Cairo: Kuwaiti authorities have extended a grace period by an additional month for illegal foreign residents in the country, local media reported.
The deadline for those expatriates was due to expire on Thursday, but Interior Minister Thamer Al Ali Thursday decreed the grace period be extended until mid-May, the media said, citing Security Relations and Media Department at the Ministry of Interior.
Authorities urged illegal residents to apply for readjusting their status during the new extension period, saying that those failing to do so will be liable to penalties, including denial of residency permission, deporting from the country and a ban on re-entry.
The latest extension aims to allow more time for illegals to legalise their status and avoid related penalties that the Interior Ministry will apply after this grace ends, authorities said.
Visa violators
No specific number of illegal residents in Kuwait has been given. Last year, they were estimated at about 100,000 visa violators.
Kuwait has repeatedly extended the grace period for illegal residents in the past months.
The first grace period began in March last year following the global coronavirus outbreak and was supposed to end in May.
The Gulf country has in recent months sought to redress its demographic imbalance amid fallout from the pandemic.
