JEDDAH – Big News for Overseas Pakistani in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistani expatriates in Saudi Arabia will now be able to call their lovedones on a new visa known as “host visa”, which will allow hosting peopleunder their personal sponsorship.
The Directorate General of Passports (Jawazat) and the Ministry of Haj andUmrah are carrying out studies about the introduction of the “host visa”service through the Ministry of Interior’s portal of Absher.
Under this visa system, a citizen or expatriate can host from three to fiveUmrah pilgrims. As for citizens, they can host anyone whom he wants tobring in. However, as far as expatriates are concerned, they can only bringclose relatives, according to sources.
The Jawazat and the ministry will soon come out with a working mechanismfor the host visa, which would costs Saudi Riyal SR500 per person for ayear. The same person can be brought to the Kingdom at least three times ina year after issuance of separate visa for each travel through Absher.
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The visa allows the hosts to entertain their guests with full of freedomfor travel and stay either in hotels, furnished apartments or along withthem in their residential apartments.
The visa holders can travel freely throughout the Kingdom and participatein tourist activities. The data of the guests will be recorded in the CivilStatus registry of citizens and Absher portal of expatriates.
