Within just 20 days of the issuance of the decision to allow the issuance of “family joining” visas for children aged 5 years and under, the residency affairs departments issued about 3,000 visas to bring in children, most of whom are infants whose age does not exceed months, as they were born during the summer vacation in their country, at a time when the decision was issued to stop issuing entry visas of all kinds.
Security sources told a local Arabic daily “the decision to exclude the issuance of visas to join a family for children, which was issued last November 20, had humanitarian motives, to help reunite children with their parents who work in the country after were forced to keep them in their country.”
The sources indicated “within only 20 days, the residence affairs sector issued about 3,000 visas for children of several nationalities, many of them toddlers, to join families. A majority of them are believed to be Arabs.”
The sources indicated that “the residence affairs departments are still receiving requests to join a family for children up to the age of 5 only, as it includes parents who have valid residence permits, and the conditions set by the residence affairs sector apply to them, from determining the salary ceiling, provided that both parents are present in the country and their residence mast.”