Nitaqat is Saudi Arabia's workforce nationalization program, run by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. It scores every private company on the percentage of Saudi nationals it employs and places it in a color band: Platinum, High Green, Mid Green, Low Green, or Red. Your band decides whether the government will issue you new work visas, approve sponsorship transfers, or freeze your file.
The bands are a reward ladder. Platinum and High Green companies get fast visa issuance, easy iqama renewals, and the right to recruit workers away from lower-band competitors. Red companies are blocked: no new visas, no renewals, no transfers in. A Red band does not fine you; it slowly strangles your ability to operate.
There used to be a sixth band. The Yellow band was scrapped in January 2021, and companies in it were folded into the bands above and below. If a guide you are reading still shows Yellow, it is at least five years out of date.
Your required percentage is not one national number. It depends on your economic activity and company size, published in MHRSD’s Nitaqat Procedural Guide, which the ministry revises periodically, most recently for 2026. A 10-person catering company and a 500-person bank face different targets.
This is where most foreign employers get surprised. A Saudi national only counts fully toward your score if they are registered with GOSI and paid at least SAR 4,000 a month. Pay less and you get a fraction of a point, or none.
Some employees count for more than one. A Saudi with a disability counts as four employees, provided the employment meets the ministry’s conditions. Students on approved part-time arrangements and remote workers have their own counting rules. The arithmetic is done automatically on Qiwa, where you can watch your score move with every hire.
Nitaqat is calculated per entity, not per group. A new foreign subsidiary with three expat engineers and no Saudi staff lands in Red immediately, before it has invoiced its first riyal. It then cannot get a visa for engineer number four, which is usually the moment the phone call to an EOR happens.
Hiring through an employer of record in Saudi Arabia moves that problem: the quota obligation sits on the EOR’s entity, which already maintains its band, and your project staffing stops depending on your own Saudization math.
A new foreign subsidiary with three expat engineers and no Saudi staff lands in Red immediately, before it has invoiced its first riyal. It then cannot get a visa for engineer number four — which is usually the moment the phone call to an EOR happens.
New work visas stop, existing iqamas cannot be renewed, and you cannot receive employees by transfer. Your Saudi staff can also leave for higher-band employers without your consent. The fix is raising your Saudi headcount or wage levels until the score crosses into Low Green.
No. Below SAR 4,000 a month a hire counts as a fraction. A Saudi with a disability counts as four. GOSI registration is the gate for all of it: an unregistered employee counts as zero.
On Qiwa. The platform shows your current score, your band thresholds, and what one more Saudi hire would do to them.
They count on the EOR's file, not yours, because the EOR is the registered employer. Your own entity's band, if you have one, is unaffected by those hires.