Legal Clinic

I am working in a hospital under the Ministry of Health. I tried family visa for my wife. She was unfit medically. They told me to try after six months. Now 3 months only completed. I plan to bring her to Kuwait on family visa. Is it possible? If she will come on visit visa, is there any chance to change it as a family visa?.

Name withheld

Answer: We don’t know the circumstances under which you were told to try again after six months even though your wife had previously failed her medicals. Granting that you were actually told to try again after six months, you will be going against the advise if you do it in 3 months and the possibility exists for your application to be rejected again. On the issue of the visit visa, we are sorry to state that under current regulations you will not be able to change a visit visa into a dependant visa. This is only possible for infants not more than two years old.

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I am currently working at a retail center since May 2016. I need to know something. My company required notice period of 3 months when someone resigns. If I want to resign in 18 months, I have to give resignation in 15 months right? Sir, can you tell me as per the Labour Law what kind of payments/rewards I can get from my employer when I resign as I mentioned?

Name withheld

Answer: As per the Labour Law, you will not be entitled to an indemnity because you would have put in less than three years if you resign in 18 months time as indicated. You will however be entitled to be paid any leave balance not made use of.

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I need to know if sick leave days 15 days calendar or working days.

Name withheld

Answer: Sick leave can only be authorized by a medical doctor and it is granted to a worker to undergo treatment or to recuperate. To answer your question 15 days means 15 days and not working days.

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My wife has been in Kuwait with me for 5 years now. She has now got a job. With the current rules, is it possible to convert the dependent visa #22 to work visa # 18.

Name withheld

Answer: Yes it is possible to convert dependent visa (22) to work visa (18) Indeed the only change made recently on visa 22 is that in the event of a divorce the woman will not be allowed to transfer her dependent visa to work visa but will have to cancel her residence permit and leave Kuwait.

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I am living in the ground floor of a old building in Mangaf. Has there recently been a rule passed that all ground floor tenants are to vacate by April 25?

Name withheld

Answer: To the best of our knowledge, no such rule has been made and indeed we cannot hazard any tangible reason for such a blanket rule to be made. Even if there is a need for such a rule, it may target specific buildings and not all buildings as the rumour currently has it according to you.

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I have been working in Kuwait for the past 8 years. Now I am planning to move to Malaysia since all my family members are there. Now If I go to Malaysia without cancelling my work permit in Kuwait will there be any problem in getting an employment visa in Malaysia due to non-cancellation of visa from here.

Name withheld

Answer: Unless you have some hidden motives, there is no reason why you should not cancel your work permit before leaving Kuwait. Even though you can leave the country without cancelling your residence and work permits, you will face problems if in future you decide to return to Kuwait. Our advice to you is, go through all the necessary processes demanded of all who are leaving Kuwait for good.

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Please I’m sorry for disturbing you again … please reply to my previous question if the company has the right not to release the employee even if she’s working 10 consecutive years in the company … because the company said I cannot resign until February 2018 because of their close contacts from shoun.

Name withheld

Answer: No, the company has no right to deny you a release. We make this assertion on the assumption that you have an open-ended contract with your company. If our assumption is correct, then we advise that if you still intend to resign, go ahead and do it and give them the 3-month mandatory notice. If the company insists on not accepting your resignation, file a complaint with Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour through the Labour Department in your area. Forget about the so-called contacts your company has with ‘shoun’, for these contacts, cannot stand in your way when the law is on your side.

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I am working as an engineer and I meet the salary criteria for sponsoring dependent visa for my wife. I heard from my friends that the validity of the dependent visa has been reduced from 3 months to 1 month. However I couldn’t find any authentic information on this.

Kindly inform me the latest validity period for dependent visa (i.e., 1 month or 3 months). Also, once the medical test is done in our home country (which is India in my case), starting from the date of the medical report, within how many days should we enter into Kuwait. I am desperate to know this as it will help me to plan and make arrangements properly.

Further, after entering Kuwait, within how many days should I complete the remaining formalities such as, finger print, medical, insurance, residency stamping and civil ID. Awaiting your kind response.

Name withheld

Answer: To the best of our knowledge, the validity period for a dependent visa remains 3 months from the date of issue and for a visit visa one month. But to be on the safer side of the law, the validity period is always written at the tail end of the visa and we advise that you check this to make assurance doubly sure. To your second question your wife has sixty days upon entry to complete the remaining formalities to enable her become a legal resident in Kuwait.

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Thanks for your valuable answering, I have been working in Kuwait private sector. My monthly basic salary is KD 675, so, I am eligible to bring my family through visit visa my wife (38 years old), daughter (13 years old), son (4 years old). If I apply family visit visa for above mentioned three persons how many months can they stay in Kuwait? And is it possible to get visit visa for three persons?

Name withheld

Answer: The three mentioned in your submission are your immediate family members and hence can get visit visas with 3-month duration. You will have no problem getting visas for the three at the same time.

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Dear Sir, A controversial situation has arisen in our company with regard to the indemnity calculations. The company policy being followed is as follows: Upto 5 yrs — 30 days salary per annum; above 5 yrs till 10 yrs — 45 days salary per annum and above 10 yrs — 60 days salary per annum.

The entitlement is payable in either case of separation, resignation or termination (under normal circumstances). Due to an error in calculation, the indemnity provision was being calculated @ 30 days basis for the entire duration period of service for the existing employees till now.

However, this mistake was noticed at the year end and corrected as per the above policy as at 31-Dec-2016. But now the company intends to cancel this policy retrospectively and reverse the provision so far created against the existing employees and maintain it @ 30 days pa only for their entire period of service. This has a drastic negative effect on the indemnity entitlement for all its existing employees.

There are many existing employees whose service is more than 5 years with a few even above 10 years who are likely to suffer. Usually an entitlement as per company policy at the time of employment will be his final entitlement at the time of separation and this cannot be curtailed by changing a policy in-between. But this sudden change in stand by the company reduces his entitlement which is unjust. Is this legally valid? Please clarify?

Name withheld

Answer: From your narrative, it is clear that the company was using a policy which was at variance with the Kuwait Labour Law. But in so far as this policy is not to the disadvantage of the workers vis-a-vis the labour law, this is permissible.

Indeed, the workers under the company policy, were taking more during separation than the labour law envisaged. With the change in company policy, the question is whether this new policy must be applied retroactively or not.

We are of the view that if the old policy was part of your conditions of service and was communicated to you either orally or in writing at the time of recruitment, then the company cannot change the policy to your advantage now.

In this case the new company policy cannot be applied retrospectively and hence will only affect future recruits and not those of you who were recruited on the basis of the old policy.

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