Abu Dhabi: No visa violators were registered in Kuwait in 2020 for the first time in the country’s history, a senior official said.
This was the good news of COVID-19 pandemic era, narrated by Brigadier Dr. Hamad Rashid Al Tawalah, director of the residency department.
Al Tawalah added despite all facilities offered by the Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior, only 26,029 visa violators or 16 per cent out of 161,538 availed the amnesty and left the country without paying fines, while 195 others were registered but on waiting lists to leave.
“There are about 40,000 residents, whose visa expired while they are outside the country, and they will not be allowed to come back unless they obtain new visas,” Al Tawalah told Al Rai.
The amnesty, which was in place from April 1-30, permitted residency violators to leave the country without paying any fine, while allowing them a chance to return to the country later with the right documents.
Kuwait also arranged for special outbound flights to fly back those who had applied for amnesty.
Visa fees
Al Tawalah said about 7,000 Egyptians and Indians cancelled their residency visa permanently and left the country during the coronavirus crisis, most of them bachelors.
He added that once the work resumed in government entities, around 80,000 people adjusted their legal status, and 100,000 people entered the country on visit visas, and will leave once their term ends.
He said Kuwait plans to increase the visa fees by the end of this year, adding that its fees are the most affordable in the world. “The new visa fee structure will be comparable to that of other GCC countries and it will see the light before the end of this year,” Al Tawalah said.
Al Tawalah revealed that there are about 30,000 foreigners who entered the country after the 1990 Iraqi invasion, and they are still registered in the data bases. “But we have almost certain information that many of them have left with the coalition forces or through military bases,” he said.
“Even in 2003, about 6,000 Americans were registered in our data bases, but in reality we expect that they left the country, whether through the American army or through the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border crossing. We have addressed the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry and checked with their country’s embassies. We are sure they have left, but we do not know how they left the country,” he said.
The minister of interior has asked the authorities concerned to provide lists of violating workers who are “hidden from view”, pursue them through their sponsors and arrest those who do not surrender, a source said.
A block will be put on sponsors who do not comply with the regulations and their financial transactions frozen.
Amid increasing appeals to address the demographic imbalance in Kuwait, a government committee presented before parliament a master plan that could establish a 25 per cent population quota for foreigners and a 15-year cap on their living and working in the country.
Those above 60 may not get residency visas
Parliamentary sources said the plan includes making certain changes to the residency law. Sources said the plan includes measures such as not allowing visit visas to be converted into residency permits, not allowing transfer of jobs from the government sector to the private sector, not granting residency to those who are aged over 60 years and setting a 15-year cap on residency for expatriates, apart from imposing additional fees on renewing visas and raising fees related to various other government services and transactions.
The quota system will be the cornerstone of a comprehensive plan to address the demographic make-up and it will establish a 25 per cent cap on expatriate communities’ presence in the country.
Currently, 3.3 million expatriates live in Kuwait, constituting 70 per cent of the total population of 4.7 million.
