I have a visa agent in London, but his communication skills are abysmal. So, I come this lovely expat community for my answers.

1. How does the Iqama process work for a British female getting a job in KSA?
2. Can my husband come to Saudi with me on the same flight?
3. Can we apply for my husband's family residency/ dependent visa before we move to Saudi?
4. Can we bring our 2 cats with us on the same flight or do we have to be in Saudi to apply for their entry?

Hope the above in red helps

We just arrived two weeks ago me my wife and my two daughters 20yrs and 17yrs.We got a residency visa for them and work visa for me.You need a letter of endorsement for them from your employer.My daughters will continue their studies in UK so now I realised that a visit visa would have been enough and all the money spent was for nothing.
We have a cat back in Scotland and you need your Iqama and an application to the ministry of agriculture to bring it over to KSA.At the moment the cat will stay in UK so I don't know any other details.
Good luck with your move

DM sent

Hi, I’m curious as to how your husband’s visa/iqama application went? How long it took what the process was?

Hi so I applied for a work visa, my husband applied for a residency visa. At the Visa Centre, the staff said my husband would not be seen as I must have my yellow slip issued first however my agent made some backdoor phone calls to the embassy and managed to get both of our visas submitted simultaneously.

We were issued our visas the next morning so it was very quick. Our agent collected our passports as we did not stay in London. We are booked to fly out in a few weeks together. We’re still in the UK.

Regarding the cats, a KSA animal shelter is helping me to apply for the pet permits so they will fly with us too. They are charging me £400.

Thanks so much for your reply, could you send me the KSA pet shelter’s details please?

My wife travelled with me on a Visit visa but she’ll have to exit the country when I get offered a yellow slip to apply for a residency visa. What is this backdoor route please? What visa was your husband offered?

thank you

Hi the shelter can be found on Facebook: Animals Matter KSA shop (Animals matter logistics ksa).

2000 SAR for Pet Imports and an extra 500 SAR for someone to act as importer. Which works out to £500 but thankfully we have found a kind lady in Riyadh who has offered to act as our importer.

For the backdoor entry, my husband has been issued a residence visa without the need of my yellow slip because my company have special access due to their government links. This would not have been possible without the phone calls made to the embassy from my employer. I believe you can also bring a special letter to the visa centre signed from employer and stamped by KSA government which would grant the same privilege.

I hope this is useful!

Very useful thank you

• hi , would you be kind enough and share your agents details with me? I’m going through the same process and I’m employee asked if I have any agent in mind I would like to use.