Saudi Arabia

Salary in IT

$ 21 281 – $ 42 106

Median

$ 27 198

Changing employer

After the 2021 reform (the Absher/Qiwa platforms) an employee can change sponsor and obtain an exit/re-entry visa without the employer's consent, but only once the contract term or the set notice period has ended. During an active contract, changing employer still requires the employer's consent.

Visa types: Visit visas are the best documented branch: a single-entry visa is valid for 90 days with a stay of up to 90 days, a multiple-entry one for a year with the same 90 days per entry. The five visit purposes (tourism, family and friends, medical treatment, Umrah, business) cost $80 in duty plus two digital surcharges of $10.5 each plus an insurance policy priced by the insurer. Processing takes from one minute to three business days, and one to two for the business visa. · Nationality is not the only key to a visa. The KSA Visa platform asks the applicant not only for a nationality but also for a condition: a valid US, UK or Schengen visa used for at least one entry; residence in a Gulf state for no less than three months; permanent residence in the US, the UK or the EU. Which entry routes open up depends on the condition chosen — e-visa, visa on arrival or transit visa. A separate ministry lookup sorts nationalities into groups and answers, by country code, which group a country belongs to. · The electronic travel authorisation (ETA) is the kingdom's only route tied to a SINGLE nationality: it is open to British citizens, is valid for 730 days, allows a stay of up to 180 days and costs 50 riyals, non-refundable. No sponsor is needed, it is not issued at the border and it cannot be extended. · Work rests on a sponsor, not on a status. The chain has three links: the visa, the Ministry of Human Resources work permit (100 riyals, taken out within the first 90 days after entry) and the passport authority iqama. Changing employer is a separate service on the Qiwa platform, free of charge but with conditions placed on the company rather than the worker: a green Nitaqat band, valid permits, compliance with wage protection. · The state describes premium residency nowhere on a live address: the domains of its centre do not resolve, and the foreign ministry catalogue previously taken for it in fact names the residence visa for the families of diplomatic mission employees. There are no sums for it in any primary source, so none are recorded against the routes.

Employers: Saudi Aramco, stc (Saudi Telecom Company), SABIC, NEOM, Elm Company

The catalogue was rebuilt on 3 September 2026 from four government sources, and the chief one had never been opened before. The foreign ministry's KSA Visa platform has a MASTER DATA endpoint (`/api/Mofa/v1/api/VisaCatalog/VisaCatalogDetails?visaKind=…`) that returns, by visa kind code, the full card for a route: visa validity, processing time, requirements, steps and money lines. The catalogue used to be taken from the `VisaFinder` picker, which holds none of that, and for months the country carried the note «not a single published figure». The figures exist. The platform keeps detailed cards for six routes out of twenty-one — five visit ones, the escort visa and the electronic travel authorisation; for the rest the card carries only a name, a description and an external application address on the closed `services.ksavisa.sa` portal, which admits nobody without an account. The other three sources: the services section of the foreign ministry visa platform at `visa.mofa.gov.sa/Home/Index2`, which lists over twenty invitation and visa-request services (the `service_type` parameter changes nothing — all three addresses return one page with every service on it); the service catalogue of the Ministry of Human Resources at `hrsd.gov.sa`, where each service has boxes for fee, duration, conditions and documents; and the Ministry of Investment's Investor Guide (PDF, July 2026), which collects the one-stop-shop services of the passport authority, the Ministry of Human Resources and the foreign ministry with document lists and turnaround times. Staying in the kingdom almost always rests on a SPONSOR (the kafala system), and the chain has three links: the visa gives entry, the Ministry of Human Resources work permit gives the right to work, the passport authority iqama gives status. The ministry calls the permit outright a condition for issuing and renewing an iqama, and it must be taken out within the first 90 days after the worker enters. There are three ways out of this scheme, and all three are recorded as separate routes: the Ajeer permit lets an accompanying family member of a resident work, a domestic worker arrives on a visa taken out by a private person through the Musaned platform, and a diplomatic mission employee may hire a worker under his PERSONAL sponsorship. The state prints little about money, but it does print some. Visit visas cost $80 plus two digital surcharges of $10.5 (for the visa and for the insurance) plus the policy itself at the insurer's price; the card computes no total. The electronic travel authorisation for British citizens costs 50 riyals and is non-refundable. A work permit costs 100 riyals in the fee box of its page, a domestic worker visa 2000 (no unit in the box, but a neighbouring service of the same ministry writes «100 ريال»). Everything else in the Ministry of Human Resources catalogue is marked free, and the investor guide prints the same line under every one-stop-shop service: pay the fees of the agency that provides the service, if there are any — amounts the guide never names. What could not be found. Premium residency (the «Saudi green card») is not named in the foreign ministry catalogue at all: the «Residency» catalogue previously taken for it is titled, in the master data, «residence visa for the families of diplomatic mission employees». The premium residency centre's domains `prc.gov.sa`, `premiumresidency.gov.sa` and `saudiresidency.gov.sa` opened nowhere on 3 September 2026: the first is delegated in the zone but its name servers refuse, the second and third are not in the zone at all. The sums that circulate in guidebooks (800,000 riyals once, or 100,000 a year) are unconfirmed by any primary source and are therefore not recorded. The unified portal `my.gov.sa` returns 403 on ANY path, `robots.txt` included, and does so to a real browser too; `qiwa.sa` answers every path with a 246-byte «request rejected» page; `absher.sa`, `gdp.gov.sa` (the passport authority), `laws.boe.gov.sa` (the legal database) and `moi.gov.sa` do not answer at all from outside the kingdom.

