Legal Clinic

I am a Filipino and have been working in Kuwait for the last five years. Could you tell me how much it will cost me to provide my wife and my baby a family visa from the Philippines to Kuwait. My salary bracket is KD450/-. How long does it take for the processing?

Name withheld

Answer: You will be required to pay a nominal fee of KD3/- each for your wife and child to procure the entry visas.

Upon their entry however you will have to incur additional costs in the form of health insurance and residence charges. With regard to the health insurance, you have to pay KD40/-for each year of your wife’s residence and KD30/- for each year of your child’s residence.

For residence you have to pay KD100/- each (KD200/-total) for the first year of their residence and KD10/-each after the first year. If all the required documents are set it doesn’t take more than a day to have the entry visa issued or the residence permit stamped

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I am planning to move to Kuwait under Administrator visa. I am having a valid Bahrain Driving Licence, hold a Bachelor Degree of Engineering and is attested by Kuwait Embassy in India and have salary of KD 1,300. Currently I am resident of Bahrain and have valid Bahrain driving licence. Could you please guide me if I can exchange my Bahrain driving licence to Kuwait driving licence.

Name withheld

Answer: Such exchange of driving licences especially licences issued by the GCC states is possible in Kuwait. We must, however, state that such exchanges are decided on case by case basis and there are examples some having their requests granted and others too rejected. You may therefore, try your luck and who knows you may be one of the lucky ones.

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First I came to Kuwait on project visa in June 2006 upon completion of project then my company transferred my residence to the Main file of the same company and same sponsor.

Now I have the following questions:

1. If I get good offer, can I transfer my residency to normal visa 18 residency?

2. When I first enter in Kuwait in the year 2006 my designation was a Driver then I got the licence in 2008 for ten years, then I changed my designation to Accountant before 2009, do I have any issue if I go for the renewal process for my license? If I change my current Accountant Designation to any other designation, will it affect my driving license? Please clarify the above issue. Your response is highly appreciated.

Name withheld

Answer: Now that your visa has been transferred to the Main file of the same sponsor and same company, it is possible to transfer your residency to another sponsor but this can only be done with the agreement of the current sponsor. On the issue of designation change and its effect on your driving licence renewal, there is no straight answer to your query, especially as you obtained your driving licence before 2013 when regulations covering designation change and driving lincese were introduced the ambiguity stems from the fact that some of the officials at the Traffic Department interpret these regulations in a way that may not be in tandem with what these regulations actually say. On this score, what we can say is that you should be prepared for any eventuality when you go to renew your licence with the designation change.

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My brother who worked for a private company (W.L.L) for 6 months (Article 18) has officially cancelled his agreement and went home one month ago. Now, he got a new offer in government sector (Article 17) and preparing to process visa documents.

My question in whether he can return to Kuwait under this situation and if he can come back, how long has he to wait to get the new visa? Kindly advise us at your earliest convenience.

Name withheld
Answer: Since your friend officially cancelled his visa and returned to his country nothing can prevent him from returning to Kuwait if he goes through the necessary procedures for his re-entry to Kuwait. Upon his return to Kuwait he will have two months within which time he will undergo the necessary procedures to have his residence permit stamped in his passport.

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My employment contract is ended on Dec 7, 2018 but my visa is valid till Dec 14, 2019. Company is asking me to serve notice period. I have informed company not to renew contract 15 days in advance.
In this case do I need to serve notice period?

Name withheld

Answer: If your contract is period specific, then the three-month notice period is not applicable. Indeed, the notice period is mandatory for those whose contracts are open and not specified within a particular time frame. With your contract having ended on Dec 7 and without it being renewed, you are not bound to serve any notice period especially that you informed the company in advance, that you did not intend to renew the contract.

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I have been new to Kuwait, I have been working as a salesman as per my profession since December 2017 and I have received a much better offer, but my sponsor is not willing to give me the release. Is there a solution to get the release from my sponsor by approaching the Shoun office? Kindly advise, many thanks.

Name withheld

Answer: Per the information given, you have been in Kuwait and working for just one year. If our assumption is correct, we can therefore conclude that your current sponsor recruited you from your home country or outside Kuwait. Under the Kuwait Labour Law, you are mandated to offer three-year service to the sponsor who recruited you from outside Kuwait. Your sponsor is therefore within his rights to refuse to give you a release to join another company. The Shoun can be of no help to you unless you can prove to them that your current sponsor is not living by his/her contractual obligations and hence can be forced to grant you a release.

I have been working as an engineer in Kuwait since October 2017. I got driving licence in February 2018 valid till February 2019. My salary is KD 1,200. My residency expired in October 2018. Now my company renewed my profession as Project Supervisor and got my licence cancelled and MoI website shows “No driving licence”. So can I renew my licence?

Name withheld

Answer: You cannot renew something you don’t have as the website clearly indicates (no licence). The only option opened for you is to apply afresh for a new licence if you satisfy the following conditions: 1. Be a university graduate 2. Earn a salary of KD 600 or more monthly 3. Should have stayed in Kuwait for at least two years from the date of your first entry.

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I took my driving licence in October 2015. During that time till this year my designation was communication engineer. Due to the NBA issue I couldn’t get an NOC from KSE. Last week my designation changed to Electrical Technician. Today when I checked in MoI, in the driving licence page it is showing as “No driving licence available”. I want to know if I can renew my licence with this new designation.

Name withheld

Answer: You cannot renew your driving licence with the new designation. As you indicated the MoI Driving Licence page shows ‘No driving licence available’. If you don’t have a driving licence, you can therefore not renew something you don’t have. The only option open to you is to apply afresh but this will be on condition that you meet all the requirements precedent to applying for a licence.

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I have changed my job from accountant to senior accountant. The same is mentioned in my inziamal from “muhasib” to “muhasib awwal altaqareer almaliya” Will this disallow me to renew my licence? God bless Kuwait!!

Name withheld

Answer: We don’t think that this will affect the renewal of your driving licence. Indeed we don’t consider your new position as a change in your job but rather as an enhancement of your job position which even could have made your request for a driving licence more compelling if you did not have one.

 

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My issue is regarding visa transfer. I came to Kuwait on a Visa 20 and subsequently changed to 18 company visa. Over the past 7 years I have changed my 18 company visa under different sponsors. Recently I got another job offer and as informed by them my visa will be transferred under 18 Project visa. My concern is that whether this 18 project visa can be transferred to 18 company visa later.

Name withheld

Answer: So far as you did not enter Kuwait for the first time on a project visa, you will have no problem in transferring your project visa back to company visa later.

Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
Kindly go through our archives and refrain from sending repeated questions