Best Option of Yemeni Citizen

Hello everyone,

Currently, I'm resident in Saudi Arabia, but I'd like to move with my family to another country for better life. Which countries do you suggest are the best options for Yemeni passport holders?

Your help is highly appreciated!

Keep in mind that you can't just "move".  As a Yemen passport holder; you dont really have right of stay in any other country than Yemen (e.g. schengen passport holders can stay in any member state etc).  So you are going to have to find a way legally to move & live abroad.

Having said that, you do have a few options:

1) Within GCC; set up a company and sponsor visas for yourself and family in countries other than Saudi e.g. UAE/Bahrain etc.  Or get a job in any other country which will allow you to live there
2) Opt for skilled or investor immigration to countries which offer it e.g. Canada / Australia.  Live there for a period of time; usually not less than 3 years and then get the passport
3) Get a job abroad which will provide you with a work permit and right to reside as long as you are working there
4) If you have serious amounts of money; try for one of the citizenship by investment programs which give you passports straight up for contributions / investments (after due diligence and so on). Cost between $0.2 million USD to $2 million USD+ depending on the program chosen

These options are the ones which I could think of.

Hello,

As far as I know,  I think as Yemenis we don't have a lot of options especially for people don't have a lot of money and for the current condition of our country

for more than one year i started searching for other options to live with my family and i found the below countries good for me in term of easy residency requirements and low cost of living there

Turkey :
you can apply for residency there via some offices here in KSA and they set a meeting for you in turkey to complete the process and receive the "resident card"
or you can go there as a tourist "you have to apply for the vias from the embassy" and go there and apply
the only problem with the second option is you have to come back again to turkey for the meeting. meaning  you have to travel twice, first time to apply and second time to the meeting that usually be within 2 or 3 months after the applying

Sudan:
whitch a little better for living than yemen but at least the county is stable

Egypt:
the real state there is cheap
so you can buy a house or an apartment then you can apply for residency


if you prefer non-arabic country like me i would suggest the below options:


Philippines:

i just came back from there two weeks ago
i visited the immigration office there and there requirements for residency in not complicated
married from filipino citizen or applying for retirement at age of 35 years and above ! of if you apply for job there or have a business you can grand the residency at once



South Africa:

sound a little strange but I've been there and i have a lot of friend reside there
a little difficult than philippines but it's a great place the live



some of the above country you cannot apply for resident from the embassy in KSA so you have to visit the county as a tourist then apply once you are there for residency


if you find another good option please inform me coz i'm looking seriously for other country to live in
and maybe i will make a decision any time soon

Thank you for this informative reply.
I had a plan to apply for recedincy in Turkey. But they enforced a new law that Yemenis have to earn at least $4000 salary in order for them to enter Turkey.

I'm doing my research and I will update you InshaAllah if I found something suitable.

There are options all over the world .
You can get permanent residency in most countries and then nationality too .

European countries are expensive , asian countries like Malaysia have a MM2H programme but you need to deposit around 500,000 SAR something .

If you don't have much money I'd suggest looking at the south american countries .

Paraguay , Ecuador , Uruguay , Chile , Peru they have easy residency options .

In the middle east you have Bahrain , you can open up your own company and get investor visas , and Bahrain is the easiest place to do business , reside "considering laws and expat friendly destination" in all GCC .

Forgot to mention , you have Indonesia too which I'd suggest is a good option .
I met lots of Indonesians who are basically from the Hadrami tribe , you'll find many .

Laws aren't that hard over there , and you can get the nationality there in 5 years.


P.S , Yemenis don't need visas to Ecuador , so do your research for that .
There are some arabs residing .
Even Malaysia is visa free .

Good update Gunner.

Keep in mind there are different options that you need to be clear about:

1) Permanent residency - Being able to live and work in a country.  Must live there for a period of time to maintain this or get it in the first place.  Relatively cheap depending on country.  Can lead to a passport depending on requirements
2) Retirement based residency  - Does not usually allow you to work.  Costs money. Age requirements
3) Investor based residency - Does not allow you to work except in your company if you set up a business.  Expensive option
4) Citizenship - Most expensive option to outright buy passports 

The Latin American options are good but I would tread very carefully as not every country is the same.  What you need to consider is

1) Whether you want to live there or just want to go for a second passport. Living there means that you are willing to relocate, live there for 10 months out of 12 for 5 years, learn Spanish (absolutely necessary) and put down roots
2) The huge travel and time distances from your home country

My personal views are (and giving simplistic summaries) from aspect of ease of maintaining residency and link to second passport; I would only recommend Chile because of the strength of the passport and the developed nature of the economy.  But it's not cheap as you have to prove monthly income or a lump sum saving. 

The rest are relatively cheaper (as little as monthly income proof of $1000) but they are so-so options as in some cases, the passports are not that good (Ecuador) and in others, the physical residency requirements are very tough (Uruguay) or eventually getting passport is very challenging and complex (Paraguay / Uruguay). 