Permanent residence after

no residence period required

Citizenship after

10 years

Language

The law states no formal language requirement, but citizenship application documents must be translated into Arabic.

Dual citizenship

not allowed

Naturalisation is highly selective: consideration requires at least 10 years of continuous residence on an ordinary residence permit. A committee scores applications on a 33-point system (length of residence — up to 10 points, professional qualifications — up to 13, family ties — up to 10); a minimum of 23 points is needed, and the final decision rests with the minister of the interior. There is no Western-style “permanent residence” status as such — there is the paid Premium Residency (which does not lead to citizenship) and a naturalisation route through 10+ years of residence. Naturalisation happens extremely rarely. According to the official text of the Premium Residency Permit Law (Premium Residency Centre, art. 3–4; edition published in November 2024), the status is granted not for years lived in the country but for a fee/investment: art. 4 requires only a valid passport, proof of financial solvency, a clean criminal record and a medical certificate of no infectious diseases (for applicants already in the country — lawful current stay at the time of application, not length of residence). The open-ended option costs 800,000 SAR one-off, the renewable one 100,000 SAR/year (in force since 2019); since January 2024 the Special Talent, Gifted, Investor (from 7 million SAR in investment and creating 10+ jobs within 2 years), Entrepreneur and Real Estate Owner categories have been added — also based on financial and qualification criteria, with no residence-length requirement. So Premium Residency has no residence requirement whatsoever: it does not enter its conditions in a single line — hence the zero in the years-to-permanent-status field, an answer of “none” rather than a blank.

There is no residence-length requirement for permanent residence in the law: the Premium Residency Permit Law (primary source — misa.gov.sa) grants permanent status for a one-off or annual payment and through investment categories, not for years lived in the country. Zero here is the answer “none”, not an absence of data. The barrier here is financial, and a high one; an ordinary iqama is not a permanent status and is tied to the employer. Checked 2 August 2026.

Document certification

apostille

The country is party to the 1961 Hague Convention: a degree or certificate is authenticated with a single apostille in the country that issued it.

Limit

2

Antibody titre test

not needed

Banned breeds: Pit bull terrier and its varieties (American Pit Bull Terrier, American Bully, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier), Rottweiler and its crossbreeds, Boxer, Mastiff and its varieties, including the Fila Brasileiro and Dogo Argentino, Japanese Tosa, Bull Dog, Perro de Presa Canario

Found through the official route via MEWA (the Naama e-government portal, naama.sa) — this data was not found on the first pass; on the second, the agency's official PDF instructions helped, rather than law-firm summaries. Bringing in cats and dogs requires the electronic “pet entry and exit permit” (دليل استخدام: إذن دخول وخروج الحيوانات الأليفة, MEWA/Naama). Requirements: an electronic microchip or other means of identification; an original veterinary health certificate from the state authority of the exporting country and a rabies vaccination certificate with at least 6 months of remaining validity; the animal must be at least 4 months old; the owner must be at least 18 for cats and 21 for dogs; the application must be filed no later than 15 days before shipment, the permit is valid for 30 days from the date of issue and requires the animal to be brought in strictly through the entry point named in the permit; a person may hold no more than one permit every 6 months and no more than 2 animals per permit. A rabies antibody titre is not mentioned among the requirements — only the vaccination certificate — so laboratory titre testing does not appear to be required, based on this source. The state fee for the permit itself is 0 SAR; according to a 2019 MEWA news item the typical processing time is 3 working days, while the service card on naama.sa for a separate procedure below gives a range of 3–7 working days. A quarantine period in days is not specified in these documents — they only mention the application of the unified GCC veterinary quarantine law, without a specific figure. Separately from the standard procedure: the seven breed categories listed above are excluded from the ordinary “entry and exit permit” and are brought in (if at all) only through a separate, stricter procedure, «إذن استيراد حيوانات شرسة» (permit for importing aggressive breeds) — with additional vetting through the Public Security Directorate and Absher, and the ministry's right to limit the quantity and timing of imports according to capacity and to refuse by country of origin on the basis of WOAH/OIE reports.

