Search Results for: Saudi Arabia

November 21, 2018

Effective immediately, the Saudi Ministry of Labor has suspended the requirement for companies intending to hire foreign nationals to first advertise jobs on the Taqat jobs portal.

August 13, 2018

From September 2018, foreign national residents looking to renew their work permits in Saudi Arabia must have a rental contract authenticated and registered with the new Ejar online rental platform, according to the Saudi Ministry of Labour and Social Development (MLSD) and the Ministry of Housing.

January 5, 2018

Effective 1st January 2017, as expected, the monthly levy on foreign national employees in companies where the number of foreign national employees exceeds the number of Saudi employees has doubled to SAR 400. Furthermore, for the first time, a levy of SAR 300 per month applies to companies where the number of foreign national employees does not exceed the […]

November 24, 2017

Effective immediately, the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce has launched online attestation (certification) services for some documents. The online service is available through the “My Business Portal”, and allows users to complete the attestation of certain documents, including the visa request letter to the Labour Office, without visiting the Chamber in person. However, some documents still […]

October 30, 2017

Effective immediately, companies in Saudi Arabia will have to utilise their block visas more quickly in order to hire foreign employees. The Saudi Ministry of Labor has announced that it is reducing the validity period of its block visas from two years to one year. Thus, companies now have just one year to recruit and […]

September 29, 2017

Following the implementation on 3rd September 2017 of stricter Saudization requirements for businesses, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) and the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) have introduced the “Parallel Nitaqat” system, to allow employers to buy into the required saudization category instead of hiring Saudi nationals. “Parallel Nitaqat” aims to help employers who are struggling […]

August 30, 2017

The Saudi Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD) and the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) have announced an agreement to require foreign engineers to demonstrate at least five years of professional engineering experience to be eligible for work permits. The new agreement strengthens the previous requirement, implemented a few months ago, that foreign engineers […]

August 10, 2017

The Ministry of Labour and Social Development will implement a new version of its Nitaqat grading programme for companies, meaning stricter Saudization requirements for businesses, from 3rd September 2017. The Ministry has also announced that it only approved 37% of work visa applications in 2016 (316,212 out of 849,228). What is Changing? Under the new […]

July 5, 2017

Effective 1st July 2017, as expected, a monthly levy of SAR 100 (approximately USD 27) must be paid for each foreign national dependent resident in Saudi Arabia. In addition, from January 2018, the monthly levy on foreign national employees in companies where the number of foreign national employees exceeds the number of Saudi employees will double to […]

June 23, 2017

In December 2016 it was first announced by the Saudi government that, to help boost the countries revenues amid weak oil prices, they were to introduce an “expat levy” which would start on  1st July.  It is important for us to stress that the Saudi government have yet to release further details of the levy since […]