The Residency affairs department of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has started examining the expired visas of 70,000 expats who are stranded outside the country since the coronavirus crisis began, reports Al Qabas.
A decision will be taken by next week on those who deserve to return. A study will be done next week which will contain several and extremely important recommendations that will determine those who deserve to return to Kuwait with their previous residencies as well as those who do not meet the conditions for return. The study will also include those expats whose residence has expired due to the circumstances beyond their control, and labor market needs to decide if they deserve to return.
Recommendation of study
The study will not contradict the general trend of the state’s policies aimed at modifying the demographics, but will ensure that this process is not disrupted or slowed down with the control of the labor market. According to sources the residence of some expats have expired due to expiry of their passports while they were outside the country, and were unable to obtain new passports as the passport offices were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic in their countries.
Some expats’ residency visas expired and their companies did not renew their visas online, although they have fully furnished homes and have outstanding financial dues. The study also includes Government employees, some of them with rare specialties, who have families residing in Kuwait.
The study will also recommend halting the return of marginal workers, those above 60 years, those whose visas were linked to fake companies and do not have real job. The study will also include a list of entry and exit of those who visit their families such as spouses, as well as their children and relatives, to determine their presence inside the country. Many of them do not stay in Kuwait except for a few days, and leave to their homeland and enter the country before the end of 6 months with the intention to maintain their residency visas, these people will not be allowed to stamp their residency visas again.
Those with expired residency visas and who are not allowed to return, the Public Authority for Manpower will collect their dues from the companies for whom they have been working for, and the claim for those dues will be allowed through a website by the authority. The process of collecting these dues will be organized in a legal way.
Domestic workers
The age and the security record are the main criteria for the domestic worker’s to return or not. If a domestic worker has exceeded the age of 60, he will not be required to return and the sponsor will have to replace him with another younger worker. Also, whose expats with an unclean security record will not be permitted to return.
Visit Visas for expired residences
Al Qabas reports that the expats who will be allowed to return as per the study conducted, will be issued visit visas and then the visit visas will be transferred to their previous residencies. The sources stated that there are fictitious companies that deal in visa trading and residences, the Investigation of Residency will conduct a thorough field and inspection tours to determine if these companies do exist and are currently operating.