Family visa in Saudi Arabia
We will check the one condition that decides the whole case before any form is opened, prepare the invitation in the form the ministry accepts, and keep the visit and the residence apart.
Decision on a visit
Решение по визиту
3 business days
3 рабочих дня
The sponsor's iqama
Икама спонсора
a work one
только рабочая
Who may be invited
Кого приглашают
first degree only
первая степень
Family, in the law
Семья по закону
spouse, children, parents
супруг, дети, родители
When you need a Saudi family visa
Your own iqama is the wrong kind
The ministry draws one line above all others here: an invitation may be sent by a resident holding a work iqama, and not by a resident living on somebody else's.
The invitation needs a third signature
The form is not simply filled in and sent. It is stamped electronically and then authenticated by the chamber of commerce or by the employer before it counts as an invitation.
The relative is outside the circle
The service covers first-degree relatives: parents, spouse and children. A sibling, a cousin or a parent-in-law is a different application with a different answer.
A visit was meant to become a stay
An invitation and a residence permit are issued by different authorities on different grounds. Treating one as a step towards the other is where families lose months.
The household is charged per head
Dependants and accompanying relatives carry a recurring government charge for each person. It is paid by the sponsor, and one residence status is exempt from it entirely.
What you get
- The sponsor's own status checked
- An invitation in accepted form
- Arabic data that matches passports
- Visit and residence kept apart
- The per-head charge counted upfront
What a Saudi family visa requires
In Saudi Arabia the family question is settled before the family is even named, and it is settled by a document belonging to somebody else: the sponsor's own iqama. Everything downstream — who may be invited, how long they stay, what it costs each year — follows from that one card.
Where the employing entity has yet to be set up, that is company registration in Saudi Arabia. Everything else we run in the Kingdom is collected on the Saudi Arabia page.
The condition that comes before the documents
Two requirements sit at the front of the published conditions, and both belong to the inviting person rather than to the guest. The residency has to be valid. And it has to be a work iqama: a resident living in the Kingdom on a relative's iqama cannot send an invitation at all, whatever their income or their length of stay. Checking this first is not caution, it is the difference between a three-day answer and a dead end.
What the invitation itself asks for
The request goes through the ministry's visa services platform as an online form. It is stamped electronically and authenticated by the chamber of commerce or by the employer. Every field is entered in Arabic, with one exception: names of people who are not of Arab nationality are written to match their passports exactly. The service covers first-degree relatives — parents, spouse and children — and the stated time to carry it out is three business days, with the ministry noting that exceptional cases may take additional steps.
| What is asked or counted | The published answer |
|---|---|
| Who may send an invitation | a citizen or a resident |
| The resident's own iqama | a work iqama, valid |
| Who may be invited | first-degree relatives |
| Where the form is filed | the visa services platform |
| Who authenticates it | chamber of commerce or employer |
| Language of the data | Arabic, names as in passports |
| Time to carry out the service | 3 business days |
A visit and a residence are not one road
Two different authorities answer two different questions. The foreign ministry decides whether your relatives may come. Whether they may live here, on cards of their own, is decided by the passports directorate of the interior ministry, on its own conditions and its own charges. Families who plan the first step only discover the second one late, and the gap between them is measured in months rather than weeks.
The status where the head count stops costing
The Kingdom operates one residence that exempts its holder from the charges imposed on expatriates and their dependants. Under the Premium Residency Permit Law family means the holder's spouses, children and parents, and the rights attached run further than a family visa reaches: residence in the Kingdom with the family, visit visas for relatives, recruitment of domestic workers, employment of the holder and of family members in private sector establishments with the ability to change jobs, and exit and entry without a visa. The criteria and the products are set out on talent visas in Saudi Arabia.
Sources: family visit request (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, page last modified 17 January 2024); Premium Residency (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) and the Premium Residency Permit Law.
Stages of work
The sponsor's card read first.
We look at your own iqama before anything else: is it valid, and is it a work iqama. If it is a relative's iqama the family route is closed until your own status changes, and that is worth knowing on day one.
The circle of relatives drawn.
We list who the published conditions actually cover and who they do not, so that nobody in the household is left waiting on an application that was never going to be accepted.
The invitation built to the accepted form.
The online form, the electronic stamp, the authentication by the chamber of commerce or the employer, the Arabic data, and the names written exactly as the passports spell them.
Residence planned alongside the visit.
Coming and staying are two separate procedures under two separate authorities. We set out both from the start, with the recurring charge per person counted rather than discovered.
Renewals kept on one calendar.
A household's permissions hang on the sponsor's, so we keep the dates together and flag the changes in your own status that will move everybody else's.
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