Young expats in Saudi Arabia having trouble with residence permits

Young expatriate professionals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are having trouble transferring their sponsorships from their parents to the companies where they are working, the news site Arab News said.

 

The report, published on Wednesday, disclosed that many major employers put aside the transfer of sponsorship, forcing the expatriate employee “to look for a temporary Saudi sponsor” until his real employer does so. 

 

Saudi law states that residents who reach the age of 25 are no longer allowed to be under the sponsorship of their parents. They have to change occupation on their iqamas or residence permits from “students” to a job title.

 

But some employers are also deferring their expatriate employees’ request because the company belongs to the Red category of the Nitaqat program, also known as Saudization.

 

Saudization has classified around 300 companies in KSA into several categories, namely: Premiere, Excellent, Red, and Yellow firms.

 

Previous reports say that those in the Red and Yellow categories “are required to do away with foreign workers and hire more Saudi locals within nine to 11 months.”

 

Ali Al-Shemaisi, a human resources manager of a major real estate company in KSA, told Arab News that “the situation is different now.”

 

“The private sector focuses on specific occupations to hire foreign employees, and many companies need to increase the Saudization percentage to meet the requirements of the Nitaqat program,” Al-Shemaisi said.

 

There are more than a million Filipinos in KSA, around 90,000 of which are working for companies placed under the Red and Yellow categories. –RAD/KG, GMA News