As far as Indonesia goes, to my knowledge, they don't have a PR program as such.  You need to get a long stay visa and after a period of time you can apply for a permanent stay visa.  To get the long stay visa, you need to be employed there.   They do have a retirement visa for which your country is not eligible.

If you have money; you can literally get residency through investor or retirement programs ANYWHERE.  And I am talking Singapore, Hong Kong, USA etc.   If you don't or want to spend as little as possible; then yes, the second tier Latin american countries are the best option.

I did all this research a while back and ended up setting up my company in Bahrain and also buying a Caribbean passport to get the best of both worlds i.e. live & work in GCC on tax free salary but have visa free travel and an eventual retirement destination if you don't want to go back home when you finish with GCC (And maintaining a company for visas becomes too challenging due to requirements).

Thank you guys, all of your suggestions are worth considering. I highly appreciate it.

Regarding Indonesia , what I meant is that getting employment is easy .
And if you spend 5 years you get the passport there .

So if you're looking for a muslim country that's not too expensive to live in , it is Indonesia .

P.S :

As of yesterday , Jordan announced that Buying real estate for Dh1 million could get you a citizenship in Jordan.   :lol:      Jordan to grant citizenships to Investors

As you open minded , speak English fluently , You can think about Ecuador ? It is a unique country in South America which open it's door for Yemeni passport now!! So you can move with your family to their and as you like to learn new language so you can study some Spanish course , get permenant visa in ~ 3 years , citizinship ? I plan to move with my family and children to their because I read their are many Yemeni now immigrated from Saudi Arabia to their and most of them are happy with their new life their! Note the Yemeni passport holders unfortunately difficult to move to anywhere without visa and our choices to limit

What can you do in Jordan ..... daily life is very very expensive , very poor country in resources and water , people is not friendly and these days their way of dealing with Yemeni people very bad ??!

gunner757 wrote:

P.S :

As of yesterday , Jordan announced that Buying real estate for Dh1 million could get you a citizenship in Jordan.   :lol:      Jordan to grant citizenships to Investors


Slight correction; I think its USD 1.5 mn which makes it around AED 3.67 mn.  In my opinion, it is not worth it AT ALL.  Even if it was AED 1 mn only; it is still not worth it.  Because:

1) The passport is not good for visa free travel - in fact, you will get access to only 10 countries more vs. Yemen after paying all this amount
2) And keeping point 1 above in mind, the cost is too much - like charging brand new Mercedes price for a 10 year old yaris!!.  You can get many many options for citizenship for less cost then that including EU countries like Malta
3) It is the most expensive country in the Middle East practically to live in
4) They don't really like Yemenis

gunner757 wrote:

Regarding Indonesia , what I meant is that getting employment is easy .
And if you spend 5 years you get the passport there .

So if you're looking for a muslim country that's not too expensive to live in , it is Indonesia .


Depends.  I have spent quite some time in Indonesia.  For professional level employment; language is a big barrier - you need to speak Bahasa.   However, if you just want to show ANY employment for the sake of the visa; it is possible by having someone employ you on paper.

Secondly, for you to get citizenship, you MUST speak Bahasa Indonesia which is not an easy language to learn and also, Indonesia doesn't allow dual citizenship.

Lastly, the passport is not good for visa free travel.

So all in all; in my opinion, its not worth it.

P.S. Indonesia is one of those countries where the internal laws are even more bureaucratic than Saudi.    Also corruption is rampant

Bro how do i get the carribean passport? Cost? Details? Which country?

There are quite a few countries i.e.  Antigua, Dominica, St Kitts, Grenada and Saint Lucia.  Only consider this if you have cash of $200,000 US or more to get rid off :).  If you have millions, then don't go for Caribbean and instead go for the EU/Schengen i.e. Malta or Cyprus. 

For the Caribbean, be prepared to pay in total, a bare minimum of $200K as a one-off i.e. you don't get the money back once you get the passport (donation, consultant fees, due diligence fees and other costs - assuming family of 4 people).  And if you don't want to do the donation option, be ready to buy property of $400K+ and then pay between 50-100K of non refundable fees for due diligence etc.   You can't sell the property for up to 5 years.  I personally don't prefer this option as property in that part of the world, because of these programs, is over priced and you don't get any significant appreciation on your investment.  Especially as in some programs, you can't sell it to other citizenship aspirants.

Do your research on google first.

But simply put, these options are suited for rich people (Called HNW - High net worth individuals) i.e. people with a net worth or invest-able assets of at least a million USD.  For anyone else below this range, it would wipe out your savings.   This is something you do when you have property, investments, assets, tons of savings and still have cash to spare!

And even if you have the money, be aware that the due diligence i.e. security checks that they do are extremely thorough.  You will not qualify if you have source of funds from dubious means, a criminal record, have been refused a visa for one of the countries that these programs have a visa free access with (and you didn't subsequently reapply and get that visa), have HIV or similar diseases, are a national of some countries which are not eligible e.g. Afghanistan etc etc.