Coming to Jeddah

Hello everyone and thanx for the gr8 efforts and info so far provided.
Sadly I looked plenty but didn't find the answer to my question, so hoping someone will have the answer!

I'm coming to Jeddah on a work visa (I'm a doctor) to work for a private medical centre. I'm going to have my husband accompany me as a Mahram (guardian). Now the question is if he finds work there, can we change his visa from Mahram to work visa? And if possible, how easy and how long does it usually take?

Thank u all in advance.

Hi londoc,

Welcome to Expat.com! :)

I hope other members will be able to advise you.

All the best.

Well londoc there could be two ways to go about based on my knowledge.

1- your husband looks for a job and once he finds a job, his company can get his status changed to whatever status is relevent (to him) depending on how effective government relations personnel does the company have. If they are really effective, they can get anything done.

2- would be a bit of a tricky case. this could however be the normal procedure. What will happen is that your husbands employer will offer him a new work visa for which purpose he will have to exit the country and go back to his home country and can arrive back to Saudi on the new visa.

The tricky part would be what will then happen to you? Will you have to leave with your mahram? or will your mahram be allowed to leave the country on his own leaving you unaccompanied here in Saudi? Or will you have to leave with him and return back on his sponsors visa as a dependent? These questions are what you might be or should be thinking of and the best solution will be to contact the HR/Govt relations at your employers side.

Hope it helps.

Agent47
Thank you so much for the info. That just sounds good to me. I am hoping that the place of work he'll be joining will have contacts good enough to sort it out if it comes to that, but wanted to make sure that it's possible in the first instance.
Thank you again

Dear
Dont worry. Your husband will be on family visa under your sponsorship (there is no mehram visa). He can easily find a job, where change of sponsorship is not mandatory. He can work, provided his visa is not stamped with "not permitted to work".