Legal Clinic

My concern is, my wife came to Kuwait in June 2019 when my salary was KD 500, as I changed my company and my current salary is KD 350. Will I be able to renew my wife’s residence.

Name withheld

Answer: This is a difficult and tricky question as we have never encountered it. Indeed the question we’re often dealth with has been wanting to know if they could renew the residence of their families following a raise in the minimum salary requirement when they brought in their families on the old salary requirement.

In your case however, you brought in your wife when your salary met the minimum requirement but you are now earning a salary below the requirement as a result of change in company and not a change in the minimum salary required where the principle of non-retroactivity could be applied in your favour. Our advice to you therefore, is that when the time for renewal is due go ahead with the processes and let the officials at the General Department of Residency Affairs decide your fate.

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I have Bachelor of Arts and post graduate diploma in computer science. Can I get designation of Manager IT or Computer Manager from shoun (ministry).

Name withheld

Answer: The Public Authority for Manpower does not assign designation to a worker. This is done by the company according to its needs and hires the worker with the requisite qualification to occupy that position.

The duty of the manpower authority is to make sure that your qualifications are in tandem with the position you wish to occupy.

Depending on its conclusions it will go ahead to accept or reject the designation you wish to see in your work permit. In short, your question can only be answered when your company applies for a work permit for you in which you will be required to put in your designation.

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I brought my wife on family visa (dependent visa) and she went back to India for delivering a baby on 22nd of July 2019. Due to complications, the doctor advised bed rest for her after looking at her health conditions and my daughter. Unfortunately , on the 22nd January 2020, her visa got automatically cancelled. Now, I would like to bring my wife and daughter back to Kuwait. 1. Can I bring them on new family visa or I have to go for a visit visa? 2. If I want to bring them, then shall I have to wait for six months counting after 22nd of January 2020?

Name withheld

Answer: It will be better for you to apply to bring them back on family visa instead of visit visa which will mean applying again to change the visit visa to family visa upon their arrival. The six-month rule is only applicable to those who exit Kuwait on visit and seek to re-enter. Since your wife left Kuwait on dependent visa the rule doesn’t apply to her.

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Can I report someone who is Visa 20 holder….but she is now working in the office…. what will happen to her if I report her to the police.

Name withheld

Answer: A person with Visa 20 working in an office that belongs to his/her sponsor and serving as teaboy/girl/or keeping the office clean may not necessarily be violating the labour law and you will have no point in reporting the fellow involved.

If on the other hand your targeted person is working in an office that belongs to someone else other than her sponsor, then he/she would be violating the labour law and can be reported to police.

As to what the police do to her, that’s the million dollar question that can only be answered by the police.

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Hello … I am presently working as an accountant in the private sector for this company for the last 1 year and 3 months. My company is facing some problems and will be closing down. Previously my boss told me if I need release he could give me. But now he is saying he is going to cancel my visa which is valid till December 2020, and stamp 3 months extension visa for me. But I don’t want to cancel my visa, rather I want to get a release and transfer my visa. I have already completed one year and my visa has been renewed for 1 more year. In this case can I transfer my visa? Will I be able to transfer?

Name withheld

Answer: If the company is being closed down as you indicated, then the company owners are legally bound to give you the opportunity to join another company by releasing you. The company will be breaking the law if your request for a release is not granted and we suggest that should your current sponsors insist that they will not grant you a release, then we suggest that you file a case against them at the Public Authority for Manpower through the Labor Office in your area.

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I had worked for a reputed private company in Kuwait for 14 years and resigned 2 years ago while the company got renamed and was filing for bankruptcy. Though I waited for 5 months after my last working day, my service benefits were not paid. Then I filed a labor case through a reputed lawyer’s firm in Kuwait City and left Kuwait. Recently I came back to Kuwait in another company. As confirmed by my lawyer, I got final court verdict and my case is in execution stage for the past 6 months. But my previous company is not paying my service benefits. In this regard, kindly advice the way forward to get my legitimate money.

NB: I could not find similar case in the archives of ‘Arab Times’, hence kindly provide your valuable legal advice through ‘Arab Times’ which is reader friendly and especially beneficial for expatriates as a whole.

Name withheld

Answer: You won the case and as you said it is at the execution stage and by this we understand it to mean that the issue has now been taken up by the Sentences Enforcement Department. If our assumption is right, our advice to you is that you put pressure on your lawyer to follow up the case to make sure that the court verdict is carried out with the ultimate aim of you getting what is due to you.

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With regard to the new rule for visit visa for parents, we are aware of the minimum KD 500 salary requirement. I and my wife both work in Kuwait with a salary cap of KD 450 and KD 270 respectively as per work permit. Is it possible to apply for a visit visa for parents showing our both salary caps? If so what will be the procedure?

Name withheld

Answer: Unfortunately, the ‘coupling of salaries’ of husband and wife to attain the magical figure that will enable them qualify to sponsor a relative or relatives on visit visa has since been discontinued. With this explanation, neither you nor your wife can sponsor your parents since you don’t earn the required minimum of KD 500 monthly salary and the rules don’t also allow the coupling of salaries in this regard.

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I am currently working in a company in Kuwait and have a salary of KD 450. My family is currently in Kuwait and wife is pregnant. If I take her to India for delivery and bring back to Kuwait will there be any problem to get visa for my child?

Name withheld

Answer: You will do yourself a good service if you were to allow your wife to deliver in Kuwait and you get residence for the baby before your wife travels out of Kuwait with the baby. With a monthly salary of KD 450 you fall short of the salary cap of KD 500 that will entitle you to sponsor your family. However, when the new cap was introduced, it was made clear that those who were already in the system were not affected by the new rule and could continue to sponsor their families on salaries lower then the new cap. Different interpretations of the rule may however be put into play if one wants to sponsor a family member residing outside Kuwait as opposed to one resident in the country. To prevent the law being interpreted to your disadvantage, that is why we advise that your wife deliver the baby in Kuwait rather than in India.

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My wife has a university degree & now she will transfer her residence from 22 to 18 & her company will make her residence permit with a salary KD 600, so is she eligible for applying for driving license? Some people say that you can have license only after 2 years & some say if you have degree you can have license at any time, my wife entered in Kuwait Jan 2019, so please sir clarify this issue for me as soon as possible.

Name withheld

Answer: No, your wife will not be able to apply for a driving licence because she does not meet the two year stay in Kuwait requirement. This requirement has nothing to do with whether one is a university graduate or not

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One of our employees left our company taking 5 days emergency leave and went to India but he didn’t come back for 4 months. We did not cancel his visa assuming it will automatically be void after 6 months but he came back to Kuwait in 1st week of January without informing us but rather met his family members, stayed two days and went back. Because of his entry to Kuwait, his visa is still active. We are therefore seeking your best advise/option for us to cancel his visa to make it available for another recruitment to replace this employee without waiting for 6 more months?

Name withheld

Answer: Under the labour law, a worker who absents himself/herself for seven consecutive working days without prior permission or valid excuse will be deemed to have vacated his/her position. Armed with a copy of the leave application and a print-out of the workers movement in and out of the country, make a formal complaint to the Public Authority for Manpower about the worker’s vacation of his position and your intention to hire another worker to replace him. We believe that you have a strong case and the authorities will not stand in your way in your bid to cancel the truant workers residency someone to replace him.

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