Legal Clinic

  • Manager hired from abroad wants release after one year

    I’m working in a company in Kuwait in a managerial position and the work permit also shows the position as a manager and salary as KD 450 only. I was recruited from India on a two-year visa. Is it possible to get release after one year?

    Name withheld

    Answer: No, you can’t get a release after one year unless your current sponsor has no objection to giving you a release. Even after you complete serving the company for two years in accordance with the contract signed, the company will still not be obliged to give you a release but can send you back to your country of origin. However after the two-year contract period, if it is renewed for another year, you will then be entitled for a release as you would have put in a total of 3 years service as demanded by the Labour Law.

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  • Job offer from UAE

    I am an Indian citizen and currently in Kuwait and holding a valid Kuwait work visa. Recently I received a job offer from UAE and they are asking me to join immediately. I cannot serve three month notice period in my current company. So I am planning to go on vacation and not wish to come back. So that, let me know any problem to get residence visa from any other GCC countries.

    Name withheld

    Answer: You will be breaking the Kuwait Labour Law if you refuse to serve the three-month notice period and leave Kuwait as you intend to do. The best advice we can offer under this scenario is for you to be candid with your sponsor and explore the possibility of him allowing you to leave Kuwait without serving the notice period on compassionate grounds. If this option fails, then you have to compensate him in monetary terms for the duration of the notice period as spelt out in the Labour Law.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Company suspended me for making mistake – Will I get transfer?

    I’m currently working in a company for the last three years. This company hired me from India; some issues occurred in the company with me in the past month for which I got a final warning letter and again I made another mistake for which I got suspended from July 9.

    My question is will I get transfer or the company can send me back to India, what can be the consequences? Please help me to understand what are the rules in Kuwait in these cases.

    Name withheld

    Answer: You have not told us the nature of the mistake that you committed. If these mistakes are work-related and for which you were warned and finally suspended then the issue will end there after you have served the term of suspension.

    If the company does not require your services again after serving the suspension the company will be duly-bound to give you three months notice period and after which time they will also be obliged to give you transfer.

    On the other hand if the mistake committed has criminal undertones, the company may give you two choices either to agree to be sent back to India or be handed over to the police to deal with the issue. If at the end of the day nothing untoward is found against you, you can file a case against the company and it will be compelled to give a transfer as well as your termination benefits.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Does Fridays include in 70 days maternity leave?

    I just want to inquire about the policy of maternity leave. I have been working with a company for 5 years and my maternity leave started from March 20, 2018 and ended on May 21, 2018. My current salary is KD 500; as per information I received from my HR that maternity leave includes Fridays also and they will not pay extra for the Friday. Is this calculation correct? Please let me know how much amount I should receive for my maternity leave.

    Name withheld

    Answer: Article 24 of the Kuwait Labour Law clearly states that ‘A pregnant woman shall be entitled to a paid maternity leave of 70 days not included in other leaves provided she gives birth within this period.’ This means that you can get your annual leave even after availing the maternity leave in a particular year.

    As your HR department has indicated the maternity leave includes Fridays which are taken into consideration in computing the total amount of money due for you the 70 days maternity leave. To pay you extra for the Fridays will amount to double payment hence your HR department is right on that score. By the way the maternity leave you took was less than the 70 days you are entitled to but we cannot state our take on this as we are not in position to say as to whether you decided to take that number of days or it was imposed on you by the company.

     

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  • Can my family come back on old visa?

    I would like to enquire few details about the validity of my family visa. My family has been with me in Kuwait since last 1 year and they went to India on leave in April 2018 after the renewal of their visa which is valid up to May 2019.

    Thereafter, I got offer from another company and I had to cancel my visa and I went to India in April 2018 and I came back to Kuwait after one month in May 2018 on new visa. I would like to know if my family can join me on the same visa as my civil number reflected is same as old. So my family’s sponsor details are the same.

    I have enquired with many people and they told me that it’s possible to bring family on the same visa as the visa was not cancelled and 6 months not completed after making the exit from Kuwait. Would you please give your expert advice on the same and also let me know where I can check, if the visa is valid or not, and whether they can travel to Kuwait or not.

    Name withheld

    Answer: Unfortunately the dependent visa you acquired for your family was based on the residence you cancelled before acquiring another one with a different company. The visa of your family, therefore, stood cancelled when you cancelled your old residence. Your family, therefore, can not return to Kuwait on the old visa. If you want the family back in Kuwait you have to reapply for fresh dependent visa to make that possible.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Cancelling current work visa and coming back on new work visa

    Need your urgent help. I have resigned from my company because I got a new job. My new company will give me new work visa once I leave Kuwait. My question is that my iqama and Civil ID is valid upto Sept 9, 2018, and I am leaving the country by Sept 5, 2018. My current company said that you do not need to cancel your visa, it will automatically expire on Sept 9, 2018.

