Kuwait Salary Rule for Family Visit Visas

Kuwait has scrapped the minimum salary requirement for family visit visas.

That’s the headline change for thousands of expats who’ve put off bringing parents, siblings or in-laws to visit because their pay didn’t clear the old bar. The rules have been quietly reworked, and if you’re sponsoring family from abroad, the process now looks quite different from what you may remember.

This update came after a reader wrote in confused about what documents they’d actually need now, since the paperwork they used last time – a work permit, original passport, an embassy-issued relationship certificate, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) attestation – no longer reflects the current system.

So what exactly has changed?

Under the old system, sponsors had to prove they earned above a certain salary before Kuwait’s immigration authorities would even look at a family visit visa application. That requirement has been removed. It was one of the biggest hurdles for lower and middle-income expats who wanted to host parents or siblings for a few weeks, and its removal alone should make the process accessible to a much larger group of residents.

The second big shift is digital. Instead of running between typing centres, embassies and government offices with stacks of paper, sponsors can now apply directly through the official Kuwait Visa platform. That’s a meaningful change for anyone who’s spent a working day queuing at an immigration counter just to submit a form.

Eligibility has also widened. Previously the family visit visa was fairly narrow in who it covered. Now a broader range of relatives can be sponsored, which matters for households where, say, a sibling or an elderly parent wants to visit but didn’t fit neatly into the old definition of