In Saudi Arabia, you can apply for a permanent family visa online or by filling out an Istiqdam form, paying the cost, and submitting all relevant papers. Here’s how it’s done.

Criteria for Eligibility

If an expatriate meets the following criteria, he can apply for a permanent family visa in Saudi Arabia.

1. The iqama validity should not be less than 3 months at the time of applying for a permanent family visa.
2. You need to have an acceptable profession.
3. You can apply for a permanent family visa for your wife and children only.
   • The visa cannot be applied for sons above the age of 18 years.
   • The visa can be applied for only one wife at a time.
   • You cannot apply for a permanent family visa for your mother or father (parents).
4. The minimum salary on the GOSI Certificate requirement for a permanent family visa in Saudi Arabia: SR 3,500. 

Pay the fee

The fee for a permanent family visa in Saudi Arabia as of 2024 is SR 2,000. If you are a government employee, there is no fee for this visa.

Also Read: How to Apply Family Visit Visa Online in Saudi Arabia

Apply for a permanent family visa online

The online application for the permanent family visa is available to people with a few selected professions only.

As per our experience, expatriates with the following professions have been able to get visas through an online application. If you have a different profession, you can still try your luck as it costs nothing.

• Doctors registered with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties.
• Engineers registered with the Saudi Council of Engineers.
• Accountants and Auditors registered with the SOCPA.

Log in to your account and click on the “My Services” tab. https://www.absher.sa/.

On the next screen, click on “Expatriates Services” out of several options given.

In the next step to apply for the permanent family visa online in KSA, you will have to click on the “New Family Visa Application” after reading the instructions.

In the next step, a new page will appear containing your full details including Full Name, Iqama Number, Passport No., Passport Expiry Date, Religion, Mobile Number, Nationality, Iqama Expiry Date, Passport Issue Date, Passport Issue Place, and Profession on your Iqama.  It will also be containing information about your sponsor.

Just make sure that the details fetched by the MOI System are correct and click on the tab “Apply for Family Visa”.

If you are eligible to apply for a permanent family visa online, this application form will appear on your computer screen. You will have to fill the details such as;

• Amount of Salary in SAR.
• Level of Education.
• Date of receiving the highest level of education and;
• Major subjects studied.

After filling out this information, you will have to add the name of the dependents, passport number, age, religion, relationship with you, and Port of Boarding.

• Port of Boarding means the city in which your family will stamp the visa on their passport.
• In case the second and third name of the dependent is not available, you just need to write “-” in the second and third name.
• The name should be entered as per the passport.

Also Read: How to Check Legal/Court Case on MOJ/Absher?

Post Application Process

• After submitting the application, the Absher system will give you the option to print the Family Visa Recruitment Form containing an order number on top of it.
• You will submit this Family Visa Recruitment Form HR of your company.
• The company will open the Ministry of Interior website, choose one option which is related to Family Visa Recruitment Form, enter your order number, authenticate the application and submit it.
• They will receive an acknowledgment from MOI regarding the submission of documents.
• Soon you will receive a message from Absher containing the visa number.
• Now the status in your Absher account will also be updated to “Has Been Approved“.
• Download that approved document from Absher and send it to your home country for further processing.

Once you get the visa number, you can send the application to your home country for visa processing.

Reasons behind the rejection of the online application

“Your application cannot be processed because it does not fulfill Istiqdam e-service business rules.”

In case, your profession is not eligible to apply for a permanent family visa, the system will ask you to visit the Istiqdam office with the following message. 

“Your sponsor is not added for the family visa application. please visit istiqdam for more info.”

If this message appears, it means that your employer’s commercial registration, chamber of commerce, or Maktab Amal account has expired. 

Apply for permanent family visa through Istiqdam

The second way to apply for a permanent family visa in Saudi Arabia applicable in 2023 is through the Istiqdam.

• First of all, you need to book an Istiqdam appointment in the same city whose chamber of commerce has attested your documents.

Also Read: Iqama Renewal Fees for Expatriates and Family Dependents

Required Documents

The following documents are required to be submitted to the Istiqdam to apply for a permanent family visa in KSA as per the latest update in 2023. 

1. Istiqdam Form for a permanent family visa with the company seal & authorized signature. 
2. Iqama Copy.
3. A copy of the Saudi visa stamped on your passport.
4. Passport copy of all visa applicants.
5. Attested Degree certificate from Saudi Embassy and MOFA matching your iqama profession + Arabic translation.
6. Attested Marriage Certificate from Saudi Embassy and MOFA + Arabic translation.
7. Birth Certificates of children attested from Saudi Embassy and MOFA + Arabic translation.
8. Final Exit visa copy – if they ever had an Iqama before.
9. Salary Certificate (sample). The letter needs to be stamped by the Chamber of Commerce.
10. GOSI Certificate mentioning your salary in GOSI return.
11. Professional certification for doctors, engineers, technicians, accountants, and auditors. 
12. Commercial Registration certificate of company you are working in.

Visit the Istiqdam

Arrange all the required documents to apply for a permanent family visa in KSA in a file and visit the Istiqdam office at the time of the appointment. 

• If you are living in Jeddah, you need to go to Istiqdam Jawazat Office situated in Rehab District.

Yellow Slip

After around 30 minutes, you will be called again at the window and if everything goes fine, you are given a yellow slip.

• Make sure that the names on the Yellow Slip are correct.
• If any information in the yellow slip is not correct, you can go back to Istiqdam within 3 working days to make any changes.
• The validity of the Yellow Slip or the permanent family visa issued by the Istiqdam is 1 Hijri Year i.e. 354 or 355 days from the date it is issued. It means that now you need to process the visa in your country within 1 Hijri year.

Post Application Process

After almost two weeks of getting the visa, you can hire an agent in your home country to get the visa stamped on your passport.

In some countries such as Pakistan, the Saudi government has authorized Etimad to do the job.

If a baby is born after the permanent family visa is issued from Saudi Arabia, there is no need to modify it. Just submit the newborn baby’s documents to your agent along with the mother’s passport, and the Saudi Embassy will stamp it.

Also Read: How to convert Family Visit Visa to Resident Iqama in Saudi Arabia?

Cancel Permanent Family Visa

In case you change your mind to bring your family to Saudi Arabia, you can always cancel the permanent family visa before it is stamped on the passport and get a refund of SR 2,000.

Required documents

• Letter from your sponsor addressed to the Jawazat officer mentioning the reason you need to cancel your permanent family visa. This letter needs to be authenticated by the Chamber of Commerce as well. 
• The Original Iqama and along with a copy.
• The Original passport along with a copy.
• The original Yellow Slip or copy of the visa issued by Istiqdam.

Visit the Istiqdam

Now you need to visit the same Istiqdam office that you visited at the time of applying for the permanent family visa.

• They would give you a form to fill out. If you don’t know Arabic, you can seek help from someone who knows it or takes it out of the building and gets it filled by some agents for SR 15.
• Submit the form along with all the above-mentioned documents to the visa officer and he will cancel your permanent family visa.
• The visa fee of SR 2,000 will be fully refunded to the same account which was used to pay it initially.
• In the case of one of our readers, it took him around 1.5 months to get the refund of the permanent family visa.