Kuwait to offer only one-year residency for expats – report

Kuwait plans to start issuing one-year residency permits for expats even as the country attempts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of low oil prices, local media reported.

The country currently grants two-year residency permits to expats and their families.

The new decision will apply to all expats entering the country as well as foreign wives of Kuwaiti citizens, children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaiti mothers whose children are citizens, local daily Al Rai reported.

However, a source from the Ministry of Interior told the paper that expats working in the country’s private sector who hold a work permit of two years or more are presently exempt from the decision.

Expats currently account for roughly 70 per cent of Kuwait’s 4.8 million population, however, the Gulf state would like expat numbers to reduce to 30 per cent of the country’s population, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said in June.

That would require cutting down the number of foreign workers by around 2.5 million.

Read: Kuwait doesn’t want to be an expat-majority nation anymore

As part of that, several government entities have started cutting down on employing foreign workers.

Kuwait has also confirmed that it will stop issuing work permits to expats aged over 60 who do not have a university degree. The decision is set to be implemented from January 1, 2021 and will be applied when their residency permits expire.

Read: Kuwait going ahead with decision to ban work permits for expats aged over 60 from Jan 1