The Global Phoenix - Issue 3 August 2017 | Page 35

Immigration policy in Saudi Arabia
is walking a difficult tightrope.
On one side are the goals of
replacing tax revenue lost due
to lower oil prices, diversifying
the economy away from
dependence on oil production
and increasing employment
of local citizens; and the other
side is the economic reality that
those goals still depend on open
access to foreign labour. With
the addition of some increased
requirements to promote local
hiring, the average time from
recognition of the need to hire
foreign workers to have them on-
site ready for work is now 12 to
20 weeks. Recent developments
in corporate mobility over the last
year include:
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Imposition of a requirement in June 2017 that most
foreign nationals (US citizens exempted) applying for
business, work and family visas purchase government-
approved health insurance covering their stay;
Increased ‘Saudisation’ requirements for companies to
recruit local workers before applying for block visas for
foreign workers, including first posting open positions on
the new Taqat online national jobs portal for 45 days;
Major increases in visa fees which took effect in October of
last year;
Potential implementation of new ‘Balanced Nitiqat’ points-
based formulas requiring increased hiring of local workers.
While slated to take effect last December, implementation
of these new requirements was postponed after pushback
from business organisations, and the Saudi government
has yet to announce a new implementation date;
Significantly increased stays on work and commercial visit
visas for citizens of most nations, in many cases tripling the
permissible length of stay;
Effective 1st of July, the monarchy imposed of a new ‘expat
levy’ requiring companies employing foreign nationals
to pay monthly charges for each foreign employee and
their dependent family members living in the Kingdom.
With scheduled increases through 2020, this is greatly
increasing costs for companies employing foreign
nationals in the Kingdom.
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