Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — The Passports Department (Jawazat) announced it will start issuing residence IDs instead of residence permits by mid-October 2015, Al-Madinah reported. Passports Department Technical Affairs Assistant Director General Col. Khalid Al-Saikhan said the residence and labor laws state the residence ID expires every five years and expatriates residing in the Kingdom have to renew their residence ID online on an annual basis. “The ID will enable expatriates to process many of their paperwork from the comfort of their home. Expatriates will no longer need to go to one of the department's offices or have a hard copy of their ID. They can do everything online and they can have all of their inquiries answered by contacting us online as well,” said Al-Saikhan. He added the residence ID will state the ID holder's name, number, date, career, nationality, religion, name of sponsor and position of employment. Al-Saikhan said there are two changes in the resident identity card. First is the general appearance and change of the card's name from ‘residence permit' to ‘resident identity card' and the second is the nonexistence of the date on which the identity card ends. “The ID will not have an expiration date. However, the expiration is documented online at the department's records. Expatriates can process their paperwork through Abshir or Muqeem portals,” said Al-Saikhan. He also said the department has launched Wasil Mailing Service on Monday to enable public directorates to mail packages to expatriates. “By October, everyone should be registered in Wasil. The service is available online through the e-portal Muqeem. The registration account of Wasil is linked to the residence ID,” said Al-Saikhan. He added the department is working on having Muqeem portal available as a smartphone application to facilitate the services for expatriates. “Muqeem portal is a new portal for expatriates in the Kingdom which enables them to process most of their paperwork and official procedures online. Expatriates can transfer sponsorship, issue visas, renew permits through the portal and will receive updated statistics and data of expatriates' affairs,” said Al-Saikhan. He added the portal has served more than 4.5 million expatriates so far. The Passports Department also said any worker who leaves the Kingdom on an exit/re-entry visa and does not return to the Kingdom during the specified period of the exit/re-entry visa would not be able to enter the Kingdom for three years. The authorities have started implementing these measures.
