Saudi Arabia · Work authorisation

Employer-sponsored work visa and work permit

Issued by MHRSD, the Saudi labour ministry, with the visa issued through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
4
Possible outcomes
2
Last checked
2026-10-05

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

The route starts with the employer, not with you: under Article 32 of the Labour Law, recruitment for work needs the Ministry's approval, and under Article 33 the permit is granted to a worker under contract with an employer and under its responsibility. Since 2025 every work permit is classified into one of three tiers, high-skill, skilled or basic, on qualifications, experience, professional skills, wage and age.

Qualification

What it wants from your degree

Article 33 of the Labour Law asks for the professional competence or academic qualifications the country needs. For the high-skill tier, the Ministry's guide adds that the occupation falls in major groups 1 to 3 of the Saudi occupational classification, that the total wage is not below the tier's minimum, that the worker passes the Professional Accreditation programme, and that the application passes the Ministry's points system on qualifications, experience and wage.

The procedure

4 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Secure a contract with a Saudi employer. The employer obtains the Ministry's approval to recruit and holds the work visa; through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa platform it authorises the use of that visa at the Saudi mission, directly or through a recruitment office.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Expect your qualifications and experience to go through the Ministry's Professional Accreditation programme, which the guide makes a condition of the high-skill tier. For the occupations in major groups 1 to 3 it takes the form of Professional Verification, which checks your qualifications and experience for authenticity and against the professional requirements of the Saudi labour market.The Ministry states that Professional Verification now covers more than 160 countries and over 1,000 occupations. Its list of covered countries and occupations sits on Qiwa, which could not be read from here: confirm with your employer whether your occupation and country are covered.
  2. Pay for the health certificate. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa platform runs it as a separate payment for anyone applying for a work or residence visa.

Register and start working

  1. Enter Saudi Arabia on the work visa and receive the work permit, which ties you to your employer and to the occupation recorded on it: under Article 38 of the Labour Law, the employer may not employ you in another occupation.Article 34 of the Labour Law adds that the work permit does not replace any licence another body requires to practise the work or profession. If your occupation is licensed, the permit alone does not let you start.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Fees

Visa, work permit and residence permit
Not published on any official page we could open: the platforms that run them (Qiwa, Absher, my.gov.sa) block automated reading. Ask your employer which of them it pays
Health certificate
Paid on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa platform; the amount is not shown on its public page

Timeframes

Professional Verification
No standard time is published. The Ministry reports checks completed in a record time not exceeding 15 days

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into Saudi Arabia and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

4 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-10-05, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route Saudi Arabia opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

Check my path →All Saudi Arabia permits