Expatriate Recruitment: Visa Options
Few issues have discouraged foreign investors, not to mention local firms dependent on skilled expatriate professionals, more than often unrealistic Saudiization quotas, visa restrictions, sluggish bureaucratic responsiveness and delays by the Ministry of Human Resources & Social Development (MHRSD) in approving business visit visas for expatriate personnel to enter and work for local entities in the Kingdom. Foreign investors contractually committed to deliver services and products to Saudi public and private sector clients that depend on expatriate expertise for which no local substitute is currently available have found themselves in the impossible situation of facing hard contractual deadlines to deliver, without the required administrative support to bring the right talent to bear on the ground.
While MHRSD has in response to stakeholder input responded positively by the formerly available short-term Work Visa with Temporary Work Visas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has fallen short in their issuance by foreign missions in ways that severely undermine their value.
Business Visas
While MHRSD has been generally responsive in approving Temporary Work Visas, the same may unfortunately not be said of MoFA. Foreign posts have been slow and inconsistent in facilitating their issuance, vitiating their value by applying the same onerous requirements and eligibility as for Work Visas, including fully legalized education certificates, medical examination and home country police clearance, and in some cases employment contracts.
Once issued, Temporary Work Visas
- allow single entry only,
- limit in-Kingdom stays to 3 months, after which
- the worker must return home and apply anew.
American companies with 100% compliance ethos and depending on foreign expertise absent qualified local candidates find themselves hard-pressed to accommodate project delivery schedules, while mobilization delays threaten loss of key contracts.
While rightly seeking to balance the needs of foreign investors and their clients with its obligation of appropriate vetting, MoFA’s exhaustive requirements for a 3-month single entry visa raise often insuperable barriers to availability of key project personnel, with little apparent benefit, an issue that foreign missions would be well-advised to take up with their counterparts at MoFA and Saudi missions abroad .
