Project visa transfer

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There is news that the government has stopped transfers of government project visas since January 2015. What is current stand of MOI (Ministry of Interior) on such visa transfers to another company? I am B.E graduate and have an engineering visa and have spent more than 3 years with the same company. Am I eligible for a company transfer?

Name withheld

Answer: There is a lot of confusion on the issue because transfers of government project visas are very restricted these days but this doesn’t mean that you can transfer to another sponsor. But before you jump to conclusions read the following:

As recently as in March — after issuing a similar verdict on Jan 11 this year — Manpower Public Authority Director Jamal Al-Dousary issued an administrative decision allowing expatriates working on government projects to transfer visa from one sponsor to another.

But this is very the clarification comes in. Workers in similar situations were in the past only allowed to transfer their visas to different companies but under the sponsorship of the same employer after the completion of their contracts.

But now the new decision clarifies that laborers contracted locally from the private sector or transferring from dependant visas can transfer to other sponsors according to the previous conditions, which are:

1. Conclusion of the project’s tenure

2. Working for at least one year for the first sponsor

3. Getting the sponsor’s approval for transferring.

So, this makes it very clear that if you were contract from abroad for this government project then you can’t transfer to another sponsor (your length of service no longer makes any difference ) but if you transferred to this project locally from another sponsor / company then your transfer is allowed.

This news has been read 5387 times!