Weirdness ALREADY

The ratio refers to your own company, more than likely, not the Kingdom in general.

I've heard this egregious nonsense before, it generally means that some Saudi government office is behind on paperwork (horror! surprise! shock!).

In time the paperwork will be caught up, the "foreigner/Saudi"
balance will have been achieved and processes will move forward again.

I vaguely understood that the company I work for must hire 10% of saudi nationals.

Thanks MisterStretch and Heady. I think its the latter too I wish someone knew how long could something like this stretch because the work visa is on hold till then which means pretty much everything but work is at a stand still!

SF15

I googled the 'Saudization Rate' and got this, 

Saudization rate fixed at 30% to 2010
By Salim Al-Johani
JEDDAH – The Ministry of Labor has issued a decision fixing the rate of Saudization in private companies and establishments at 30 percent until June 14, 2010.
It also fixed 15 percent for hospitals and polyclinics that have 50 workers or more and 10 percent for those having less than 50 workers.
The decision exempted contracting, maintenance, cleaning, operation, tanning and leather work companies. This in addition to ready-mixed concrete, fishery, poultry, bakery, women's and men's textile workshops, carpentry, aluminum, car mechanics and blacksmith workshops, laundries, farms, agricultural and livestock projects, land transportation, heavy truck drivers, trailer truck drivers, fuel stations, pharmacies, optical centers, gold and jewelry factories, limousine drivers, document processing industries, pharmacists working in scientific offices and pharmaceutical companies and engineering offices.
Besides these, there are the contracting, maintenance, operation and cleaning companies that have contracts with government in which the rate of Saudization ranges between 5% and 20% according to the kind of each activity. – Okaz/SG

May also want to check this website too!

http://www.saudi.gov.sa/wps/portal/!ut/ … ent&catid=

Hope this helps!

Thanks CAF, this does help alot. This is so SAD. One would think that the Saudi Govt would want to make it easy for Expats coming to the Kingdom....its certainly doesnt seem so

SF15:

The authorization for my visa was held for about 3 months because of the saudi/foreigner ratio. I was in a batch of 400 visa applications including all sort of citizenships (notably french, spanish, lebanese, pakistani, filipinos, indian) but my company was short of about 40 saudi employees. The problem was solved in 3 months.

Thanks Heady,
So that will mean exiting the kingdom every 30 days...SIGH
If I may ask, your family was stuck back home. You had to go bad and then get your work permit? Comeback them get your iqama?

SF15:

To be more explicit, I arrived in Riyadh 1.5 months ago with a 6-month multi-entry visa (temporary work visa) which took quite some time to obtain (because of the ratio). I can come and go anytime within the period of validity of my visa. My visa does not allow me to have an Iqama yet. At the end of this temporary work visa, I will have to return to my country and my company will reapply for a 30-day visa which may or may not be issued quickly depending on the company employment ratio at the time. I will get my Iqama once I am back...Inch'allah