Rules in Saudi for Employment of Expatriates

Want to work in Saudi? Good to know the specific rules which are supposed to be followed by Employers and Expatriates for working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It is very important to know these details about Work permits, Employment contracts, etc for every expatriate living in Saudi.

Work Permits:

• Expatriates cannot work in Saudi Arabia without any work permit from the Ministry according to the form prepared
  for this cause.
• Employers should only permitted to hire employees, based on the occupation mentioned in the work permit

Work Permit Requirements:

• Expatriate has entered Saudi Arabia legally and is authorised to work in KSA
• Expatriate must have educational qualifications for the occupation in the country, where no Saudi national has obtained such qualification, or the numbers of qualified Saudi individuals are not sufficient, or the worker is considered within the regular worker needed by the country.
• Employer must take employee’s responsibility which be under a contract.

Terms in Employment Contracts:

Employment contract of an Expatriate must be for a definitive term or there must be an expiry date on the
contract. Because, if there is no definitive term then the expiry date is considered as the expiration of the
contract.

Cost of Employing and Expatriate as follows

1.  Employer must bear all the responsibility of hiring the expatriate or foreign worker and all of his cost of residency, Iqama and its renewal services, Cost of changing occupation, Exit and Returns and cost of return tickets for employees after the termination of their contractual relationship.
2. The employee is responsible for the cost of return tickets if he is not qualified to work, or if he wishes to return for no specific reason.
3. The employer is responsible for transfer expenses if the employee wishes to transfer his sponsorship to the
   employer.

Bearing cost of deceased (recently Death Person)

• Employer is responsible for bearing the cost of preparing the dead body and trasporting it to the authority responsible for hiring an expatriate, if the expatriate doesn’t get permission to be buried in Saudi Arabia.
• The employer is exempted from his obligation if the General Organization for Social and Insurance (GOSI) is responsible
  such arrangement