Interior Minister Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali issued a decision to extend the grace period for residency visa violators to amend their status to January 2021, within the framework of giving another opportunity for residency violators to legalize their stay or facilitate their departure. The earlier granted grace period expires on Thursday, Al Qabas reported.
The decision stipulated that whomever did not amend their status among the violators during the new period, he will have to face the penalties, including being blacklisted, after being deported from the country, and unable to return to again.
Regarding the earlier grace period given till December, informed sources told Al-Rai daily that the turnout of expatriates residency violators who took advantage of the deadline was very weak and did not exceed 1 percent of the total violators, which is less than 1000.
The sources gave shocking facts revealing that “the number of residency violators in Kuwait, which amounted to about 130,000 before the end of last November, increased to about 176,000, after expatriates who came to the country on visit visas were added to the list of violators once their visas expired, and they failed to take the initiative to leave the country or amend their status.”
Given the difficulties faced by expats to fix their status or leave the country, MoI extended the deadline for violators due to the suspension of airport operations in the past days, the closure of the ports, and the inability of many to benefit from the deadline.
In a related development, the sources stated that “the number of expatriates outside Kuwait with valid residency visas is estimated at about 300,000, while the residencies of about 150,000 expired due to visas not being renewed while stranded outside the country.”