Saudi Arabia amends law to issue final-exit visas to expatriates

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Directorate-General of Passports, Jawazat, has decided to issue final exit visas to the expatriates after clearing all dues including phone bills.

The Directorate-General of Passports has announced that no final-exit visa will be issued if an expatriate owes others some financial entitlements or dues. The final-exit visas can only be issued when the expatriate applicant has fully settled all the financial dues owed to others.

Those who seek final-exit visas also need to ensure that there’s no vehicle registered in their names, Saudi Gazette reported.

Furthermore, there should be no visa issued earlier that is still unused and is registered under the applicant’s name.

Jazwazat said that the validity of the final-exit visa is 60 days from the date of its issuance and those who are issued final-exit visas must leave the Kingdom within the stated period irrespective of the validity of their identification papers.

It also stated that neither the final-exit visa cannot be extended further nor it will be issued to the person while he is outside the kingdom. The directorate-general said that there is no fee for getting a final-exit visa.

The visa can be cancelled via the sponsor’s (kafeel’s) account on ‘Absher’ or ‘Muqeem’ apps, with the payment of SR1,000 fine in the case where the expatriate employee does not leave from the Kingdom.

However, in the case in which the expatriate leaves the country, then the ‘exit-only visa’ cannot be cancelled. Hence, it is necessary to get a new visa for the expatriate employee for bringing him back to the Kingdom.

To get a final-exit visa issued, the applicant’s passport should have a validity of at least 60 days.

If the passport has a validity of fewer than 60 days, then it should be renewed.

Under the regulations, the kafeel has no right to file a ‘huroob’ report with the authorities after the issuance of an exit-only visa.

Then it is necessary to cancel the exit-only visa so that the sponsor can report the worker as having absconded or what is known as filing a case of ‘huroob’.

According to the report, the recent amendments in the initiative for ‘improving the contractual relations’, have facilitated matters for the worker and the employer, by making it possible for both to avail of the service for issuance of a final-exit visa.

A new service has been initiated giving the employer a grace period of 10 days to inquire on the worker’s request for issuance of the final-exit visa.

In the case of no reply from the employer’s side, then the expatriate worker can issue a final-exit visa and its validity will be for 15 days from the date of issuance.

The Ministry of Interior explained that in case the expatriate worker leaves the country for good during the validity period of his contract, then he will be banned from returning to Saudi Arabia to work.