Work permit applications will require that the Saudi company sponsor present an offer letter certified by both the Saudi Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with an employment contract.  The offer letter must indicate the block visa number, date, position title/duties and the name of the foreign national.  In addition, the foreign national’s legalized university diploma and resume must be submitted with the work permit application.

Companies and assignees are advised that Saudi consular posts may also scrutinize work visa applications to confirm that applicants possess academic and professional qualifications directly related to the proposed job title.  

The consular posts may look at the job title indicated on the assignee’s employment contract and block visa. If there are any differences between the position title indicated in the employment contract, it is strongly suggested that the Saudi company address a letter to the Consulate explaining the discrepancy in the job title and the applicant’s qualifications (e.g., if the applicant has a degree in civil engineering but the proposed job title is Project Management or Project Engineer, a letter confirming that the proposed duties require a degree in civil engineering and professional experience in civil engineering projects).

 In order to access the portal, a user must first register for an account using his or her Saudi ID#, which is either a Saudi national ID# or an Iqama (residence permit) ID#.

 In addition, two Saudi international airports, King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, recently introduced a new “e-Gate” system.

 This electronic system allows foreigners who hold activated e-Gate cards to complete their passport control on arrival and departure formalities more efficiently and without need to wait in a queue to have their immigration documents stamped. An e-Gate card contains a holder’s biometric information that will be captured by immigration control upon each entry and departure.

 Foreign nationals can apply for a card at the two airports free of charge. Once collected, the passengers can personally activate their card at the airport’s e-Gate. The passenger will be asked to submit a fingerprint scan at the gate, ID # (Saudi passport or Iqama) and the airline boarding pass in order to complete the registration.  Please note that e-Gate card holders must depart and re-enter Saudi Arabia with their valid passport.  

 The e-Gate system is designed to streamline registration of arrivals and departures and to increase border control measures.  However, please be advised that Saudi border officers reserve the right to secondarily inspect any e-Gate card holder departing or re-entering Saudi Arabia.

As part of this repositioning, the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) is mindful of the British Government’s new austerity measures that require consolidation of existing consular posts in certain G7 countries in the Americas and the European Union in exchange for expanding presence in the emerging market. Of note is the recent closure of the British High Commission Office in Ottawa, Canada.  

As of October 7, 2011, the British Consulate in New York accepts jurisdiction for all visa applications filed by Canadian nationals or Canadian residents. While the closure does not affect the procedure for applying for visas, Canadians and Canadian residents must submit their biometric information (fingerprints and facial images) at one of five visa application centers in Canada or with a mobile biometric clinic prior to sending original passports and visa application documentation to the consulate in New York.  Applicants posting applications from Canada can review processing times with the New York consular post’s website.

Clients should be advised that the FCO will announce future closures and openings of consular posts as needs dictate.  Web users are invited to review the most current listing of consular posts at the FCO’s website.

This is very important progress for a country with limited domestic energy resources like Israel. Companies that are considering assignments connected to Israeli’s burgeoning gas and oil industry should include the time needed and the requirements to receive the appropriate work visa for foreign experts. While Israeli immigration law allows certain nationals (e.g., U.S.) to apply for a B-2 visitor visa on arrival, business visitors are not allowed to work and must obtain a valid B-1 work visa in his or her passport prior to engaging in productive work in Israel.  

Companies wishing to sponsor assignees to Israel must produce evidence that a foreign worker possesses truly specialized skills and that the foreign worker’s salary will be at least twice Israel’s average monthly salary (approximately US$2,500).  B-1 work permit applications will be reviewed from an industry-specific perspective to ensure that foreign worker academic and professional credentials are directly related to the proposed position duties and that an Israeli national work is not readily available to perform the proposed job. Presently, the Israeli Ministry of Interior is processing uncontested B-1 work permit applications between two to three months from date of filing.

Agreeing to undergo a labor audit by the UKBA is one of the conditions for a sponsor license. An audit generally means both a physical audit of the company’s immigration compliance files, site inspection and possible interviews of select foreign workers.  For companies, what a labor audit means is that a Licensed Sponsor does the following:

•           Continues to have systems in place to enable the company to meet the sponsorship duties;

•           Complies with the sponsorship duties and the specific requirements for the tier(s) (i.e., categories of work authorization) licensed for; and

•           Complies with the work permit arrangements and other immigration-related legislation.

