As we all know, it is illegal for any foreigner to stay at any country beyond what is allowed by his or her visit visa.
The General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) recently re-emphasized this on the Saudi Gazette blog, mentioning the consequences for those who will intentionally violate the rule.
Actually, both the overstaying foreigner and the expat or the Saudi national who had the visit visa issued will be fined. How much, you ask? Well that would be a maximum fine worth of SR50,000 (that’s somewhere around Php639,000). As if that is not enough, you will also have to serve a jail time of 6 months. Expatriate workers, on the other hand, will also be deported.
For the first offence of overstaying on a visit visa, the fine will be SR15,000 (about Php191,000). For the second time, the fine will jump to SR25,000 (around Php319,000) along with 3 months if imprisonment. On the third time, the SR50,000 and 6-month jail time will be the consequence, according to the directorate.
As mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, the expat or Saudi who issued the visit visa will face penalties as well.
Of course, the safest thing for foreigners, expats, and Saudis to do is to abide by the law. That way, they will be able to prevent any undesirable results that could come due to overstaying.
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The directorate said that they encourage Saudis and expatriates to get in touch with them should they have any concerns regarding visit visas and other related matters. Useful information can be found online through their official website http://www.gdp.gov.sa/. Should people have specific questions that they want answered, the directorate can be reached via email at gdp.gov.sa@992.
That way, legal problems will be avoided and so foreigners, expats, and Saudis will be free from any unnecessary worries.