5 visas per citizen yearly to bring in Article 20 workers

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 1: In what is seen as a bold decision to help fight trafficking in domestic visas (Article 20) and the high cost of employing domestic workers, Director of the Residence Affairs at the Ministry of Interior Major- General Talal Ma’arafi has issued a decision according to which a citizen will be entitled to a maximum of five visas per year, reports Al-Anba daily.

In a press statement to the daily, the senior official said, the decision was taken after it was discovered that some citizens had more than 30 domestic workers under their sponsorship.

He added these visas were obtained in collaboration with some of the domestic labor offices. The daily said the new decision came into effect on Dec 31, 2015.

In the same context, he clarified the department has issued another decision to link the validity of the residence permit of a dependent (Article No. 22) to the validity of sponsor’s residence permit.

This decision is expected to come into effect on Jan 15, 2016. The senior Interior Ministry official also hailed the efforts exerted by the Undersecretary of the Ministry Lieutenant-General Suleiman Al-Fahd, Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenships and Passports Affairs Major-General Mazen Al-Jarrah for their incessant support and supervision of decisions which serve the interests of the citizens.

He called all expatriates to check the validity of their passports because the residence permit is now linked to the validity of the passports. He also urged the citizens to check the validity of the passports of their domestic personnel to protect the latter from winding up violating residence laws.

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