Tahir84

I been in Saudi for 2 months and now thinking to start proceedings to call the family over. Wife is pregnant with our 3rd child and wishes to have the baby in the UK. The due date is early November. The rough plan is that she will travel to Saudi not too long after birth (once passport etc is available for the newborn). Now the question:

• I have all the documents with me to apply for family visa for the current family (wife and 2 kids). The visa (or the yellow slip) is valid for one year. If i do that, can i add the newborn on to the same visa (yellow slip) and more importantly, can that be done while i am in the UK? this is one option.

The other (simpler) option would be to wait for the passport for the newborn, come back to Saudi and then apply for the whole family. However our plan was for all of us to come back together after the birth, hence the above question.
If anyone could shed light on this, it would be much appreciated.

nonthaburi

Admittedly this isn't from my own experience, but a friend , and from a few years ago. But I remember asking him at the time how he was going to do it .

If memory serves me correctly he said that you don't need to do anything, and that there were special allowances for newborns. They enter on arrival with no visa, and are then granted 90 days to go on the family iqama.

That was a few years ago though, so best to check with your HR/GRO.

nonthaburi

P. S. I'd also add that I remember thinking at the time that it was all remarkably simple compared to anything else iqama related.

nonthaburi

Newborns of expats can get visas upon arrival in Saudi Arabia | Arab News

nottmbantam

I think this is still pretty much the case. Newborns are I believe, any infant less than a year old, so should be good to travel with parent(s). One expat chap I work with became a father on 13th August - passport issued around two weeks later and then a couple of days after that, the family then arrived straight into KSA without needing a visa for the baby.

Tahir84

In all the cases that i have seen or heard of, the process of bringing the newborn into KSA without the visa was for the parents (especially mothers) that already had the residence visa (iqama) and had a valid exit/entry visa, who went home for birth and returned.
I am yet to come across an instance where the newborn was brought into the country merely on mother's initial entry visa (one that is valid for 3 months).

Hence, i am thinking to actually apply for the visa for the newborn from Saudi Embassy in London, prior to the travel, at least it is a safer option.

nonthaburi

That's a good point , but I'm sure that if you were accompanying them it should be okay, seeing how you have the iqama and both your wife and baby will be under your sponsorship.

I know it's a pain but maybe just travel back for a few days to go and fetch them. Your wife would probably be appreciative too.

Tahir84

just an update. I am back in the UK. I applied for the family visa incl. the newborn however Saudi Embassy has confirmed that they can only issue the visa to the newborn if the newborn is included in the Yellow slip.

I so hoped/prayed that i don't have to travel back to KSA just for the newborn visa, but it appears i may have to. Really annoyed, they don't make it easy! I am thinking whether it is possible for my company's HR/Government representatives to apply on my behalf.

They confirmed however that, had my wife been a resident in KSA and with a valid iqama before returning to the UK for birth, they could have issued the visa to the newborn without any issue.

nonthaburi

That sucks. But totally believable. Hope you get things sorted without too much trouble.

Tahir84

just an update, i flew back to Saudi for couple of days to reapply (as discussed above). It was a ball-ache, but at least i was able to leave Saudi with a new yellow slip in my hand, instead of relying on our company's (useless) GROs, which could have taken at least a week or two.

nonthaburi

At least you got it quickly . I've got the yellow slip twice . First time was pre online days which just meant getting up really early to get in the queue at the ministry , but walking out hours later with the slip in hand. And the second time was in the online days where it took me a month to book the appointment at the ministry to get my occupation verified, but walking out in ten minutes with the slip.

How long did it take you out of interest?