Saudi Green Card: Prospects And Challenges

Abstract

While Saudi Arabia issues work/employment visas for foreign nationals employed with alocal employer, the prospect of shift to a  “Green Card” much like that in the US and other Western countries is still being debated. With 11.1 million expats being employed in the private sector back in 20171 while registering 323 net migrations per day2, there is a need for contemplating upon a structured framework to manage cases where permanent residency might be offered to the expats. Furthermore, while some countries like Canada, Australia, Qatar, UAE and New Zealand issue permanent residency permits in order to increase population, others such as Bahrain issue permanent residency permits in order to secure a balance between the local and the expatriate population. In line with the aforesaid, the structure of the article is as follows: Section 1 discusses the Green Card policies citing international examples; Section 2 provides an overview of the need for a Saudi Green Card; Section 3 provides an overview of the challenges in issuance of the Saudi Green Card and Section 4 concludes the article.