Situation

tension

An absolute monarchy, domestically stable, but the country is caught up in regional tension: Houthi attacks from Yemen on Saudi territory (including on Abha airport), and a risk of strikes on infrastructure in Riyadh, Jeddah and Abha. The UK Foreign Office advises against going within 10 km of the Yemeni border and urges caution in the 10–80 km zone from it.

Crime: Street and property crime are low thanks to strict enforcement. IMPORTANT: sharia law applies — zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol, and strict norms of behaviour and dress in public places; this is not reflected in standard crime indices.

The main natural hazard is extreme summer heat nationwide; the second is local flash flooding from sudden downpours, especially in Jeddah. Seismic and volcanic activity is low.

Type

Hot desert (BWh)

Sunny days

~320 a year

A desert climate: a very long and extremely hot summer and a short mild winter. Rainfall is very low, mostly in March and April. Riyadh has ~3,225 hours of sunshine a year (~72% of the possible total, Riyadh New weather station, 1991–2020 normals), so the figure in days is approximate.

Life expectancy

79 years

Migration

inflow

Healthcare: A state health system (the health ministry) plus a developed private sector; health insurance is compulsory for foreign residents.

Air: Periodic dust storms reduce air quality and visibility.

Flows: Foreigners make up about 40% of the population (2024 census); the economy depends heavily on foreign labour, especially in the oil industry.

Bread, 500 g

$ 1,00

Milk, 1 l

$ 1,63

Eggs, 12

$ 2,52

Chicken breast, 1 kg

$ 8,31

Cheese, 1 kg

$ 7,79

Rice, 1 kg

$ 2,14

Potatoes, 1 kg

$ 1,21

Apples, 1 kg

$ 2,17

Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l

$ 2,19

Total

$ 29,0

The same set for every country, so the comparison is fair.

Rent, 1 bedroom

$ 659 a month

Rent, 3 bedrooms

$ 1 339 a month

Utility bills

$ 88,8 a month

Home internet

$ 70,5 a month

Monthly transport pass

$ 48,7 a month

Single transport ticket

$ 1,13

Petrol, litre

$ 0,60

Cold medicine

$ 3,84 for a week

Country averages. City prices, where collected, are shown above and are more precise.

Life expectancy

79 years2024

Homicides

0,8 per 100k2024

Road deaths

18,5 per 100k2021

Unemployment

3 %2025

Unemployment, ages 15–24

10 %2025

Health spending per person

$ 1 825 a year

Air pollution, PM2.5

73,5 µg/m³2023

Access to clean water

99 %2024

Internet, fixed line

174,5 Mbit/s2026

Internet, mobile

227,9 Mbit/s2026

Governance

Political stability

below average · -0,1

Control of corruption

above average · 0,8

Rule of law

above average · 0,2

Government effectiveness

above average · 0,8

World Bank estimates on a −2.5 to +2.5 scale, higher is better.

Natural hazards

Earthquakes

1,8 out of 10

River floods

4,8 out of 10

Coastal floods

4,7 out of 10

Tropical cyclones

0 out of 10

Droughts

5 out of 10

Tsunamis

0 out of 10

Policy towards newcomers

Migrant integration, overall score

9 out of 100 · 2019

Family reunification

43 out of 100 · 2019

Permanent residence

0 out of 100 · 2019

Access to citizenship

0 out of 100 · 2019

Access to the labour market

0 out of 100 · 2019

Measures how favourable the law is towards newcomers, not one person's chances of getting a visa.

Each value carries the year it refers to. “Data lags behind” means this country's figure was collected noticeably earlier than the rest. Natural hazards use one 0–10 scale and are meant to be compared against each other.

Israel · Qatar · United Arab Emirates

Israel · Qatar · United Arab Emirates

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