Family visit visa validity

Expatriates working in Saudi Arabia must always be alert to the various dates and deadlines. This particularly applies to those of you who are sponsoring your families on visit visa. I had described the detailed procedure for sponsoring your family on a visit visa in one of my earlier posts (click here). I would now like to describe on the next steps you should take, once your family arrives here.

Much as we all would like to keep our visiting family members with us for as long as possible, the hard reality is that there IS a deadline up to which they can legally stay in the kingdom. The duration of their stay can vary from one month up to 3 months depending on the validity of their visit visa, unless the visa is renewed. I had described earlier the procedure of renewing the family visit visa (click here). The most important thing you should remember is the date up to which your family is allowed to stay here.

Please note that there is a fine of SR10000 (yes, you read it right, it is ten thousand riyals!) if your family overstays in the kingdom beyond the deadline. Not only that, when your iqama expires, it will not be renewed and you would be deported out of the kingdom. What this also means is that you can never again enter Saudi Arabia, once you have the deportation seal stamped in your passport. Most expatriates working in Saudi Arabia have faced the problem with dates, more so because the officially recognized dates are from Hijri calendar and not Gregorian calendar (click here for date conversion from one to the other). I have now provided here another easy way to check the validity of your visa.

Click on this link, enter your passport number and visa number and you will straightaway know the validity of the visa. Once you know this important information, all it requires is to just renew your family's visit visa before the expiry date. This would avoid a great deal of trouble for expatriates who have sponsored their families.

Hope this post has been useful to you.