Visa for Wife on Business or Short Term Work Visa

ZAQ11 wrote:

Hi,

I am planning to travel to KSA my question is

1. Once I am in KSA on Short Term Work Visa or Business visa can I get visa for my wife?

2. Should I apply it along my visa or can I do it separately?

3. If I apply separately(once i am in KSA) Can she travel Alone to KSA?

Waiting for the reply

Thanks in Advance

1. Once I am in KSA on Short Term Work Visa or Business visa can I get visa for my wife?

Once you are in KSA, you cannot get visa for your wife if you are in Business visa.

2. Should I apply it along my visa or can I do it separately?

If you want to bring your wife along with you on a business visa , it should be applied along with you and both of you should travel together.

3. If I apply separately(once i am in KSA) Can she travel Alone to KSA?

Answer above.

Hello HRGuru,

I am an American citizen.  My Thai wife and our daughter are living in South Korea.

I have been offered a English teaching job in a vocational school in Saudi on a business visa, and I want my wife and daughter to come with me on a business visa:

1) Can we do our business visas through the Saudi Embassy in Korea?  Or, do I do mine in the USA, and she does hers in Thailand?

2) How long can my wife and daughter remain with me in Saudi on a business visas?

3) What exactly should the Saudi company that is hiring me do to help me get my wife and daughter the business visas?

Thanks.

@Chris,

It is up to your company to do the visa for the entire family, some places do not like to do it and do not have the wasta required to do it. My entire family came in together, but the company has much wasta. We all came on the basic 90 day visa (the household head had the business visa), an iqama was issued to the head of household after we arrived, and then the rest of us got our iqamas.

You will be able to apply for your visa in whichever country you reside in. My entire family applied for our Saudi visa while residing in a country we are not native to and our documents are not native too.

However, all your required documents (you will need your marriage certificate, your child's birth certificate, and your college degree at a minimum) will need to have the appropriate stamps in their country of origin and stamps from the Saudi embassy in said country (example: if your marriage certificate is issue from Thailand it will need the appropriate Thai stamp and a stamp from the Saudi embassy in Thailand).

To do the above you may need to hire a service to deliever documents and collect the stamps and then mail them to you. It can be tedious but is possible.

I hope you enjoy your time here. Saudi needs more wonderful Thai folk!

Hello Xenolol,

We are currently residents of South Korea.

Could we fly to Thailand or the USA and do the process through the Saudi Embassy there?

If I'm quiting my current job for a new one in Saudi, we are free to travel, so it would make sense to to this in either the USA or Thailand, which is where I and my wife are respectively from.

Thanks.

You can definately do it via the USA. You would have to check with the Saudi embassy in Thailand if it was ok there for you (they may only work with legal residents), smae with your wife if she doesn't have a US green card. There should not be an issue, but every embassy views rules/laws different.

I tried to find the Saudi embassy in Bangkok online to no avail, my youngest son was born there so we had to get his birth certificate authenticated in Thailand. Eventually we spoke with the embassy where we resided and came to a compromise.

Chris of Earth wrote:

Hello HRGuru,

I am an American citizen.  My Thai wife and our daughter are living in South Korea.

I have been offered a English teaching job in a vocational school in Saudi on a business visa, and I want my wife and daughter to come with me on a business visa:

1) Can we do our business visas through the Saudi Embassy in Korea?  Or, do I do mine in the USA, and she does hers in Thailand?

2) How long can my wife and daughter remain with me in Saudi on a business visas?

3) What exactly should the Saudi company that is hiring me do to help me get my wife and daughter the business visas?

Thanks.

Dear,

Please find below answers to your queries.

1) Can we do our business visas through the Saudi Embassy in Korea?  Or, do I do mine in the USA, and she does hers in Thailand?

You can issue business visit visa for you and your family together in the first visit itself. As to from where the visa has to be issued, this can be specified before the visa is issued in the "place of issue". This will specify from which saudi embassy the visa needs to be issued.

For eg: Your wife is thai national , holding thai passport and living in Korea, so that visa is to be issued for Thai national from Saudi Embassy in Korea. This is called "Jhahis Al Kudoom, جهز القدوم" in Arabic.


2) How long can my wife and daughter remain with me in Saudi on a business visas?

Depends on for how long the visa is issued, normal time range now given for single / multiple entry visas are 90 days with option for extension.

