Job Discussion Forums

usool · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 147

Hi there

Has anybody here ever managed to get a work visa for Saudi from other than their main country of residence? ie. if ur an American/British citizen has anybody every got a visa from, say China or Taiwan whilst working there?

Regards

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Can be done if your employer agrees.

What happens in Saudi is that your employer has a block visa - that is to say a certain number of individual visas for fixed job categories and one nationality only.

The block visa is kept at the Saudi Consulate in the country whose nationals have been granted the visa, and when a worker is hired he gets a letter of authorization with a number that corresponds to one of the numbers on the block visa. The consulate then crosses that number off the block visa and reduces the total by one.

For you to get the visa in another country your employer has to request the foreign ministry to recall one of the visas on the block visa to Riyadh, and the send it to the Saudi Consulate in the country where you reside. The Foreign Ministry may well require a copy of the applicant's residence permit in the country in question. If the Foreign Ministry agrees, then the visa is recalled from Washington, London or Ottawa or wherever, and then forwarded to the Sauid Consulate in the country in question. This process incidentally appears to take between six to eight weeks, or maybe longer.

So it all depends initially on your employer. There may suddently be unforseen difficulties or the thing may be dealt with more quickly than in have mentioned depending on Lady Luck, wasta or the prowess of somebody's favourite football team, but what I have described is the standard process.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I have processed visa applications through the Royal Saudi Consulatye in Istanbul although I am neither a Turk nor resident in Turkey.

It was not easy but that is part of the "frisson" of getting a Saudi visa !

cody jarrett · Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 21 Location: Middle East

Saudi embassy in Bangkok will process visas for British and Irish nationals; eventually! Don't know about other nationalities.

Cody

Arab Strap · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 246 Location: under your bed

.............I was wondering the same as the OP.

I know it's a long shot but has anyone holding permanent residency in the Czech Republic (UK citizen) managed to get a KSA visa from their embassy in Prague? i.e. without having to go through the KSA embassy in London.................

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

As we said before, it can be done, but would require the procedure I gave at the top of the page.

In general the rule in Saudi, is to try and do things as simply as possible, as even that is complicated enough. There is the added advantage that the Saudi Embassy in London is exceptionally efficient, and that you can easily get an efficient agent to handle the process for you.

If you really do want to do it from Prague, contact Personnel when you get the offer so they can set the ball rolling.