In exchange for expedited processing of certain CoS applications to meet a UK company’s foreign labor needs, the UKBA expects Licensed Sponsors to voluntarily police and enforce all applicable immigration compliance requirements.  Authorizing Officers are reminded of their legal responsibility to follow the UKBA’s policy of “self-certification” by reviewing with the UKBA what records and policies are appropriate for maintaining the company’s license.

When a company is selected for a labor audit, a UKBA officer will typically forward a notification letter setting a mandatory inspection date and time at the company site.  Authorizing Officers and designated company HR representatives can expect an audit letter requesting a combination of requests for written documentation (e.g., updated staff lists confirming specific data on all foreign national workers; organization charts evidencing lines of responsibility and supervision; contracts of employment for all foreign workers, etc.) and a possible request to interview certain foreign workers.

To prepare for audits, clients considering a sponsor license application are urged to work with a qualified UK immigration provider to review the company’s qualifications for a license and confirm if the company has the appropriate personnel and systems in place to maintain its license. For clients notified of an audit, the Authorizing Officer and HR should work with their UK immigration provider (if applicable) to conduct an advance internal audit of files and to also confirm availability of those employees identified for interview.

Readers are welcome to further review this information at the following:

U.S. consular jurisdictions in India (U.S. Citizens Services)

Passport Services Information

Applicants are reminded that with the exception of issuing 90-day, emergency U.S. passports, most passport services require transmission of the applicant’s passport and/or passport application request to the U.S. State Department. Applicants should be prepared to be without their original passports for at least one to two weeks.

While Iceland is a member state of the European Economic Area (EEA) community and the Schengen Area, it does not yet enjoy full member-state status in the EU. Currently, as a Schengen member state, Iceland permits “borderless” visitor travel with many other EU countries. In addition, Iceland has a highly integrated economy with the EU.  However, as an EEA member state, Iceland is party only to a common market. 

As an EU member state, Iceland will become party to the EU’s common government (headquartered mostly in Brussels) that will also help Iceland to strengthen its freedom of movement of goods, services and people within both the EEA and EU common markets.  

Serbia’s bid to join the EU has been marked by the Serbian Government making strides to open discussion in its recognition of the break-away region of Kosovo as a newly-independent state and to address anti-corruption reforms in the Serbian Government.  

As a result of Serbia’s positive discussions in taking a more diplomatic approach to Kosovo and addressing government reforms, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Štefan Füle, has recommended that Serbia be granted Candidate Status by the EU Commision. By having Candidate Status, this will allow the EU and Serbia to continue further negotiations for advancing Serbia’s candidacy for full membership status.

Given the EU’s continuing concern over gaining control over the region’s common currency market, the Eurozone, and calming fears of certain EU member countries discussing their departure from the EU community, it will be interesting to see how accession talks continue with Iceland and Serbia over the coming months.

 1) For visa, 3 pieces of 4×6 cm photos (Both for assignee and dependent)

2) For work permit, 3 pieces of 3×4 cm photos (For assignee)

From a global mobility perspective, the Brazil-EU Summit signals that the Brazilian economy is flexing its own economic might to negotiate more favorable movement of its nationals as well as those of other MERCOSUR-country nationals.

As part of its joint action plan, Brazil is promoting people-to-people exchanges with the EU. By negotiating as regional blocs, both Brazil and the EU may usher in a new standard of how countries will adopt new migration policies for member countries of each bloc.   For instance, one of the planned items is “to facilitate tourism flows between the EU and Brazil in the framework of the 50,000 tourists pilot initiative aimed at facilitating tourism flows between South America and Europe in the low seasons and to strengthen European identity, as well as the establishment of a dialogue on tourism-related matters.”

By creating stronger and more comprehensive policies on a regional bloc basis, this could avoid the burden of dealing with differing and individual bilateral agreements affecting the intra-regional mobility of personnel.  While definitive policy on movement of personnel has yet to be negotiated and established, as the conference pointed out, “migration, people-to-people contacts and consular issues are increasingly important in the context of globalization, given the large-scale movement of people from region to region.” 

Given this important conference between an emerging bloc of countries and an established regional bloc of countries, future migration/mobility policies may be dictated more at a regional level than on bilateral negotiations between individual countries.

Source:  V European Union – Brazil Summit Joint Statement Brussels, 4 October, 2011 | EU Press Release. Please see URL for original content. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/124878.pdf