Riyadh—Amlak
The Ministry of Labor has issued the «Nitaqat» guide, which details the visa issuance process for the construction and building sector. It includes a review of private contracts submitted by companies or hotels and similar entities, such as furnished apartments, private hospitals and clinics, and banks, based on the following basis: one male cleaning worker per 200 square meters, and one female cleaning worker per 100 square meters if there is a women’s section per shift.
According to a letter from the Ministry of Labor to the Council of Saudi Chambers regarding the guidelines on the visa issuance mechanism for the construction and building sector, maintenance workers are allocated at a rate of 10 % of the total estimated cleaning workforce derived from the aforementioned formula, subject to on-site inspection; With regard to visas granted for maintenance, cleaning, and catering contracting activities (under establishment), the required number is taken in a manner that does not reduce the facility’s scope below the minimum threshold for the reduced green category.
The Ministry of Labor has announced that work is underway to amend the text of paragraph (1-3), which states «certification by the Contractors Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a condition for granting visas for this activity» in future editions of the Scope Guide, so that the Ministry of Labor will not require certification by the Contractors Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
On the other hand, experts expect the construction sector to take a step toward strengthening its contribution to the Saudi economy and increasing its estimated growth rate of 8.1 percent during the current year by complying with the Joint Committee’s recommendation regarding visa issuance requirements.
Fahad Al-Hammadi, chairman of the National Contractors Committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers, explained that the issue of regulating the issuance of visas for skilled workers in the sector, is one of the most prominent and critical challenges that requires analysis and the development of an appropriate mechanism to address it, given that the sector relies heavily on expatriate labor—at a rate of no less than 95 percent.
He added: “We face significant difficulties in the localization of construction professions, and we believe these difficulties will persist unless there are specialized institutes that produce generations of Saudi professionals in various fields, and I believe that the actual number of workers currently employed legally in the sector does not exceed 3 million, not counting the informal workforce in the market that moves between small and informal establishments, whose numbers exceed those of the formal workforce.
The Ministry of Labor recently confirmed that it has introduced a new category called “Project Facilities Activity,” aimed at separating construction, cleaning, maintenance, and operations activities related to projects supported by government endorsement contracts, to streamline procedures for these projects, given their unique nature, which helps drive economic development and facilitates the visa application process, while ensuring that the scope of the main entity is not affected by the scope of the