Wednesday, 17 May 2017
JEDDAH: The General Directorate of
Passports (GDP), on their official Twitter account @AlJawazatKSA, announced on
20th March 2017, that Undocumented expat workers seeking to correct their
status during the original 90-day forgiveness is determined to come back to the
kingdom by executing permissible procedures.
The amnesty period started on March
29 for 90 days. Illegal workers can approach the Authorization (Passport)
Departments to settle their position and they “will be exempt from the cost
associated with the “deportee fingerprint method” and will be able pursue legal
methods to gain entry back into the kingdom.
The declaration also stated that
unlawful residents working on correcting their position during the 90-day grace
stay under the Interior Ministry’s “Nation without Violations” campaign would
be cleared of any fines or penalties in regard to violating the Saudi
citizenship law, labor system and boarder security in the kingdom.
People who came for a Haj or Umrah
visit or transit and have overstayed are affected by the campaign.
Individuals that will profit from the
amnesty period are employees who came to the Kingdom with a work consent but
did not attain an Iqama identity card within 90 days after arrival,
infiltrators reaching out the Saudi border, citizens with expired Iqamas,
pilgrims who performed Haj without attaining a Haj permit and employees who
escaped from their employers.
Before, illegal employees and over
residers who have had their fingerprints taken before the exile under the “deportee
fingerprint system” will not not allowed to re-enter the country
"Violators who don’t initiate
correcting their status and get detained will be subject to enforcing the rules
and policy’s of the labour law and residency system,” said Lt. Col. Talal
Al-Shalhoub, spokesman of the General Directorate of Passports (GDP).
According to Gen. Sulaiman Al-Yahya,
director general of the Passport Department, "Violating the citizenship
system includes deportation, a prison sentence and a number of fines.
The fine can range between SR15,000
($4,000) and SR100,000."
Al-Yahya further urged violators to
utilize the amnesty that exempts them from fines and the consequences
associated with the deportee fingerprint system, as it is an opportunity “that
may not come again."
A similar campaign had taken place in
2013, to legalize the status of undocumented workers in the country. A
three-month forgiveness was declared in April 2013, prior to late King Abdullah
extending the grace period to November 2013.
According to, Interior Ministry
spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, over 2.5 million violators were recorded
to leave the country under that campaign.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
i have agreement and i have valid iqama and i want to leave kingdom because if i want my final exit my employer will not accepting
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