Visa question

once you're here, to my knowledge, visa extensions are no big deal.  what is the reason that your employer provided for bringing the family later?

once you get here, the story changes and you might encounter hurdles.  i think a lot of how much of an inconvenience you'll face really depends on the generosity of your employer, how big they are, what type of position and industry you're in.

i would at least discuss that at the end of the 3 months, if the family is not here, you want to go back and visit them for a few weeks. i've heard of instances where this is dragged out for months and years - but again, none of this is personal experience so you have to consider that.

good luck.

Personally, I wouldnt do this business visa procedure thing. The main disadvantage being that you will have carry your passport all around town. That and the fact that every 30 days you will have to go to go out of the country and come back  (Bahrain being the usual choice because its the closest.)

I dont know if you can bring your family in your business visa. I am sure that you wil need a permanent one for that. I would suggest you to ask in the embassy regarding that. Again like redgems has mentioned, this all depends on your company, how big they are and how much influence they have.

My suggestion, ask for a permanent visa if you thik you will be here for quite a bit, lse ask your company to allow you to come back to your place every third month or something like that..

Cheers!

Thanks for the quick feedback guys. It's much appreciated. The thing is, our company branch in KSA has only been opened for a couple of years and I don't think that it has significant or any power that could somehow influence this process.

I agree that this can drag on for months if I go on the business visit visa and wait for things to get sorted out on the ground.

Alternately, I understand that there might be an option for me to travel back and forth every three months to visit my family, but that's not what I have been negotiating for so far.

It seems like the best way for me would be if my company applies for a work visa right away rather than for business visit visa, be that 180-day multi entry or 90-day single entry.

The question is, whether they'd be able to secure me a work visa.

Anyway, are there any cases out there where someone arrived in KSA on a business visit visa and later on they brought over their family. If so, please explain the procedures as it's greatly appreciated.

G.

As far as I know, ( I have not been in the scene for a long time, but I do know of this business visa thing. My company does it often) business visa holders usually dont bring their dependents on that. I dont think that it is allowed int he first place. again I am not sure on that. I think only permanent holders ca apply for family visas.

One peice of advice that I have learned over my time here. This is Saudi Arabia, laws come and go without most of us knowing about it. So it would be better to seek assurances from your company in writing. At least that will give you something to ask for later in any case. Not only this , but on everything get it written. I dint, and I am finding it out the hard way.

There is no specific rule that says you can or cannot bring your family if you are in the business visit visa and all depends on the Company, number of days you stay here, the remaining work, the mood of the visa processing officer on that particular day and how much ur company can influence the authorities to make them understand the necessity of the family coming here while you are here. I know some who were here working on a longer business visa for the last 1 1/2 years, and their families came on visit visas and went back....

But, in the first place, this business visa of 180 days validity and 30 days of stay with multiple entries comes with a tag that you need to extend it every month and for it, you need to go out of KSA and come back, so would be a straight forward "NO" advice to bring your family.

There can be complexities dealing with travelling and its easy to handle such complexitites if you r a single and involving the family in those complexities every month may not be a good idea even if they r allowed to come here when you r on the Business Visa.................

redgems, RedGoblin, uvnpsaradhi,

Thank you each and everyone for taking the time to reply and for sharing your most valuable advice. You have no idea how much this means to me. Anyone else out there willing to join the discussion is more than welcome. I hope this thread will also fill up some of the information cracks regarding visa issues on the forum.

Regards to all,

G.

i think ur family cannot join you later if your on a business visa. there are some cases where they can accompany you if you all are travelling together but willhave to leave also together. it all depends if your company can manage it here.

RedGoblin wrote:

As far as I know, ( I have not been in the scene for a long time, but I do know of this business visa thing. My company does it often) business visa holders usually dont bring their dependents on that. I dont think that it is allowed int he first place. again I am not sure on that. I think only permanent holders ca apply for family visas.

This is the way I understand it, as well.  But one last thing I'd like to add:  only permanent holders can apply DEPENDING on their job title.  Now, this isn't the work you do, but rather the work it SAYS you do on your iqama. You have to have a high status job in order to sponsor your family members.

Thanks mountaineer8888 and Alliecat!

Your input also adds a little more perspective to this rather vague visa issue, and for that I am very thankful.