Author: MOHAMMED AL-KINANITue, 2018-01-02 03:00ID: 1514841505954322000
JEDDAH: The General Directorate of Passports (GDP) has announced that foreign workers in the private sector will have to pay fees for every dependent or companion.
The directorate, known as Jawazat among expats, has posted a tweet on its official Twitter account stating that it was implementing a decision previously issued by the Council of Ministers.
It added that the fees for every dependent or companion must be paid through the SADAD payment system, which was established by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) as the national electronic payment service in Saudi Arabia.
In a clarification note received by Arab News via the directorate’s Lt. Col. Talal Al-Shalhoub, the Jawazat said the targeted dependents include the first wife, male children under 18, and all female children. It also clarified that the term “companions” entails the second wife, the third and the fourth, in addition to parents, relatives-in-law, domestic laborers and every expat sponsored by the worker.
As for the fees every expat worker has to pay, the directorate said these are applicable for every dependent and companion of all officially permitted workers in the private sector. “The fees should be paid in advance and on a yearly basis along with the issuing or renewal of the worker’s residency permit, when issuing exit-re-entry visa or even final exit visas.”
The authority made it clear that the worker should pay SR100 ($26.7) for every dependent or companion starting from July 1, 2017. It also gave notice that the fees would be doubled from July 1, 2018, and would reach SR300 by July 1, 2019. According to the same announcement, a single dependent’s or companion’s fees will hit SR400 in 2020.
The announcement also stated that no nationality would be excluded from the decision, and the fees are not refundable. It concluded that a worker could check the validity of his/her passport through the Interior Ministry’s “Absher” online services.
Main category: Saudi Arabia
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