Job Discussion Forums

SDG · Joined: 28 Dec 2009 Posts: 5

Kuwait now requires police clearance to get a work permit or residency visa, but does not require clearance to get a 90 day visitor's visa.

One company offering jobs in Kuwait states the employee can just work on the visitor's visa for three months, then extend that same visitor's visa, allowing the employee to stay in the country for six months without a work permit or residency visa - and without police (security) clearance. The company is needing someone immediately and does not want to wait for the time security clearance will take.

We've heard elsewhere that anyone working in Kuwait must have a residency visa and work permit, with police clearance prior to arrival from the home country, and that a visitor's visa is not good enough, even if it can be extended (which we hear is at great cost)

Does anyone here have experience or information with this issue and what is required? Can an person work in Kuwait on a visitor's visa, then extend that visitor visa, without concern?

15yearsinQ8 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 462 Location: kuwait

if you work on a visit visa or technically on a dependent visa and things go sour, you have NO legal recourse

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

svatopluk · Joined: 16 Sep 2009 Posts: 81

They probably brought this law in after the trouble the police had with Lang Sols at KNPC earlier this year.

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

Interesting comment svatopluk - please tell us what happened.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

When you eventually leave Kuwait and are looking for a job somewhere else, you will probably be asked to account for that period of your life. If working with children in UK and many other countries you will need a Criminal Record Check from the countries you lived and worked in. How do you propose doing that if you worked illegally ?

There is a line in the sand that you should not cross !

svatopluk · Joined: 16 Sep 2009 Posts: 81

An earlier, jokey reply on this subject got deleted, so I'll be more straight this time.

One teacher at KNPC attacked a driver, beat him up, and the police were called in. The teacher then locked himself in his room for a few days before the police came in force to take him. He tried a runner across some wasteland, was caught, then spent a week or two in a psychiatric hospital. The British Embassy were also involved.

Another teacher was fired for sexually harrassing a secretary but was so incensed by this and also that he lost the deposit on his flat he got Interpol involved to try and get his money back.

rowntree · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 55

One company have at least 6 teachers on the books this year whom they brought from overseas, These teachers are unable to get work visas as 'the book is closed' on visas for this company. The said teachers can open a bank account but cannot :

1) rent long term
2) hire ( long term) or buy a car
3) get internet or buy a mobile phone
and

4) have to leave the country every two to three months to come in again on a visit visa
They are, of course, illegal and if were caught, would be deported and banned from kuwait( do they know this?) and have no legal recourse if fired or if they do not receive all indemnities due to them.

Personally, I'd say, get me a visa within a month or I'm off.

SDG · Joined: 28 Dec 2009 Posts: 5

Thanks Rowntree,
Are you at liberty to let us know which company this is and where, either in this posting or in a private message?
This company says "Teachers Urgently needed" for MOD contract - so urgently, apparently, that employees are being told to just come with a visitor's visa, without security clearance. So is this a scam, or a disreputable company - or is something pretending to be a known company like what happened with the British School in Dubai? In no communications, including the offered contract itself, is there anything but the name of the company (not even the full name) - no contact information, no phone number, no address, no corporate logo, nothing.

SDG · Joined: 28 Dec 2009 Posts: 5

Kuwait has extended their restrictions on work permits for foreigners - does anyone know how this is affecting TEFL teachers, and if some companies are exempt from this restriction and can still get work permits for those they are bringing in from other countries?.

And does anyone know the difference between a "Business Visa" and a "Work Permit"? Can a business visa be extended beyond 90 days?

rowntree · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 55

The 'restrictions' are mainly that a BA is required minimum to teach, but a TEFL cert may also be accepted- although one RSA Dip was rejected and a 40 hour online cert was accepted......go figure.

The 'difference' between a work permit and a business visa is as obvious as the words themselves....one allows you to do business ( ie work with a company to promote your goods/ give assistance/ drum up business) and the other permits you to work full time. If you enter on a visit visa- holiday , business or other, and are employed by a school, then you are ILLEGAL.