Employer Won't Provide Iqama-Should They?

Keep reminding them, it's happened lot's of times, delayed providing Iqama. Maximum within 3-months you have to get it, further delay case become poor management.

Neffy wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I was recently hired by a company in Saudi Arabia to teach at one of their schools.  I just found out that they will provide me with a temporary work visa, in which I will have to exit the country during the 6th and 9th months to extend it.  Now I am fine with that, but now they are saying they won't provide me with an iqama.  I'm new to all of this, as I have never lived in Saudi Arabia, but iqama seems to keep coming up everywhere I look, so I'm wondering if they should be providing me with one.

Thanks for your feedback.

Neffy wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I was recently hired by a company in Saudi Arabia to teach at one of their schools.  I just found out that they will provide me with a temporary work visa, in which I will have to exit the country during the 6th and 9th months to extend it.  Now I am fine with that, but now they are saying they won't provide me with an iqama.  I'm new to all of this, as I have never lived in Saudi Arabia, but iqama seems to keep coming up everywhere I look, so I'm wondering if they should be providing me with one.

Thanks for your feedback.

I don't think it's a temporary work visa, I think it's a visit work visa for which you will not get an iqama as you are only here for a short period of time..

They're asking you to exit as that would be the time the visa is expiring or it will be a multiple entry visa for a validity of "X" days and so on...

You'll have to walk around with your visa all the time...Lot of companies do this when they do not have permanent work visas...

I hope this helps you out as this is my understanding...

If as you say it is a permanent work visa then iqama is just a matter of hours for the company to provide it to you...

No Iqama is fine if you work for a good company. No iqama and working in Saudi means you have no labor rights if your company is bad. There no complaining no anyone about  any problems you have because according to Saudi you're not legal to work here. It really depends. For example, I'm on a 5 year business visa and for the most part my company has been fine. But I've had other colleagues who have had problems. They went to the labor board complained and were told that with no iqama they have no rights and so the government could do nothing to help or protect them.

Insist on a visa that leads you to residency status (iqama) so that you could get facilities like opening a bank account, getting visit visa for your spouse/parents etc.

Thank you all for your replies.  I have a better understanding of how this works.  I decided not to accept the offer, they seem a bit sketchy.

Neffy wrote:

Thank you all for your replies.  I have a better understanding of how this works.  I decided not to accept the offer, they seem a bit sketchy.

All the best wishes. You yourself said somewhere else on this forum: "There are dozens of other recruiters".

Cheers.