Hi,
I am planning to come to Riyadh on multiple entry business visa and a local saudi company is sponsoring visa for me. My employer & local saudi company is having some terms of agreement wherein visa related things would be handled by local saudi company & I would be on my employer's payroll. My business visa is yet to be applied & approved with saudi embassy. My employer is a non saudi registered singapore company who will be different from visa sponsoring company. So visa papers & my salary slips will have two different company names.
1) Is this legally allowed as per saudi immigration laws?
2) My employer says he will be applying iQama for working in Saudi once business trips are successful. Is one who held business visa in recent past eligible for applying and getting iQama for work after leaving the country and re-entering?
3) Again the same applies for iQama wherein iQama sponsor would be different from my employer. Is this allowed as per saudi law?
Can visa sponsor be different from your employer
The one who issue business visa for you is the one who will be able to issue Iqama for you and have to work under his sponsorship .. Not legal to work with other employer as per Saudi Law .
In this part of the world, the sponsor and the employer have to be the same to be compliant with the labor law.
You can get an Iqama from someone else but in the eyes of the law, you are working for the company that issued you the Iqama. This means that NONE of the promises the other company made you can be realised in case of a dispute.
Thank you somer omak
Thank you XTang. I am hoping that the above law remains same irrespective of whether it is business visa or iQama. Kindly keep me informed if there is no issue when it is business visa and issues may arise only with iQama when employer is different from visa sponsor.
I think you need to be clear on what the differences between a visa or an Iqama are.
A visa allows you to come here to either have meetings, provide consultancy, attend conferences etc (commercial visit visa) or look for new business (business / investor visa). It doesn't allow you to WORK in Saudi. That means it doesn't matter who issues the visa as you are NOT allowed to work on it anyways. If you are working on these kind of visas, then you are breaking the law and if caught, risk quite a bit of hassle - note that a lot of people do it anyway.
Only exception is a working visit visa which is for technical positions who are allowed to work short term under certain conditions.
When you get a proper work visa, you enter Saudi and are given an Iqama. That allows you to live and work here for the employer who issued that to you.
Thank you XTang
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