3) What exactly should the Saudi company that is hiring me do to help me get my wife and daughter the business visas?

Apply for all of you at the same time in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website stating dependent information.

Hope this is clear.

Actually, I don't really know if I want to risk coming over to Saudi with a company that doesn't provide me with an employment visa and Iqamas for my family right away.

1)  Do you know if it is standard procedure for companies that bring teachers to Saudi on a business visa to get them employment visas and Iquamas later after they have arrived?

2)  Can the Saudi company that is bringing me over on a business visa help me get an employment visa and Iquama after I am in Saudi, or will this not be possible, especially if they don't have much wasta?

Actually, I don't really know if I want to risk coming over to Saudi with a company that doesn't provide me with an employment visa and Iqamas for my family right away.

Do you know if it is standard procedure for companies that bring teachers to Saudi on a business visa to get them employment visas and Iquamas later after they have arrived?  Is is even possible?

Chris of Earth wrote:

Actually, I don't really know if I want to risk coming over to Saudi with a company that doesn't provide me with an employment visa and Iqamas for my family right away.

Do you know if it is standard procedure for companies that bring teachers to Saudi on a business visa to get them employment visas and Iquamas later after they have arrived?  Is is even possible?

Its not standard procedure to issue a visit visa,if a company has work visa ready and they are sure of you as a candidate then they will issue the work visa.

In your case most probably what has happened is that they might not have the necessary work visa ready as of now. For the time being to get you on board and not to delay things, they issue visit visa and will apply for the work visa at the same time. Within 2 - 3 months the work visa will be issued at that time you will go and come back on the work visa / iqama.

From my personal view , if this is your first time to come to KSA on a job, take the visit visa. Your first three months is probationary period and both parties have the right to terminate employment. If what you see is you can take / adjust in KSA, you have the option to go back any time easily since you are on visit visa.

Transferring / changing visit to work visa is possible but happens very rarely.

Is is common for companies that employ English teachers on business visas to simply keep renewing their business visas (past the first few months) instead of applying for an employment visa (Since this might save the company money), or will the company help me to get the employment visa and Iquama within the first 2-8 months?

Also, is there a rule that says I must work for a company for 2 years before I can change employers?
(This will be my first job in Saudi)

Chris of Earth wrote:

Is is common for companies that employ English teachers on business visas to simply keep renewing their business visas (past the first few months) instead of applying for an employment visa (Since this might save the company money), or will the company help me to get the employment visa and Iquama within the first 2-8 months?

Also, is there a rule that says I must work for a company for 2 years before I can change employers?
(This will be my first job in Saudi)

As I mentioned earlier, its not that common to keep staff on visit visa since its not a cost effective option, provided that they will have to bear the expenses of renewing your visa every three months or depending on the expiry. IMHO, you can address these issues to the company HR, and see what kind of response they give. Could be that they are not having valid work visas at the moment, they might have applied for it already.....a couple of possibilities there, which I cant really know.

As to the 2 year rule, yes its there.

Regards,

hello Hr Guru:

I m currently working in suadi Arabia, by next week I shall go back again to india and come on another employement visa(Project Engineer).
My question till the time I prepare my Iqama I cannot apply for any visa(family/visit/business), but getting Iqama takes more than a month or two, so such case can I apply business visa for my wife as I dnt want to wait for 2 months for my Iqama..

Once Iqama is prepared I shall apply family visa & get her back permanently…
Please advise if it is possible, any other alternate ways also shall be heartily appreciated

sahil123 wrote:

hello Hr Guru:

I m currently working in suadi Arabia, by next week I shall go back again to india and come on another employement visa(Project Engineer).
My question till the time I prepare my Iqama I cannot apply for any visa(family/visit/business), but getting Iqama takes more than a month or two, so such case can I apply business visa for my wife as I dnt want to wait for 2 months for my Iqama..

Once Iqama is prepared I shall apply family visa & get her back permanently…
Please advise if it is possible, any other alternate ways also shall be heartily appreciated

Since you wont have an iqama , you will not be able to apply for the visit visa yourself, only your employer will be able to do it. Even then this might be difficult to get it endorsed , since employer can apply only for commercial or work visit visas and this requires company contract, letter in home country etc etc .  Ideal is to wait till you get the iqama, these days iqama gets issued in max a months time .

Thanks for your valuable response