New Family Visa Rule

If you’re an expat in Kuwait thinking about a job offer in Saudi Arabia, there’s a change worth knowing about. The wait to bring your spouse and children along has just got shorter, at least for certain workers.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior announced on 6 October that eligible expatriate heads of household can now get entry visas for immediate family members at the same time their own work visa is being processed. Until now, most foreign workers had to finish their own employment and residency paperwork first, then apply separately to bring dependants over, often leaving families apart for months.

This isn’t a Kuwait rule. It applies inside Saudi Arabia. But plenty of people living here have ties to the Kingdom, through relatives, job offers, or future plans, so it’s worth understanding exactly what changed and what didn’t.

Who exactly is covered?

According to the ministry’s announcement, the eligible family members are a husband or wife, sons under the age of 25, and unmarried daughters. There’s no stated age limit for daughters, as long as they’re unmarried.

Because the rule mentions both husbands and wives as potential dependants, it can apply whether the head of household is a man or a woman, provided they meet the requirements.

What the rule does not cover is just as important. Parents, brothers, sisters, married daughters and sons aged 25 or older weren’t listed as beneficiaries. That doesn’t necessarily block them from entering Saudi Arabia altogether, but they would need to use an existing route instead, such as a family visit visa, if they qualify for one.

So who actually qualifies as a “skilled” worker?

This is the part the announcement leaves open. The Ministry of Interior didn’t publish a list of eligible jobs, salaries or qualifications alongside this decision.

For context, Saudi Arabia introduced a classification system in 2025 that sorts expatriate work permits into three tiers: highly skilled, skilled and basic. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has said this system looks at whether a foreign worker has the qualifications and ability needed for their specific role, and it applies both to people already working in the Kingdom and to new arrivals.

If you’re weighing up a Saudi job offer, the practical step is simple: ask the employer which category your position falls under before you start making plans around housing, schools or travel dates for your family. Don’t assume the new family visa process applies to you just because the job sounds senior.

What changes for the family once they arrive?

Entry visas for eligible dependants get issued alongside the worker’s own visa once the conditions are met. After that, family members still go through the usual residency procedures inside Saudi Arabia, the same as before.

In other words, this reform doesn’t remove any paperwork. It just shrinks the gap where a newly hired expat might otherwise be living in the Kingdom alone while their family waits abroad for a separate visa to clear.

It’s also worth repeating: this change says nothing about employment rights for the family members themselves. A spouse or adult child who wants to work in Saudi Arabia would still need to go through the country’s own employment and work-permit process, separately from this entry visa.

What this means if you’re based in Kuwait

For most expats living and working in Kuwait, this rule has no direct legal effect on your residency here. Kuwait’s own family and dependant visa system runs separately, with its own salary thresholds and sponsorship conditions, as covered in our guide to applying for a Kuwait visa.

Where it matters is for anyone considering a move across the border for work, or anyone with relatives applying for Saudi jobs who had been bracing for months of separation from their spouse or kids. If that’s your situation, the gap between accepting an offer and reuniting with family in-country could now be noticeably shorter, assuming your role is classified as skilled or highly skilled.

It’s also a useful comparison point if you’ve been looking at visit visa options for relatives elsewhere in the Gulf. Our piece on visit visa extensions covers a different but related headache: what happens when family is already in the region on a short-term visa and needs more time.

Quick answers