Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

Employers require their employees' passports for iqama processing. However, other than for administrative purposes, it's illegal for employers---direct hire and contracting company---to require employees to surrender their passports for the duration of their contracted employment period.

But does this trend still go on? For those of you who were/have been employed in KSA after 2012, please tick the scenario that fits your situation. You comments are welcome as well.

[nomad soul]

For those of you whose employer/sponsor withholds passports, what's the reason given?

[Deeman15]

'Company policy'.

[nomad soul]

Typical generic employer response. At least they're not uh, "lying" by stating it's the law.

Obviously, the real reason for withholding employees' passports is to protect the company's "investment"---to keep unhappy workers from running away since so much money and effort has been put into hiring them. However, that's a lame reason because the employer's authorization for an exit visa is required in order for the employee to depart the country. In other words, even if the employee has his/her passport in hand, it's not possible to leave without the employer's official okay. Anyway, it's essentially a form of control.

What if the employee refuses to hand over his/her passport?

[scot47]

The employer has to have your passport to process the Iqama and to process exit visas.

[nomad soul]

The issue of withholding foreign employees' passports isn't a labor issue and subsequently, isn't addressed at all in the Saudi labor law, which makes it a gray area for both employers and expat employees. Instead, it's part of the country's initiative to quell human trafficking of migrant and domestic expat workers.

[SheikMilkShake]

in old days,
some employers/sponsors would even keep all passports since expats landed in KSA on the first day. Sponsors would keep the passports under the pretext of " processing iqama", but after iqama was issued, they would still keep it with an excuse " it is illegal for you to hold both IDs, or you might lose it, etc."
Many of those workers were not even given a vacation for years.
When it was time for an expat to leave on final exit, sponsors would ( process final exit, etc) appoint someone to personally take you to the airport Immigration counter, surrender the passport to the officer who would process the stamp of exit ,etc, then after an expat proceeded to the departure hall/ boarding gate, then the agent would leave the airport.

These days,
once an expat passed the Immigration counter to leave the country ( even on Exit/re-entry visa to Bahrain), the officer would scan the exit visa, then, iqama would be automatically cancelled on their system or something you owed to the bank ( you could say " I never had a bank account, but the bank could still mistakenly have reported to MOI that you owed them 5423.55 riyals, or any complaints, criminal, etc would be shown on the system, then ( "pls step aside" and you would be taken into custody, then your luggage would be unloaded, searched, your laptop would be confiscated, etc.). If there was no complaints on your iqama ( Alhamdulillah! Hallelujah!), this cancellation of iqama info would be SMS to your sponsor's phone straight away.
So, be very afraid even if you are sitting at the boarding gates, they could come and get you.
But, pls do have a glass of wine, once the plane has taken off. Still, you know that the airport control can ask the plane to turn back to the airport. Shocked

Saudi females
It is the same thing for Saudi females when their passport Is scanned at Immi system, the SMS would be sent to her current guardian (husband/son, father, etc).
females need to provide a guardian's consent to apply for a passport ( the new law says something opposite but old school guardians are still use the system that works for them) and he usually supplies a phone number for SMS notification when the passport is @ any border checkpoint. That means a husband can always change his mind and come to collect her back to home.

I will try to find the newspapers clip that says " It is illegal for employers to keep the passports of foreign employees" but would that help anybody as you have entered KSA at your own risk? ( PLs refer to American Embassy, Riyadh website)

[sicklyman]

very interesting thread on LinkedIn about this including

[nomad soul]

From "International trips after receiving your iqama" (http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=108080):

[nomad soul]

I'd posted the following three years ago in "Employer's right to keep your passport...or not" (http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=90582):

[SheikMilkShake]

Do you have any principles at all?


How desperate one can get?

[The Fifth Column]

[jaffa]

I'm supposed to surrender my passport but only do so when I need a visa. The passport dept guy once asked why I had kept my passport for so long and I told him "because it's mine." He didn't come up with an answer but the government ministry that I work for thinks it's above the country's law Oh man, logic really doesn't exist here.

Back in May I applied for a new visa and was told that I wasn't in the country which turned out to be a mistake by the Dammam immigration police when I'd returned from a recent trip - they hadn't processed my re-entry. The passport dept said I had to go back to the airport and get processed again - there's a special office for this - but I said that as they have my passport, they are responsible for doing this - they sent a fax! Luckily the airport isn't far but it would be a serious drag if you are out in the boonies and I dread to think how difficult it would be for a lowly Asian slave ... I mean labourer to rectify their mistake.

[sicklyman]

[SheikMilkShake]

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/sri-lanka-may-ban-sending-of-housemaids-abroad-1.1289414

"According to the new agreement, sponsors cannot hold the employees’ passports and the domestic workers are not required to surrender their passports to the employer.
The employers are also required to remit the workers’ salaries to their bank accounts instead of the usual practice of paying the salaries in cash."




If Saudi MOL didn't sign this non passport-holding act, some countries STILL refuses to agree to send their workers which is a life line for Saudi Arabia economy and business.


Some embassies have to deal with cases that hundreds of thousands of passports that cannot be retrieved back from Saudi sponsors on yearly basis, and also disputes of unpaid salaries.

Why didn't Saudi MOL say that " this is our law that Saudi sponsors must keep the passports of foreign employees"?
Because there is no such law or policy, and Saudi MOL must sign to confirm it.