Status of 4,000 Egyptians corrected

The residency status of more than 4,000 Egyptian workers has been rectified in the past few weeks, said a diplomat at the Egyptian Consulate in Jeddah.
Consul General Adel Al-Alfi said: “On a daily basis, we receive more than 1,000 Egyptian nationals wishing to correct their status.”
The grace period, during which the Saudi government allows workers to correct their legal status and work for their sponsor, ends on July 3. Al-Alfi expressed his gratitude to the Saudi authorities for their speedy response despite pressures it is facing to process the transactions of nationals of other countries.
“More than 4,000 Egyptians have had their fingerprints taken already. Most of them have left Saudi Arabia,” he said. However, a large number is awaiting the completion of procedures to leave the country before the grace period is over, Al-Alfi added.
He said the labor section of the consulate is making extra efforts to provide jobs to workers who wish to transfer sponsorship and rectify their status.
He pointed out that consulate teams are working around the clock.
Egyptians waiting outside their consulate in temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius is a common sight. Some have waited for days in the hope of rectifying their status or returning home.
Some of the complained that the consulate staff was slow in handling the paperwork and this had led to congestion.