“Our offices will operate during the holidays to accept emergency cases of citizens and residents that cannot be postponed,” said Maj. Gen. Salim Al-Belaihed, director general of the Passport Department.

Other departments, such as the Saudi Food and Drug Administration and local chambers of commerce headquarters will be staffed during the holiday to provide services such as customs clearance and notarization of documents.

“Our offices will operate during the holidays to accept emergency cases of citizens and residents that cannot be postponed,” said Maj. Gen. Salim Al-Belaihed, director general of the Passport Department.

Al-Belaihed urged Saudis and expatriates to cooperate with the department by approaching its offices only for emergency cases during Eid holidays.

Muhammad Al-Jasser, spokesman of the local Department of Civil Status, said the department would work to complete emergency cases related to registration of births and deaths and issuance of birth and death certificates.

The last day for government workers (and regular services) before the two-week holiday was Wednesday. Banks and other companies that don’t follow the government holiday will be closed between Sept. 7 and Sept. 14.

Some public and private sector departments may not be back to usual routine until Sept. 18 (Saturday) due to the habit of bridging the end of the Eid holiday to the following weekend in vacation planning. Banks will also likely be crowded for a number of days after they re-open on Sept. 14. Banks will also be closed on Sept. 23 for the Saudi National Day holiday, which lands on a Thursday this year.
 

Meanwhile the Control and Investigations Bureau (CIB) in Riyadh reported on Thursday that about 68,600 government officials accounting for 20 percent of workers in government offices were absent on Wednesday. The CIB is responsible for monitoring the work habits of government employees.

Due to the tendency for cheating employees to modify their time-sheets to make it appear like they attended the last day of work before the Eid holiday, the CIB has recommended that fingerprint scanners should be used to more accurately monitor the comings and goings of government workers.

According to regulations the absence on the day before a vacation is considered a single day’s absence while the absence on the first day back to work is considered a two-day absence.