Visas & Immigration

Nothing stalls a Gulf hire faster than paperwork. GCC work visas involve an entry permit, a medical, biometrics, attestation of qualifications, a residence card and a labour contract registered with the right ministry, usually in that order and usually with a deadline attached to each step.

These guides walk through the process country by country. The Saudi Iqama, the Emirates ID and work permit in the UAE, the Qatari residence permit and the equivalents in Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain each have their own sequence, their own fees and their own reasons for rejection.

You will find practical detail rather than official summaries: how long each stage realistically takes, which documents need attestation before they leave your home country, what the medical actually screens for, and what happens if an employee arrives before their permit is approved.

We also cover the rules that catch employers out. Quotas limit how many expatriate permits a company can hold. Some job titles cannot be sponsored at all. Transferring someone from another local employer often needs the previous sponsor to cooperate. Dependants carry separate salary thresholds.

There is guidance on renewals and exits too, because GCC work visas expire on a fixed cycle and a lapsed residence permit creates fines that grow daily. Cancelling correctly when someone resigns matters as much as issuing correctly when they join.

If you have no legal entity in the country, sponsorship still has to come from somewhere, and these articles explain how that works through an employer of record.