Passport Dept Quashes Rumors on Visa Charges

FALSE INFO: Visa fee announcements like the one above on social media are false

FOUZIA KHAN

JEDDAH: The passport department has warned people against believing in rumors on social media regarding residence permit fee and visa charges.

“Rumors have been doing the rounds on the social media about the residential permit renewal fee as SR2,400 to SR6,000 on social media. This is absolutely false and people should not believe everything that is put on social media,” Talal Al-Shalhoub, spokesman for the General Directorate of Passports, said.

He said all official news is published or issued by the General Directorate of Passports’ media department and is published on the passport department’s twitter account. It may be mentioned here that the Saudi government has increased the visa fee as follows. A six-month multiple-entry visa will now cost SR3,000, a one-year multiple-entry visa SR5,000 and a two-year multiple entry permit SR8,000.

A three-month multiple exit and re-entry visa will cost SAR500 against the previous cost of SR500 for six months, SR200 will be charged for each additional month until the validity of residence permit.

As for the transit visas, the new fee will be SR300. The exit visa fee for anyone leaving the Kingdom through its seaports will be SR50. The revised fee structure will come into force from Oct. 2, 2016.

Meanwhile, the exit/re-entry visa fee for residents will be SR200 for a single trip for two months and SR100 will be charged for each additional month until the validity of residence permit (iqama).
The Ministry of Labor and Social Development is considering raising the fees paid by expats for their work permits, but no official announcement has been made in this regard as yet.

According to the statement of Ahmed Al-Humaidan, deputy minister of Ministry of Labor and Social Development, the decision to increase the work permit fee has been on the table for a while.

(Source: ArabNews.com)