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Hello Maria,

Welcome to the Kingdom!!

Your employer will need to issue a new block visa and you will then have to leave the country and get the visa processed from your home country or country of legal residence. It is NOT possible to simply convert the visa.

Thanks for your response. Do you have an idea how long will it take for the processing? And what documents should I need to prepare?

It’s a 2 part process:

1- block visa issuance by Ministry of Labour: this can take 1 day to 1 month depending on your employer Saudization ranking etc. You don’t need to provide any personal documents for this step. The employer just need to apply for a profession matching your educational qualifications

2- visa processing in home country or country of legal residence: you will need the following:

a- legalise your educational certificate / degree by Saudi embassy in country of issuance. For example, if you studied in the US but you will apply for visa in UK, you degree still needs to be attested by Saudi embassy in US. This can take 2-4 weeks

b- attend medical examination. 2-5 days

c- police clearance: you may or may not need it depending on your country of applicant job

d- get visa documents and MOFA attested employment contract from your employer in KSA

e- apply for visa at the embassy with all above documents. Youl need to apply using a registered agency. This takes 2-5 days. This will be an entry visa with single entry valid for 90 days.

Once visa is issued, you will fly back to saudi and your employer will then get you the Iqama card. (Residence card). You have 90 days to complete the card issuance process from the date of entry in saudi.

GOOD LUCK !

@Shahmurtaza, thank you so much for your help. highly appreciated.