RIYADH: An expatriate worker can convert a visit visa of his close family members into a permanent residency permit under special conditions with the approval of the country’s Interior Ministry.
The close members are the expatriates’ spouses, children and parents of the couple as the Kingdom issues no visit visas except that above mentioned people.
Local English Arab News reported on Thursday, quoting a senior official of the Kingdom’s Passport Department, but did not disclose anything about the conditions.
Colonel Mohammed Al-Hussain, spokesperson of the kingdom’s Passport Department in the Makkah region, made the discourse during a in the two-hour phone-in with callers on Wednesday.
Replying a question Al-Hussain said, “Yes, this is possible. However, such a request has to be approved by the Interior Ministry.”
It was possible for expatriates to place their elderly parents on their iqamas or permanent residency permits, said the spokesperson. But, the Kingdom currently issues visit visas for expatriates’ spouses, children and parents of their spouses.
A caller from Riyadh wanted to know if his wife, who is in the Kingdom on a visit visa, could get it converted into an iqama. The officials asked the caller to follow the concerning rules and regulations.
Responding query of another caller, who is a Pakistani expat, on the requirements required for exit/re-entry visas, Al-Hussain said, “Everything is now online. There is no need to produce the exit/re-entry document at the immigration counter as was the case in the past.”
The Pakistani went on asking about the two types of online services –Abshir for companies with less than 100 employees and Muqeem for firms with more than 100 employees.
The caller said authorities at the Pakistani airports normally accept the exit/re-entry papers issued under the Muqeem program but they face difficulties under the Abshir service.
The caller said while no documents are required at the Saudi immigration counters, back in Pakistan this was not the case. “When I was traveling back from Islamabad, I was asked to produce the exit/re-entry document,” he said.
Al-Hussain said he could not tell about other countries but “as far as we are concerned we don’t need the exit/re-entry papers anymore. Everything is online. Your passport is enough.”
Those expatriates who don’t have anyone to look after their parents when they reach the age of 60, can go to the “Qanoon” and “Tadrees” (legal and studies) cell at the Passport Department with their case.
“The Passport Department will rule on such cases by looking into all aspects of the request and their genuineness,” said Al-Hussain.
Soon after publishing the report, hundreds of expatriates rushed to the Passport Department with a hope to get iqama for their dearest ones.
Following the rush, Arab News publish another report that said, “The conversion of a visit visa into a permanent residency permit for family members of expatriates is not a rule and can only be done in the rarest of rare cases only with the approval of the Interior Ministry.”
Al-Hussain, spokesman of the Passport Department in the Makkah region, said such procedures fall under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, not the Passport Department.
BDST: 1018 HRS JUNE 06, 2014
