I am from Karachi, Pakistan. My father has been living in Kuwait for the last 6.5 years. He has an expired Iqama (residence) so he cannot come back to home. I haven’t met with him for the last 6.5 years. My whole family is very worried about him.

We are eager to see him come back to us but his return has been delayed due to illegal residence in Kuwait. Will you please help me in this regard?

It is a humble request to please get us out of this situation. We don’t want him to go to jail. We need legal advice..

Name withheld
Answer: Please first check what is the exact reason for this problem because over the last six or seven years all the illegal residents have been accorded amnesties on at least three occasions during which they could either correct their residence status by paying certain fines or leave the country without paying such fines.

Even now his status can be corrected if he finds a sponsor and pays the fine — which is KD 2 per day with a maximum of KD600 — and gets a residence.

He can’t just keep staying illegally in the country without taking a step in the right direction because if he is caught at a checkpoint he could run into a lot of legal problems.

He must act to correct his resident status and that is the only way out of this situation.