    Do I have to cancel the visa or will it automatically be cancelled based on the last date of iqama? And when the new company is able to apply for my new work visa? Is there any time period or on the next day after the expiry of my iqama?

    Name withheld

    Answer: Forget about what you are being told by your current company and make sure that the company cancels your work and residence permits before you exit Kuwait. If this is not done, we assure you that the new company for you will not be able to process your papers for you to return to Kuwait as you intend to do. As regard the duration within which the new company can apply for a new work visa, there is no time frame as much as you go through the necessary procedures of visa cancellation before exiting Kuwait.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Transfer of Project Visa to Private visa

    This is to inform you that my visa is 18 transferable visa. I got release from my current company. But now I got a good offer from another company. The company visa is project visa. My question is after transfer to project visa again for me possible to transfer to 18 visa?

    Name withheld

    Answer: If your first entry into Kuwait was on visa 18 then you will have no problem in transferring back to visa 18 from project visa. On the other hand if you first entered Kuwait on project visa, you will have a mountain to climb if you want to revert to visa 18 to project visa. You may have been lucky the first time but this will not automatically make you lucky the second time.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Hajj visa for visit visa holder in Kuwait

    I am an expat from India working in Kuwait with a salary more than KD 800. My sister (aged 53) lives in India. Both our hajj visas have been stamped from India. Now I would like to call her on visit visa to Kuwait and then leave for haj from Kuwait. Is this possible?

    Name withheld

    Answer: For some time now, it has been made very difficult if not impossible expats residing in Kuwait to embark on the haj from here. Our advice to you is to prevent any disappointment, just go back to India when the time is due to depart from there with your sister on the holy journey. After the haj if you still want to invite your sister on a visit to Kuwait, you will be free to do so.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Booked by Ministry of Interior for watching porn sites

    I was surfing through my internet, and happened to get a porn site on the internet by which I started checking out and found it interesting, but not knowing it’s been monitored by MoI, and that I had received a notification, while I was checking for any fines or penalties there were on me while renewing my driving license, when my colleague checked it via my civil identification, it showed only this internet violation, but no fine or anything as such. I have travelled to India many times but have not been questioned, is it a serious offense? Kindly advise me what is the procedure needed to be done to get it deleted please. I have stopped ever since then stopped surfing that internet site.

    Name withheld

    Answer: You don’t need to undertake any procedures to have the ‘violation’ in your name deleted. The fact that you have been able to renew your driving licence and travelled many times to India without any problem means that the violation was not considered serious especially that you stopped going back to the site after receiving the MoI warning. So keep up with that as another infraction might not be met with kids gloves as the first.

    Kindly send your queries to [email protected] or [email protected]
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  • Filipino citizen has not been given off day nor public holiday for past one year

    I am a Filipino citizen, I have been working in Kuwait for 5 years now. I want to share my problem and I hope you can give me advice.

    I worked four years in one company as a salesman and after that I left the company which gave me a release and joined another company. Now I have been working in the company for one year. Since I joined the company they didn’t give me any rest day or off, and I am working more than 10 hours everyday. And there is no extra pay or overtime pay.

    Even Ramadan or Eid I worked like normal days. I am always asking them about day off but they are saying they are looking for new staff. Now the company wants me to sign a contract, I asked them why only now they are giving me a contract after my one year.

    They have written in the contract that I started only in May this year, and also my salary in the contract is not correct. So I told them I will not sign because it’s clear in the contract the number of hours of duty and the rules of Kuwait that they are not following. I didn’t sign the contract and I filed a resignation letter. I don’t want a release I want to go home. Now I have rendered already one month after I submitted resignation paper. But the company is ignoring me. Every time asking about the update there is no reply from them. My Civil ID will expire next month and they didn’t do anything. I really want to go out of this company. I will appreciate if you can give me advice what is better to do. Thank you.

    Name withheld

    Answer: Just file a case against the company at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour through the Labour Office in your area before your residence expires and offers the company an opportunity to play mischief with your situation.

    In deed since you are not looking for a transfer but just a chance to go back to your country, your case is just a straight forward one and the worst case scenario will be that you will be asked to put in the three-month mandatory notice period if your request to go back to your country is not granted immediately. In this case the company will be compelled to put your papers in order to enable you to offer your services to them for the three months.

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

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