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Any Dominica (Commonwealth) citizen working with Iqama here

Last activity 08 June 2024 by XTang

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fahadysf

Hi All,


I've recently acquired a Commonwealth of Dominica citizenship and am working if there is any citizen of Dominica working here with a work permit (Iqama). I'm thinking of switching my Iqama country to Dominica from my previous nationality and while the GRO of my company confirmed that country can be changed, he didn't know if Dominica citizens can get work permit for Saudi Arabia or of any example of this. I know there is an almost zero chance but hoping I can find some Dominica citizen (naturalized or born Dominican) working here.

XTang

Not a Dominican but also hold a citizenship from one of the carribean countries. 


Simple answer, forget about it.  As far as I was told, the citizenship can only be switched if they issue a work permit for that particular country.  The problem is that Saudi has no Embassy in the carribean which means that the closest Embassy to handle this case would be in the US or Canada.   To get that work permit, you are going to have to apply from there and that would be a major major hassle.  Also, these countries didn't even appear in the drop down of the MOHRE at the time I checked - back in 2018.


On top, assuming it's done and you are Pakistani and visit Pakistan (and want to keep Pakistan nationality), when you go back to Saudia from Pakistan, they will see the Dominican passport and give you crap.  It used to be relaxed some years ago but they really started cracking down on it, since last year.  A friend of mine who is based in Pakistan was travelling to Europe via Dubai and when they saw his Dominican passport, they told him to renounce Pakistan citizenship.  They told him that they entered it in the system and he won't be allowed to exit next time without renouncing it.   Even for someone like me, who was travelling to Bahrain on a Pakistan passport, they even noted down in their system, the expiry date of my Bahrain residence.  They have also implemented a question for online renewals recently i.e. "Are you a citizen of any other country". 


Lastly, for someone like me who travels between Bahrain and Saudi every week, a Pakistan passport is good as I can get a 100 page passport.............on any carribean passport, once your pages are used up, you have to renew it via mail which takes a month or so.........and you are stuck.........the Pakistan passport you can renew online prior to expiry.


So my advice is to not bother with this and complicate your life - unless you don't want Pakistan citizenship anymore.

fahadysf

@XTang Thanks for the answer. My primary driver to try this was the UAE visa situation for Pakistani's (as of May-June 2024), where people are being denied visas and I do need to travel to UAE often for some business concerns. I guess I'll have to find some other way to resolve that.

XTang

Apply for uae visa on the Dominica passport. You don't need to have iqama on it for that. Won't make any difference. And be ready for a long security clearance - your details will match the Pakistani passport if you applied for a uae visa on it. Easier to get uae on Pakistani passport. I haven't had any issues.

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