Procedure of Final Exit from Saudi Arabia

I say it several times in my friends’ gathering that only thing certain in Saudi Arabia is uncertainty. There is another thing which is certain and it is the final exit for expatriates living in Saudi Arabia. Irrespective of the number of years you spend in Saudi Arabia, you can never stay here forever.

Now I am narrating the Final Exit Procedure from Saudi Arabia for the help of readers of this blog. A procedure is accompanied by the number of Dos and Don’ts which you need to consider before processing the final exit. If your employer has already processed your final exit visa and you want to cancel it, please refer to this article. “Procedure to Cancel Final Exit Visa“[irp]

Dependent’s Fee: You need to pay the dependent’s fee for 2 months beyond the date you are applying for final exit visa before issuing final exit visa as the validity of final exit visa is 60 days. Let’s say, you are applying for final exit visa on 1st Shawal, you need to pay the fee till 1st Dhul Hijjah. I would recommend paying the fee till 5th Dhul Hijjah to be on safe side. If you don’t pay the fee, you won’t be able to issue final exit. Recommended: Procedure to pay Dependent’s Fee using Internet Banking

Resignation with Notice Period: You need to give notice to your employer for the number of days mentioned in your contract for the processing of your Final Exit visa. If your contract is silent about notice period, Labor Law suggests notice period of 30 days. We have detailed the rules regarding Notice Period under Saudi Labor Law in this link. Keep in mind; you have your End of Service Benefits with the employer so everything should be processed very smoothly.

Evacuation of House: You have to give at least 30 days’ notice to the landlord before leaving the house. Normally house rent is paid in advance for 3 to 6 months in Saudi Arabia. If you have paid the advance for the months you will not be living in Saudi Arabia, you should search for a tenant yourself.

Introduce him with the landlord and take the remainder of the rent from him. It is almost second to impossible to get back advance money from your current landlord. When you are searching for another tenant for the landlord, you should search for a buyer who can purchase all your belongings as well.

Obviously, you cannot get the same price from which you purchased it but it is still better to realize every single Ryal which you can. Rights of Apartment Tenants can be a good read for you.

Disconnect Landline and Other Post Paid SIM Cards: If you have any landline connection at your home under your name of STC, you must first deactivate the connection. You should deactivate it at least 15 days before processing the final exit visa.

Procedure for deactivation of STC landline is very simple nowadays. You just need to call from your landline to STC and request him to deactivate your service on a permanent basis. He will ask you to pay a certain due amount and confirm that if payment is made, service will be deactivated within 7 days.

You should pay that amount on the same day. If you have any mobile postpaid connection under your name, try also to deactivate it by paying all your bills. If some amount is payable in your name, you may have to face problem at the airport.

You can check the phone numbers registered under your Iqama from this link. Keep sufficient balance in your prepaid SIM card before going to the Airport for the final exit. This will be your only source of communication in case of any problem.

Pay off Electricity Bill: Electricity charges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are not too much. On average, one house receives around SR 50 – 100 electricity bill. It is better to pay it off before your final exit from Saudi Arabia. “How to Check Electricity Bill Online?”

Traffic Fines & Tickets: If you have any traffic fines or tickets under your name, try to clear them as soon as possible. You can check them online at this link. I would recommend keeping checking it till the time you finally departure from Saudi Arabia.

Sell Your Car: It takes the time to get a good offer for the sale of the car. There was a traditional way that you go to Haraj with the car; there would be several buyers there who will give you an offer after checking the car. This is surely the quickest way to sell your car but you may not get a good offer there.

When you have decided to go on final exit from Saudi Arabia, it is better to place an advertisement along with the pictures of the car and your intended selling price on expatriates.com. Soon, you will be receiving offers from the buyers; you can show them your vehicle at your ease.

If you don’t get a serious buyer and you reach to the last week of your departure, now it is the time to visit Haraj for a couple of days and get a good offer for the vehicle. Ownership transfer takes only one day so you don’t need to be worried about it.

You can make it sure from your account on Ministry of Interior Website that the ownership has actually been transferred from your name to the name of the buyer. You should make it sure before your departure that the name has been transferred.

Surrender Your Credit Cards: Payable amount at your credit card can stop your departure from the airport. It is very important that you pay off all the bills on the credit card and deactivate them. If you don’t have any payable amount but a credit card is active, you can still face the problem. Credit card companies take some time to deactivate the card, so it is better to surrender the credit card well before the time of departure from Saudi Arabia.

Credit card companies take some time to deactivate the card, so it is better to surrender the credit card well before the time of departure from Saudi Arabia.

Get Police Clearance Certificate: One of the mistakes people do when they decide to leave Saudi Arabia permanently means at the time of going on final exit visa is “not getting police clearance certificate” from the Police Department. I would suggest you not to repeat this mistake. I have explained the procedure of getting police clearance certificate during your stay in Saudi Arabia in this article.

Send the Important Belongings through Cargo: Before leaving the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on final exit, it is better to send all your important belongings through the Cargo service to your homeland. They will charge you around SR 3-5 per KG for the cargo through Sea.

If you are living in Jeddah, you can find such Cargo service provider in Balad. They will deliver the goods at your doorstep. Charges of air cargo are more than that which range to SR 8-10 per KG. If you are living in Riyadh, follow this link “Cargo Service from Riyadh”

End of Service Benefits: End of Service Benefits will be given to you after processing the final exit visa from Saudi Arabia. It is better to think before remitting your End of Service Benefits to your native country.

You must have analyzed that the exchange rate used by the banks is lesser than the exchange rate you can get if exchanged in your native country. If law and order situation is good in your country, you can carry this money in cash and get better exchange rate. What is the maximum amount of money you can carry from Saudi Arabia? Read into this link.

You should not be involved in any wrong activity at this point in time. If your family is going before your departure, you can hand over some amount to them and ask them to keep it safe in Bank account in your native country.

If cash you are carrying is more than that, the remaining amount should be remitted through the bank. Even if your employer transfer End of Service Benefits after you have left the country, you can still transfer this amount to your home country account.

At the Time of Departure: Once the final exit visa is issued, you have to within the validity of the final exit visa. Keep in mind that validity of your Iqama is not more applicable now. Please do not overstay otherwise you will be caught at the airport and will be detained for several months. Always book the ticket of your final departure when you are sure that the amount has been transferred.

Stamped Final Visa: According to new facilities, many companies do not give final exit visa paper to the employees. As a result, this paper is not stamped by the immigration authorities. At the time when you try to apply for a new visa, some agents ask for the paper.

Actually, these agents are not updated about the new procedures. Just ask them to process your case to Saudi Embassy. Saudi Embassy can check online if you have exited from Saudi Arabia through Final Exit Visa.