Legal Clinic

Thank you very much for your kind advices that are helpful for everyone. I would like to seek your advice on a common issue existing in Kuwait. Thousand of litres of clean water wasted everyday on washing vehicles illegally in morning hours by the building caretakers. They are not only wasting clean water but also polluting environment unable for passerby to walk through. How and where can we report such complaints. Thank you.

Name withheld

Answer: We are not in position to determine the legality or otherwise of the actions of these building caretakers with regard to their washing of vehicles in the morning at the forecourts of the buildings they take care of. However if you are convinced that what they are doing is illegal, you can visit the offices of Kuwait Municipality and Environmental Public Authority and put your case before them for action to be taken if indeed what these caretakers are doing is illegal.

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I am a South African male married to a Filipino lady and we just had our second child in Kuwait. When applying for residency they told me that my daughter has to have the same passport as myself which is South African, however with my son (first born) there was no issue that he has a Filipino passport.

The reason why we initially got the Filipino passport is cause my embassy takes 2 months and even more to obtain a passport thus we want to avoid the hefty fine. Is there anything we could do and will the ministry accept a NOC from my embassy or do I have no choice but to apply and wait for a South African passport for my daughter and start the whole process again? Hope you can help or guide me please.

Name withheld

Answer: We are repeating this question as a result of some inaccuracies pointed out to us in the answer given in last week’s edition of the column. Below is the revised answer to the question.

The immigration officer we are told, was totally wrong in his estimation of the issue as there are hundreds of legally residing expats in the country whose fathers are of different nationalities from their mothers.

Different ways have been suggested to get around this problem.

1. Get an affidavit from the Philippine Embassy which states your relation with the child. The affidavit must contain the passport numbers and nationalities of the child, plus both the father’s and mother’s. This should be in both English and Arabic. Get the affidavit attested from the Kuwait Foreign Ministry annex in Shuwaikh for presentation to the immigration department in your area. In the event you face another rejection, go and meet the Director- General of Immigration, whose office is located in Dajeej, Farwaniya. There is no law in Kuwait which says that a father can’t sponsor his child who holds a different nationality.

2. If the above method fails to solve your problem, please get Article 14 residence (within 60 days of the child’s birth) as this will save you legal hassles plus fines. Getting this type of residence will earn you three months (one month at a time) to complete other procedures.

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Is it true? ‘The worker who spent two continuous years working for the same employer shall be entitled to 21 days leave with pay to perform Al-Hajj provided that he had not performed Hajj before’

Name withheld

Answer: Yes, it is true, and you have quoted exactly Article 76 of Kuwait Labour Law which grants a Muslim employee this right.

Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected], repetitive questions wont be entertained. Kindly go through our archives

I am really thankful to you, for your guidance provided to all through legal clinic.

I joined my company on 16/12/2013, directly from India with a basic salary of KD 600 and KD 100 for car allowance.

Out of which only KD 600 deposited regularly in my salary account and KD 100 given to me as cash every month.

On 26/09/2016 my company gave me termination letter in which they mentioned that on the strength of the notice period my last working day will be 26/12/2016, which I agreed.

Then in between the notice period on 18/10/2016 I was informed by management that from tomorrow no need to come to office and I could search for a new job outside and my salary will be deposited in my account till last working date mentioned in the termination letter that is 26/12/2016, and they actually deposited my salary till 26/12/2016.

Now when I joined my new company and transferred my residency to the new sponsor, I asked my old company to settle my indemnity but they are asking me to refund the salary which they deposited in my account after 18/10/2016 till 26/12/2016.

As upon their instructions I didn’t go to office after 18/10/2016 but they are saying that 18/10/2016 will be considered as last date to calculate my indemnity and leave salary. I joined my new company on 04/12/2016 please help me to understand the right way and procedure to calculate the indemnity.

Name withheld

Answer: The management of your old company have no business in asking you to refund part of the salary deposited in your account during the notice period. Indeed the stoppage of work after 18/10/2016 was not initiated by you but to the contrary, they decided to forego the remaining days of the notice period and actually went ahead to pay you for the period you did not work for them.

They cannot therefore make a u-turn and ask you for a refund.

They cannot also calculate your indemnity from the day that they asked you to stop work.

