals in 2019 and quadrupled to 400 Saudi riyals from July 2020.

The fee will be collected annually by the department of passport at the time of renewal of Iqama. This means an expat living with his wife and two children in the kingdom will have to pay this year 3,600 Saudi riyals or Rs 62,000 when he goes for the renewal of his resident permit if he likes to retain his family with him.

Expats are not expecting their employers to bear or share the additional expense since most of the private companies are already burdened with a hefty fee for employing the expats. The Saudi government is now charging companies in which expats outnumber Saudis 200 Saudi riyals per month per expat worker.

The fee introduced under the naturalisation of the work force programme by the labour ministry will be increased to 400 Saudi riyals from January 2018. It will go up by 200 Saudi riyals every year until 2020.

Here is what the new expat levy will cost according to Arab News.

In 2017

• Dependents of expats will each incur a monthly fee of SR100, from July onwards

In 2018

• Dependents of expats will each incur a monthly fee of SR200, from July onwards

• In companies where the number of foreign employees is equal to or lower than the number of Saudis, a monthly fee of SR300 will apply from January onwards

• In companies where the number of foreign employees exceeds the number of Saudis, a monthly fee of SR400 will apply from January onwards

In 2019

• Dependents of expats will each incur a monthly fee of SR300, from July onwards

• In companies where the number of foreign employees is equal to or lower than the number of Saudis, a monthly fee of SR500 will apply from January onwards

• In companies where the number of foreign employees exceeds the number of Saudis, a monthly fee of SR600 will apply from January onwards

In 2020

• Dependents of expats will each incur a monthly fee of SR400, from July onwards

• In companies where the number of foreign employees is equal to or lower than the number of Saudis, a monthly fee of SR700 will apply from January onwards

• In companies where the number of foreign employees exceeds the number of Saudis, a monthly fee of SR800 will apply from January onwards