CHANGING PROFESSION ON IQAMA/MUQEEM
In case your current profession differs from that listed under your iqama it strongly advised that you change your profession under your Iqama / Muqeeem.
Why should you get your profession changed under your Iqama
This is to save you from detention. The passport office conducts frequent raids in all the companies and anyone caught with such discrepancies is deported back to their homeland. For instance, if your residence permit say that your profession is electrical technician and you are sitting in the office. The Labor office will see this as a violation and will penalize both you and your sponsor. In such a case it is best to change profession as soon as possible. To be able to get a change in profession your sponsor must be in Green or Above categories of Nitiqat Program, to check current placement of your company or sponsor you can follow our guide: .
Can I change my profession to anything I want?
The profession you are shifting to should not be one of those professions reserved for Saudis only. This could get you in trouble in future. More importantly, in all cases you will be required to produce an atteted degree from the Saudi Embassy. So, the profession has to match you area of study.
Your profession shouldn't be engineer when you have studied business.
What are the documents required profession change in Iqama or Muqeem
Your degrees attested from Saudi Culture and Saudi Embassy in your Homeland. It might not be needed when carrying out this process online, but MOI can demand it from you anytime. So it’s better to keep the relevant attested degrees with you when going through this process and even after that.
Degree Attestation Process
To have your profession changed on your iqama / muqeem all your degrees must be attested.
Make sure the information on your degrees matches exactly to that on your passport and Iqama.
First step is to get two letters from your company containing your information like your name, joining date, current profession and desired profession you want to shift to. The letters request Saudi Culture and Saudi Embassy in your Homeland to attest your degrees.
The Saudi embassy might need the following documents too:
- Copy of visa
- Original passport
- Copy of iqama
- Original degrees
It is better to assign some friend to take these documents to embassy for you or you can hire an agent to do this for you. Once attested you can have the attested degrees sent back to you in KSA where you hand them over to your employer to move forward with having the profession changed on your iqama.
Charges for changing profession under your iqama / muqeem
This usually costs around SR1000. However, as per Saudi Labor Law, it is your employer who will have to pay this deposit not you. Register yourself with the Saudi Councils associated with your changed profession. For example if you are changing your profession to engineering, get registered with Saudi Council for Engineering etc.
Try to send your muqeem card or iqama close to your expiry so you are not without a valid permit:
Who to contact when changing profession under iqama / muqeem
Once you have all the documents ready, you will have to contact the Government Relations Officer of your company to carry out the rest of the process for you. You cannot visit Jawazat office on your own to get your profession changed under your iqama
0 comments:
Post a Comment