So I have been offered this job in Kuwait that will probably start in January 2014. I was told by my future employer that they will prepare a work visa for me and that I need to go to the nearest kuwaiti embassy to have them stamp the work visa in my passport.
From checking the web page of the embassy I understand that I will have to get a police clearance from my country plus I will have to have a blood test done for HIV and Hepatitis A, B, and C. Once I have all that I can go to the embassy and have them put the visa in my passport.
I have been trying to get information about what I have to do and where to go in Kuwait to get the necessary formalities out of my way, and it seems that I have to obtain a residency permit, a finalized work permit, and perhaps a few other things as well.
Now, here are my questions:
From dealing with the embassies in terms of obtaining a work visa, can anyone confirm that the procedure outlined above is indeed what needs to be done in order to get the work visa stamped in to the passport? Is the blood test limited to those four tests or are there more that are required? What will happen if you come up positive on one or more on those tests? Not that I am concerned but you never know......
Some of the posts on this forum indicated (without explicitly saying so) that for obtaining the residency permit one has to do another blood test where they test for the same things as mentioned above, just a few weeks after the first test has been done in the context of obtaining the work visa. Is that actually true or am I mistaken here? If that is true I have to say that it does not make much sense from a medical point of view.
I also read that for obtaining a drivers license one has to do yet another blood test. What exactly are they testing there? As I am German and have a German drivers license I believe that special rules apply for obtaining a drivers license, though, but I am not exactly sure what they are.
Any insights and explanations are highly appreciated.
Concerning work visa, residency permit, and drivers license
Hey,
I have JUST been through the exact process you will potentially soon start and arrived in Kuwait 3 days ago!
If you'd like to add me on Skype, I will tell you EXACTLY what you will need to do and what the (daunting) process is like.
My Skype ID is: mranthonyma
PS: American guy from Jersey here....
Stay well......
About to do exactly the same thing... (although I didn't know about the blood tests).
Jersey Guy from UK here 
Yeah, please feel free to add me on Skype and I'll walk you through the process.
Hi Marcus,
Thank you for your reply. I am in a somewhat temporary living situation right now and have only limited internet access due to download restrictions (Germany seems to be a bit behind the rest of the developed world in that regard). So I would not be able to talk much over skype as it eats up the download capacity that I bought from the ISP real quick. If you have Yahoo Instant Messenger or Whatsapp or Blackberry messenger you could send me either your Yahoo ID or your phone number (whatsapp) or your blackberry PIN by private message and then we can talk about things. If none of those is available to you then I will see what I can do with skype. Please let me know what you think.
Indianajones1
Hi Kevan,
I am pretty sure about the blood test for the visa. That is what it says on the web page of the Kuwait embassy. I am not sure if there are exceptions to that rule but I doubt it. For the drivers license I am also pretty sure that you have to do some blood test, but I am not sure if that is another comprehensive blood test like the one for the embassy. The information I came across is somewhat contradictory. I read somewhere that for Westerners like us it is only to determine the blood group and Rhesus factor. Others that are not Westerners may have to do a more in-depth test. But that may apply to us, too. The one thing that I really do not know is if one has to do yet another blood test for the residency permit. Someone on this forum mentioned something like that. It may or may not be true for new arrivals like us. It would be nice though to know for sure what is coming up to us once we are there. So I guess Marcus will provide us with the necessary information as he is a few steps ahead of us.
When are you supposed to head down there? The last I heard from my future employer is that I will most likely be on my way sometime in December.
indianajones1
Hey there,
The other apps I use are Viber, or FaceTime with apple products.
Let me know if they work for you.
The whole process took me months!
I still can't believe I actually am here and have completed it all........
Anyway, just let me know......
Stay well,
Marcus
Hi Marcus,
Sorry but I don't have Viber or FaceTime, so that would not work for me. I will add you to my skype contacts and then we can see when we can connect.
But I still would recommend Whatsapp. It is easy to install on your cell phone and even easier to use. Please let me know if that would be an option.
I have been through some ordeal myself already preparing for the relocation to Kuwait, and I agree, it can take a long time to get everything done.
So how do you like Kuwait, now that you have arrived? It was indicated to me that after arrival in Kuwait one has to go to certain government agencies to get a residency permit and a finalized work permit. Is that true?
Best regards
Indianajones1
Hello ,
I going to answer your kind question easily without complicated .
1- the blood test its required and one you done it in Germany you going to do it one more time in Kuwait . just the procedure in Germany just for the Kuwait embassy to give you the enter working visa , but after you enter to Kuwait , you have to do the same tests , blood + c+A + chest scan for darn .. and after you going to have the residence stamp it in your passport after the medical test and after the working permission , they take all this documents and going to immigration office to stamp your working visa into your passport
2- driving license
After you have the working residence in your passport .
You going to translate your German driving license , and stamp it from the German Embassy and after that from the foreign Ministry , and after that the blood test that you going to do just for the what kind of blood name you have , as example I Have O+
after that you do eyes test and medical test in the same place and all this 10 minutes exam in the general doctor in the government clinic .
After that going by this test with your translated driving license and they going to issue for you the Kuwaiti one ..
for any farther information , please contact me in my email
[email protected]
regards
Marawan
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