Legal Clinic

I am working as a nurse here in Kuwait and my profession is nurse in visa. Can I get Kuwait driving licence as per the rules and exceptions provided by government. Please let me know the possibility of getting driving licence.

Name withheld

Answer: Yes, you can apply for a driving licence as nurses are part of the professions who are exempted from meeting all or some of the requirements needed for applying for driving licence.

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I have a query on dependent visa. My husband is on Article 18, he just cancelled his visa and planning to travel to India on December 17. He will be back on new company visa. I am on dependent visa and validity is up to July 2020. Can I stay back in Kuwait till July 2020. Please answer me asap.

Name withheld

Answer: No, you cannot stay in Kuwait up to July 2020 because your visa is tied to your husband’s visa as your sponsor. This means that with the cancellation of your husband’s visa, your visa by extension stands cancelled and hence you have to exit Kuwait at the same time with your husband.

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I would be grateful if you could clarify regarding my query as discussed below. I have worked with my previous company for about 3.5 years and joined with my present employer wherein I have transferred locally. However, the services of my current company with the government ministry is about to end after 7 months of my joining date.

Accordingly, my current company issued a letter of termination with a three months period (in line with the labour law).

Now, my query is: will I face any legal problem in case I did not continue with my current company after the notice period is over? As they told me that they may continue my employment in case their services is to be renewed by the government ministry; I am planning not to continue in case I found a new company. In the event of no legal issue, please advise if do I need to issue a letter to my company, after the notice period, stating my intention not to continue. P.S. I am degree holder (engineer) with a valid KSE membership. Your valuable advice is much appreciated.

Name withheld

Answer: The idea behind that three-month notice period is to give ample time for an employee whose services have been terminated to look for a new job or adequate time to prepare and leave the country.

On the other hand, if termination is at the behest of the employee, the notice period will give the employer ample time to get a suitable replacement for the employee.

Now coming back to your question, our position is that, after the expiry of the three-month notice period, your contractual obligations with the company will be over and there won’t be any need for you to write any letter expressing your wish not to renew your ties with them.

If they needed you that badly they would have kept you under company sponsorship until such time that they were convinced that the project with the government will not be renewed.

They can therefore not terminate your services and expect you to sit down and wait to see if their project will be renewed.

In short, you will face no legal action if you join another company after the three-month notice period.

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I recently applied for a family visa, and I received an entry visa from Rigae Jawazat. I sent it to India and yesterday when my wife went for medical, they told me her visa was without a signature. And when I checked they were right. From Rigae Jawazat they just sealed the front and backside of the entry visa but there is no signature on the front side. But after talking to the medical center MD they agreed to do the medical. I want to know if I send this visa for stamping without a signature, I will face any problems. The seal is available on both sides, Please advise.

Name withheld

Answer: We want to believe that this was a genuine mistake from the Immigration Department and we don’t think the mistake is fatal and can be rectified if it is discovered at the point of stamping. The fact that your wife was able to enter the country with the same unsigned visa is an indicator that there are other features that indicate the genuineness of the visa.

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I have resigned from a company which I’ve worked for 3 years and 6 months. I was getting a salary of KD 425 but in the work permit it says my salary is KD 250. They are saying that I will only get KD 210 indemnity because I resigned. On top of that, they also said that the company will pay my 31 days remaining leave balance in addition to my indemnity. I am confused with their computation. How much will I be getting and what is the computation of my indemnity based on the Kuwait Labour Law?

Name withheld

Answer: When calculating end of service benefits which include indemnity the word ‘remuneration’ comes into play and must be used. This is according to the Kuwait Labour Law enacted on Feb 20, 2012. Unfortunately however a number of companies are interpreting the law wrongly.

Article 62 of the Labor Law says that ‘The calculation of the worker’s entitlements shall be made on the basis of the last remuneration received by the worker.’ After the above explanation, we must specifically tackle your case and state that the KD 425 you receive monthly should be basis of calculating your indemnity and not the KD 250 shown on your work permit. Your indemnity should therefore be calculated as follows: Total pay KD 425, service 3.5 years.

