Older Expats In Kuwait To Be Blocked From Renewing Their Work Permits

Expats in Kuwait will not have their work permits renewed once they’ve reached 70 years old.

Older expat professionals living and working in Kuwait will now lose their entitlement to work permit renewals once they’ve reached 70, irrespective of their professions or job titles. In addition, the emirate’s Public Authority for Manpower is now refusing to grant work permits for more than two or three years for those over 65. However, according to a source, it’s possible those affected could transfer their existing resident permits to family visas.

As Kuwaitization continues to be the scourge of working expats, those who’ve married and are starting a family should also expect a hard time from the emirate’s boundless bureaucracy. The first step for those with newborns is to get a birth certificate, without which the new arrival won’t be allowed a passport from your embassy and an iqama from Kuwait’s residency department. The report of the birth must be made with 60 days, with a penalty of either a fine or imprisonment should you forget on two separate occasions.

A local English language newspaper followed up the entire experience of one couple, including the reams of paperwork which need to be completed both before and after the baby is born and the fact that the hospital waited three days to inform the husband he was now a father. Bureaucracy began the day the mother and newborn were released from the hospital along with a pink copy of the birth record. The new family were told to submit the paperwork to the government’s birth record department in order to get an official birth certificate. Delay, they were informed, could prove costly if fines are imposed.

At the record centre, the father was told the record wasn’t ready, instructing him to return after four days. When he arrived on the fifth day, an official said there were unacceptable erasures on his paperwork which resulted in his having to get the documents attested at the translation office. Once this was done, he was instructed to return after a week to get the birth certificate. The card itself is in Arabic and needs a full translation into the home country’s language before the baby’s passport and full residency can be granted.