Securing a work visa without a degree

In order to get a work visa to KSA you need to provide a degree that suits the visa title (eg: if the visa is engineer - you need to show an engineering degree) and this certificate needs to be attested from saudi embassy as well. However there are other professions or labor category visas that can be issued without certificate but you may not be able to bring family and might face some other issues.

I would recommend visit visa for you if from UK and work is only seasonal / limited duration.

Thanks. The job will last maybe 2 years, so A work visit may not be ideal as I would need to reapply every 80 days. I do not have a family I wish to bring so apart from that, what other issues could you see arising?

There is an option to get 2 years multiple entry visit for a fee. Check with your employer in KSA, this might fit your needs. If not then you will need a degree to process what ever profession they give you in visa.

@GP999 did you manage to find a way around this?

This is a 6 year old post and the OP hasn't been active since 6 years ago.  And to answer your question (answered by me before), no there isn't a way around this............not if you want to have the right profession on your Iqama.  You can take any other profession which doesn't require a degree but if labor ministry does an inspection, you will be in trouble.

@XTang do you know which professions don't require a degree? And does a Diploma suffice

You need to do your research on Saudi and ask your employer to guide you.  Things change here daily and there are HUNDREDS of professions out there..........the requirements vary for each.   The ones which require degrees, diploma won't work...........the ones which don't require degrees e.g. labor, you are asking for trouble during labor inspections and can't bring family with you.............the ones for which diploma can work e.g. welder, come with a skill testing exam.   It has become very difficult in Saudi now.

I can't guide you as on top of the complexity that I highlighted.........I may give you a profession which your employer may NOT have a visa for......because, it doesn't fit with their business activity.  And on top, I see from your profile that you are British..........so getting something like a labor visa is a big red flag for ministry of human resources straight off as this profession is usually the domain of workers from the sub-continent e.g. Pakistan, India etc.

Posting the same question on multiple theads to posters who come in to ask their question and haven't been back in years, will not help you much.  This is a discussion you need to be having directly with your employer and ask them what profession they will recommend for you..........keeping in mind your situation, nationality, the list of activities on their commercial registration, the visas by nationality that they have and tons of other factors.  Based on your other posts, the profession you seem to fit are either marketing specialist (requires a degree and has been saudized to the extent of 30%) or strategy officer / manager / director (requires a degree).  However, in most cases, marketing specialist visas are closed off on an on/off basis due to Saudization issues and many companies don't have strategy visas.  On top of that, EVEN if you had a degree (instead of diploma in sciences), that would have still created problems because your degree is NOT relevant to the profession you are putting on your Iqama.  In the past, you needed a degree and then could have worked in any profession.........now they match profession vs. degree in most cases (degree being absolutely necessary). That is why I am telling you to speak to your employer HR as it is up to them to find a way out.

Then you need to come back here and ask for a second opinion on what your employer recommended.   What I can tell you straight off, besides the fact that you will always be exposed during labor inspections (to fines and deportation because you won't be PHYSICALLY working a job that matches the profession on your Iqama) is that if you want to bring your family here, you WILL need to show immigration a degree (and this is a separate hurdle from the initial work visa).  There are people who have ACCA/CIMA and similar high end qualifications but are not able to bring their families because they don't have a bachelor's degree and immigration doesn't recognize master equivalent qualifications as a degree..........tons of these experiences on these forums.  And these people have work visas, Iqamas with the right profession as well as membership of the Saudi accounting body which has verified their qualifcation as matching the profession they are working in.

So read through my response carefully, browse the forum and read other experiences, speak to your employer and then think long and hard on your priorities before accepting anything in Saudi.  As I said before, they are making it very very difficult for expats through these rules.

@XTang thank you for the detailed response and much appreciated. I had posted in different threads hoping someone can give clarity and hoping that someone also managed this situation effectively. I maybe able to speak to employer as I hold Msc but it was an online one and seen that, that is also an issue but biggest hurdle seems to be getting the right visa to match...

Thanks again for the support