During the past few years, the Temporary Work Visit (TWV) visa has been a popular solution for Saudi companies to supplement temporary work projects with experts from outside the Kingdom. Processing is similar to the Iqama (work/residency) visa, but the TWV is almost always approved as a single-entry visa, valid for 90 days after entry, with the option to extend an additional 90 days if requested by the Saudi company while the TWV temporary worker is in the country.
Until last week, there was no formal restriction on how many TWV visas a Saudi company could obtain. Since its purpose was for “temporary work,” the Saudization score was also unaffected. However, this has just changed. Currently, the maximum number of TWV visas that any Saudi company can obtain is 20% of their total local workforce size (e.g., 10 employees = 2 TWV visas). We have learned that many Saudi embassies seem unaware of this change. Yet, this new regulation will become evident very soon because the restriction applies to the Saudi side processing of new TWV applications. As previously, local companies are required to obtain specific documentation, including TWV visa block allocations/numbers, E-Wakala (which varies across different Saudi embassies), and the properly validated TWV employment contract stamped by the Saudi Chamber of Commerce. In many countries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs attestation is also necessary. If the local Saudi company cannot obtain these, the TWV application cannot be submitted to a Saudi embassy or consulate outside the Kingdom for processing.
To learn more about how the new TWV visa process changes may affect specific organizations, HR professionals should contact their local advisors in Saudi Arabia. They should carefully evaluate whether the new requirements will restrict their options to use the TWV visa when local temporary projects may call for using short-term foreign national specialist workers.