The calculation should be made up to 26/12/2016.

According to the Labour Law, indemnity has to be calculated on the latest remuneration which means the basic salary plus all allowances received on a regular basis.

This means that all things being equal, your indemnity must be calculated on KD 700 and not KD 600 but in your case all things are not equal because KD 600 was transferred regularly into your bank account and KD 100 handed to you in cash.

If your employees decided to calculate the indemnity using the KD 600, it will be a tall order for you to insist on the KD 700 since the additional KD 100 never refl ected in your bank account.

To be on the safer side we shall calculate your indemnity using the amount that was regularly transferred into your account — in this case KD 600.

The calculation of the indemnity will therefore be as follows:

Service 3.01 years

Salary KD 600

You are entitled to 15 days for each of the service years = 3.01×15 = 45.15 days.

But these days must first be divided by 26 working days in a month = 45.15 divided by 26 (working days in a month) =1.736 Monthly salary = 1.736xKD 600 = KD 816.

Your total indemnity will be the whole KD 816 since you were fired by the company.

 

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Kindly let me know whether professional with dependent visa is permitted to work in contracting or consultancy office?

Name withheld

Answer: Under the laws of Kuwait it is an offence to work while you are on a dependent visa, no matter whether you are a professional or not. However the same laws permit a person on dependent visa to transfer his/her residence to a work permit if the applicant has been in Kuwait for at least a year or she/he is a university graduate.

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I came to Kuwait on April, 2014 on a farm (agriculture) visa. I am a masters degree holder in Marketing from United Kingdom. I came to Kuwait on marketing manager post with an accepted salary of KD 500 per month but my employer gave me farm visa (electrician) and said when you come to Kuwait we will transfer it to company visa and also will change the designation. Almost three years done with him on farm visa, and also not giving me accepted salary.

The Salary mentioned in the Farm (electrician) Izne-amal is KD 250 per month and he has been paying 250 for the past three years, and i was tolerating him because my passport is with him and playing with my life.

Now I want to transfer my Iqama (residence) to a company … so please let me know whether I can transfer my Iqama because I have been with a single sponsor from last three years. Please help me out with my issue because I am suffering a lot.

Name withheld

Answer: We sympathise with you for your predicament, a situation in which many a worker has fallen into in the hands of some unscrupulous and lying employers. You can transfer your Iqama since you have completed three years with the current employer but the snag here is that you can only transfer your current visa into another farm visa but not to a company visa.

Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected], repetitive questions wont be entertained. Kindly go through our archives

Writing to inquire if I can transfer my residence from Article 14 to 18. Any possibilities of doing so, as some people told me it is legally possible and can be done, but only through my previous company.

I was a local hire and had been working with my previous company for more than 2 years. Decided to resign by myself due to personal reasons and was planning on returning to my home country.

Served my notice period of 3 months and before a week from my last due date, the company Mandoub took me to Shoun and cancelled my Article 18 and put me on a temporary Article 14 also took away my Civil ID. Told me I had 1 month to settle any other matters and leave the country.

Suddenly due to circumstances I had a change of mind and decided to stay back in Kuwait. Got hold of a sponsor who asked me to seek release from my previous company where I was working. Was advised to get release paper work signed and bring it to the new sponsor for transfer.

When I went to the previous company, they denied saying you’re residency is cancelled and we cannot give you release for that matter and concluded saying that you must leave the country.

Requesting you to advise on the above matter and suggest options I can opt to transfer my residence from Article 14 to 18. I am currently residing in Kuwait still. Thank you

Name withheld

Answer: Article 14 visa is issued to people to preclude them from being classified as illegal residents as they go through the processes of rectifying their residence or work visas.

It is also issued as in your case, to people who are exiting Kuwait for good, to enable them settle any other matters before leaving the country.

It is therefore not possible to transfer Visa 14 to 18 as your have been told.

As the Mandoub told you, your work permit has been cancelled and you have no choice but to leave Kuwait on or before the last day of validity of your Visa 14.

Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected], repetitive questions wont be entertained. Kindly go through our archives

I am a South African male married to a Filipino lady and we just had our second child in Kuwait. When applying for residency they told me that my daughter has to have the same passport as myself which is South African, however with my son (first born) there was no issue that he has a Filipino passport.