For first five years, indemnity is calculated on the basis of 15 days pay for each year = 75 days but you have done 3.5 years so yours will be 15 x 3.5 = 52.5 days but these days must be divided by 26 (working days in a month) = 2.019 months salary. Your indemnity = 2.019 x KD 425 = KD 858.75. But since you have resigned, you will be entitled to half this amount = KD 429.0375
This amount (indemnity) should be paid to you in addition to payment of the 31 days unused leave. The amount of KD 210 the company says it will be paying you is completely off the amount you are entitled to get.

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Hi! I’ve been working in a private company for about 5 months and I am new in Kuwait. Lately my boss has been making me feel uncomfortable with him touching me in some private areas, asking me to give kisses on his cheeks and telling me sexual jokes.

I do have some evidences like sound recordings of him getting angry when I told him to back off. But I am afraid to tell HR or any management for fear that they will fire or terminate me. Is it in my right to complain? I hope you do not publish this for I am afraid someone might find out.

Name withheld

Answer: Your boss is shamelessly harassing you sexually and this is frowned upon by the laws of Kuwait. Our advice therefore is that you should be bold to tell your boss to put an immediate stop to his shameless actions and that you will go ahead to report him to management if he continues with his unacceptable behavior.

If your boss proves recalcitrant, go ahead and report him to his superiors or the HR department and present to them the evidence that you have gathered concerning the despicable behavior of your boss. In the unlikely event of the management siding with your boss and going ahead to fire you, we advise that you lodge a complaint with the Public Authority for Manpower through the labour office in your area to seek redress.

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I work at a private company with an unlimited period contract. (Termination of the contract is subject to Kuwait private sector labor law) I submitted my resignation to my manager and sent it by e-mail 2 weeks ago with 3 months notice period, and now the management is threatening that they won’t sign my resignation. Can they reject my resignation? Because the labor law only said ‘notice’, and what should I do when the 3 months notice ends?

Name withheld

Answer: The company does not have the power to reject your resignation if it is in accordance with your contractual obligations and is not at variance with the Kuwait Labor Law. If at the end of the three-month notice period they keep to their threat of not allowing you to go, then we propose that you file a case against the company at Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) through the Labour Office in your area to seek redress. We advise that in order not to give them the chance of filing an absconding case against you, keep on going to work if there in no action on their part after the expiry of the notification period. This should continue until such time that case you filed against the company in decided.

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I have a query regarding my dependent visa. I am planning to migrate to Kuwait by this month end as a dependent. I have completed Bachelor of Engineering and I have 4.5 years of experience in IT field. I am planning to continue my job in Kuwait but I’m coming on dependent visa. Is there any possibility to change from dependent visa to work visa immediately or how long will it take to change and what are the rules to change visa types. Please let me know.

Name withheld

Answer: Since you are a holder of a university degree you can change dependent visa (Visa 22) to work visa (Visa 22) if and when you land a job in the private sector. If you didn’t have a university degree you would have had to have stayed in Kuwait for at least one year before being eligible to transfer your visa.

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I’ve changed my passport into my married name then my company changed my civil ID but they made a mistake in my name which is not same as in the passport..I would like to change it but my question is can I do it online or do i have to do it in a different way as my name would be different from my old passport? And they say this would be a problem later in the immigration once I travel.

Name withheld

Answer: The mistake cannot be corrected online and hence you have to visit the residency department of the Directorate-General of Immigration and Passport in your area to effect the necessary correction.

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My husband was in Kuwait for past 14 yrs. He is now in India for the past 4 months because he is willing to change his sponsor but they are unable to sponsor him with new visa as they are saying his Izn-e-mal is still active and till Oct 7th 2020. So my question is what is the procedure to get that Izn-e-mal cancelled? Please let me know as soon as possible.

Name withheld

Answer: Your husband should have cancelled his work permit before exiting Kuwait if he knew that he was going to come back on a new visa. If he is still desirous of coming back to Kuwait on a new visa, then he has to return to Kuwait (since his work permit is still valid) and formally cancel the work permit, exit Kuwait again and then he can return on a new work permit.

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