Saudi Arabian Life - Life in Saudi

Saudi Arabia's king Salman has announced its budget for the year 2018. Saudi government spending will increase to 978 billion riyals ($261 billion) in 2018, a jump of 6% from the previous year.

Saudi Arabia is expecting revenues from multiples sources and increase it revenue from Non-Oil resources.




Though the year 2017 was good in terms of economy boosting for Saudi Arabia and generating revenuw through taxes, dependent fees, new rules & regulations. The guidance of King Salman is leading the country into a place which doesn't depend on Oil only.

Saudi Arabia is a couuntry which has many rules & regulations and if any expatriate wants to go to Saudi Arabia for Job or Stay purpose. He must get an Iqama.

Iqama is nothing but a Residence permit or a work License for an expatriate to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a Sponsrship of an Individual kafeel (Saudi National) or a Saudi Company.



Iqama is one of the most important document that every Expatriate must have in the kingdom and also to know for people who wants to go to Saudi Arabia. Your Iqama serves as an Identity Card with all Banks, Hospitals, Airport, Check Points etc.

Earlier Iqama had a validity of only 1 or 2 yrs, but as an Introduction of an enhanced Iqama which is now called as Muqeem has have a validity of minimum 5 years and must be renewed after it gets expire to live in Saudi Arabia.

The first thing you should be eager to get once you land in Saudi Arabia is Iqama. Ask youe Sponsor about the Iqama so that you can live a calm life in Saudi.

How does Iqama Look like?



An Iqama look like below image which will have all the details such as

• Name
• ID
• Date of Expiry
• Profession
• Nationality
• Sponsor Name
• Iqama ID
• Religion
• Photo
• Date of Birth

What details you must know in Iqama (Muqeem Card) ?

Once you get Iqama you must check all the information printed on the card is correct or not. Its important to check if every information on Iqama matches your Passport because its gets linked with all the Governent services, banks, etc.

According to reports it is confirmed that Expat workers do not have to pay dependent fee for families who are on a visit visa in the Kingdom, the Department of Jawazat has clarified the same in a statement.

Rubbishing all the rumors that the expats has to pay dependent fee even if their families are on visit visa. The Passport Department said.“No extra fees beyond the SR100 for the monthly extension of the visit visa will be charged,” Saikhan said the fees for dependents are paid annually in advance at the time of the issuance or renewal of iqamas (residence permits), issuance of exit-reentry visas or when the final exit visa is required. He also said that there are no dependents’ fees on the issuance or extension of a family visit visa. Anyone who is asked to do so should resort to the concerned bank.

The 11th edition of the week-long event has opened on July 12 under the patronage of King Salman. On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, emir of Makkah and adviser to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the 11th Souk Okaz Festival in Taif has started on Wednesday evening.

History of Souk Okaz Festival:



Souk Okaz was a seasonal market which operated for two weeks each year during the month of Dhu al-Qi'dah. It was active from approximately 542-726 CE. Souk Okaz is one of the unique tourism destination in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it is considered as one of the most important tourism tributary. Souk Okaz was an authentic historical destination that is known to be held in the past in the same place with the same name. Many tourists turn up to the kingdom to experience the traditional and historical festival of Arabian past from all over the World.

Souq Okaz was also a place of declaring of war, reconciliation, ending hostilities, adjudicating trade disputes and a place for announcing alliances between Arab tribes, researcher said.

Each year Souk Okaz offers twelve awards for various contests in the Arab World.  They include, the Okaz International Poetry Award for Standard Arabic language poetry (Okaz Poet), Okaz International Handicraft Award, Okaz Creativity Award, Okaz Photography Award, Young Okaz Poet Award, Okaz Folklore Art Award, Okaz Children Folk Art Award, Okaz Theatrics and Creativity Award, Okaz Fine Arts Award, and Okaz Entrepreneurship Award. The total number of prizes and competitions amounts to SR 2.2 Million every year.

As you may all know that the Saudi government last year introduced fees for expat family visit visas and Umrah in order to increase the revenue of the state. Instead of increasing the revenue, the hike in visa fee indeed negatively affected the market. The number of visits by family members of expat workers dropped drastically. Instead of bringing family members to the Country, the workers traveled to their home countries for their vacations, resulting in the hike of money spent on flights outside the Kingdom.

Similarly, the dependant fee had made the expat workers purchase lesser goods and services to be able to save money for dependant tax and returning their families to their home countries resulting in drop of market and sales of products.



The key impacts of dependant fees are discussed below:

House Rents:

The houses acquired by the expat families are left vacant as many expat families have started returning to their home countries and the expats are living with bachelors sharing the rents. This may affect the state’s economy to a larger extend.

Purchase of Goods and Services may be drastically dropped:

The imposition of tax will approximately make 1 million expat families to return to their home countries, resulting the expat workers sending 80% of their income back to their home countries. This could severely effect the Saudis economy in coming years.

We hope that the Saudi Government would make a deeper study on the dependent tax and its impact in the near future to the country.