The reason why we initially got the Filipino passport is because my embassy takes 2 months and even more to obtain a passport thus we want to avoid the hefty fine.

Is there anything we could do and will the ministry accept a NOC from my embassy or do I have no choice but to apply and wait for a South African passport for my daughter and start the whole process again? Hope you can help or guide me please.

Name withheld

Answer: It is not uncommon for two different officials to interpret a rule on the same issue and arrive at different conclusions as in your case. Since you are the one legally permitted to sponsor your child, we will want to agree more with the second official who is demanding that your child must have the same passport as yours.

We must point out that our conclusion is premised on the common sense approach and not on any law which we must confess we are not aware of.

To prevent future problems we advise that you begin the process to get the South African passport for the child. On the issue of NOC from your embassy you could also try that but remember also that if the official needed an NOC he would have told you about that.

Good Day! … Firstly, I would like to thank Arab Times legal time to provide such excellent service, by providing best solutions on any issue.

My issue here is, that one of my friends (graduate) is working here in Kuwait for past 10 years, with same company. During this time, he applied for an online MBA degree and based on his qualification, same was granted to him from an University in USA in 2014.

Though he never needed any such degree for his job purpose, neither he has used it till date. The degree was just acquired just for records. Now, almost after 3 years, he is getting calls from different persons, saying they are calling from Ministry of Labour or Ministry of Education, and asking him to revalidate the degree, within 24 hours or so with very stringent requirements, which are impossible to get it done in 24 hours. Then during the call, they told somebody from the university, and made him speak, and then they offer to get the formalities done, against payment of $xxxxxx (huge amount), failing which they will prosecute him under various sections of law.

Also these people who say, calling from the ministry, do not give any contact number or address to visit them nor they put anything in writing. Now my question is, is it required to revalidate degree one is holding even if same was and is not used for any purpose. Secondly, what needs to be done, as these people seems to be dangerous, as they have complete details of my friends i.e. his office, his colleagues, his bosses etc. Lastly, the documents used by my friends for his job, were duly attested by Embassy of Kuwait in India and Ministry of Interior here in Kuwait, thus would he get into any kind of problem, for not getting the unused (MBA) degree revalidated.

Name withheld

Answer: There is no doubt that your friend is being haunted by fraudsters who have had access to some documents of his to use them to blackmail him. Let your friend contact the said university and ask to know if they have such policy of revalidation and what purpose served by such an exercise.

We give this advice upon the assumption that the said university is not in cahoot with these fraudsters. If it is, then the advise will not be of any use and in that case just ignore these fraudsters and the university: To be frank, we do not understand the involvement of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour especially as your friend has not used the MBA for the purposes of acquiring any job or seeking an upgrade in his present employment.

This leads us to the conclusion that the persons pestering him with phone calls are fraudsters. So once again we advise your friend just to ignore them since reporting them might not yield any result of signifi- cance as they are faceless.

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Repetitive questions will not be answered, kindly go through our archives

Hi Ms Legal Clinic I have been one of your valued readers for almost one decade and we really appreciate your sincerity for the legal advice that you providing us.

Last Feb 2014 my wife delivered our 1st baby girl at Al Sabah Maternity Hospital in Shuwaikh. After we got the birth certificate in Maidan Hawally for the very short period I applied for travel document in Philippine Embassy and had it attested in Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs because during those days our passport processing took so long due to upgrading for Philippine electronic passport or e-passport & I was afraid for Karama so, I decided to apply only exit visa in Jawazat office roundabout Salmiya near City Center and it was granted.

Now, my query is my current salary does not reach the bracket for applying for dependent visa but, so many rumors are flying that if husband & wife are both working in Kuwait and their earning salary is above KD 350 if combined then, one can proceed to apply for a dependent visa and if so, please advice on the specific documents to prepare.

Thank you & more power to your column.

Name withheld

We are afraid, but the rules as they exist now do not allow for coupling of salaries of wife and husband to be able to meet the salary cap which is now pegged at KD 450.

This salary cap should be earned by the man before he can sponsor members of the immediate family, coupling of salaries by husband and wife used to be allowed but for some years now this condition has been jettisoned.

Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
Repetitive questions will not be answered, kindly go through our archives