Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The Ministry of Interior's Absher platform has launched a new service that enables host individuals to submit reports about the cases of absconding of those who arrived in the Kingdom on a visitor visa.

The Absher platform stipulated five conditions to submit such a report. According to the conditions, the absentee’s visa must be a visit visa classified as a personal or family visa, and the report shall be submitted after 7 days from the date of the expiry of the visit visa. It is not possible to submit the report 14 days after the expiry of the visa, and that the status of the visit visa must be an expired one. The conditions also include that the report is only once for each visitor, and there is no possibility to cancel the report after it's submission.

It is possible for the individual to extend the visa service if the remaining period is 7 days or less, or within three days after its expiry, and the visa holder (visitor) must be present in Saudi Arabia, along with the payment of the extension fees. Also, the passport of the visa holder must be valid at the time of the extension, and both the visa applicant and the visa holder must be alive, in addition to that the visa holder must have not any unpaid traffic violations. Moreover, the medical insurance period must cover the required extension period, and it can be extended for a single visa or multiple entry visa.

The Absher platform also provides the service to report about runaway domestic workers. For this, the following conditions must be fulfilled. There should be validity for the domestic worker’s residency permit, and that the report must be made once for each worker. In the event of domestic workers running away before the issuance of their residency permit, it is necessary to report it to the Expatriates Affairs Department.

It is also not possible to cancel the report about runaway workers through the Absher system and it can be done only through approaching the Expatriates Affairs Department within 15 days from the date of the submission of the report.

However, if the runaway report exceeds 15 days and it is not cancelled permanently, then the file of the domestic worker will be transferred to the monitoring list and he or she will be deported and prevented from entering the Kingdom. This is with the condition that there is no final exit visa issued for the worker.