Saudi Arabia Work Visa – Here’s Everything You Need to Know 

Aimed at making it easier for Saudi businesses to bring in foreign workers temporarily, here’s everything you need to know about Saudi Arabia’s Temporary Work Visa for foreigners…

Sept 05, 2023

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 framework and initiatives like the NEOM business development region have encouraged many new projects throughout the country, accelerating a trend that has increased the need for more skilled short-term workers.

Recognizing this need, a new Saudi Arabia Work Visa has been designed and launched to streamline and speed up bringing short-term workers into the kingdom while broadening which types of workers are eligible for the visa.

The new Temporary Work Visa for foreigners changes from the previously available Work Visit Visa. The Work Visit Visa was usually restricted to technical work and specific designations, like engineering. It was used a lot in the oil industry in the eastern province for people who worked on and off rotation.

Home to kaleidoscopic-colored coral reefs and an abundance of diverse marine life | Islands of NEOM- NEOM, Saudi Arabia. (Unsplash)

How Does It Work?

Compared with other Saudi visas, the Temporary Work Visa is much easier for foreign workers to acquire.

1. First, you need someone in Saudi Arabia to invite you; they will sponsor the visa. This can be a commercial registered entity within Saudi Arabia, a single merchant in Saudi Arabia, a branch of a company or an independent company itself.
2. Application is done through an electronic platform.
3. The visa will last for a year but allows entry into Saudi Arabia for up to 90 days at any time during the yearlong period.

How to Apply for The Saudi Arabia Temporary Work Visa

Visa fees

Applying for a temporary work visa in Saudi Arabia will cost SAR 1,000 (USD 266).

Eligibility requirements

An employer applying for a Temporary Work Visa must meet the following conditions:

• The establishment should have a valid Commercial Register (CR), except for activities that do not require a commercial registration;
• The status of the establishment should be “Existing”;
• The establishment is required to have a Nitiqat rating of medium green or higher;
• The establishment should not have any negative remarks concerning the Wage Protection System (WPS) and
• The establishment should have a visa issuance balance.
• An employer with expired pre-existing visas will have its application denied.

A beautiful and ancient spring-fed canyon that weaves its way through 400-meter-tall towers of granite, sandstone and basalt before plunging into the Gulf of Aqaba | Shiʻb Mūsá – NEOM, Saudi Arabia. (Unsplash)

Application process

To apply for the temporary job visa, the request needs to be submitted by a company or a commissioner on the Qiwa platform and follow the steps below:

• Log in to the organisation’s account.
• Select temporary work visa service from the e-services option.
• Click on Submit temporary work visa request.
• Fill in the details on all the fields.
• Submit the request for a temporary work visa.

Qiwa is an electronic platform giving access to the Ministry of Human Resources different services in the labour sector.

What Are the Benefits of Getting a Saudi Arabia Work Visa?

Speed and flexibility are the main benefits for everyone involved, from Saudi Arabia to the employees acquiring the visa. Also;

1. The ability to bring people in quickly and with flexible resourcing is beneficial because, with some projects, companies may not want to necessarily have people on the ground all the time, especially as some projects are in remote areas.
2. It will enable more people to work in Saudi Arabia on projects more efficiently. Entities in Saudi Arabia can support their labour force inside with specialists as needed on a much swifter approach than before, so less administration, more flexibility, and more speeded-up processes on projects inside Saudi Arabia.
3. The main drawback of the visa is that it can’t be converted to long-term access within Saudi Arabia, but it allows workers to test the waters of working in the country before they commit to a more long-term contract. More specialized work visas will likely come in the future.

Considerations for a Saudi Employment Visa

• Regulations for the temporary work visa service require the enterprise to be active and have a valid commercial registration except for the activities that do not require commercial registration.
• Moreover, the enterprises under the same unified number must not have expired work permits and have sufficient credit in the national unified number of the enterprise on the Absher account.
• The temporary work visa is issued immediately through Qiwa and does not require any documents.
• Reasons cited for rejecting a request for the temporary visa include an insufficient balance in the unified number of enterprises on Absher and rejection from the Interior Ministry.
• The temporary work visa balance package can be cancelled, and government fees can be refunded.
• The business owner or a commissioner must submit the cancellation request, the platform pointed out.
• Beyond Vision 2030, this new visa is part of a more significant push to make Saudi Arabia available to foreign workers and tourists. It goes hand in hand with other measures of opening the country to the transformation of the economy from a more closed-off oil-based economy toward an economic powerhouse in the region, where Saudi Arabia should be an attractive place for foreign direct investments.
• A whole array of visas and licences have become available in the last two years, including the Premium Residency Visa and business licences for Project HQ.

Natural rock bridge in the Hisma Desert – NEOM, Saudi Arabia | The NEOM Nature Reserve region is designed to deliver biodiversity protection and restoration across 95% of NEOM. (Unsplash)

Start the Visa Process

Get a Free Saudi Work visa Consultation with a Centuro Global expert today.

At Centuro Global, we assist clients with these applications and provide other options for residing or working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our experience expands over 25 years of supporting immigration applications and expediting cases directly with the government. We have a team of experts who can answer your queries and help avoid challenges or delays with the application process for Saudi Temporary Work Visa.