Sponsors of non-Saudis in the Kingdom must pay for the renewals of their workers’ iqamas. The cost is SR1,000 per employee and the payments are required to be made at either Riyad Bank or Al-Rajhi Bank. The banks then forward the payments to the passport office where the procedures are completed.
There are, however, some problems in what seems at first to be simple. Not all branches of the two banks accept cash payments and they are accepted only in a few specified branches of the banks. The solution to these problems is to obtain an ATM card which enables the sponsor to pay the fee at any ATM machine. The trouble here, however, is that the sponsor will have to open a bank account with one of the two banks in order to get their ATM cards. In other words, if the sponsor’s bank account is not with one of the two banks, he cannot use his account to pay for his workers’ iqamas. Paying through banks without question facilitates transactions and is practical, but this facilitation would benefit from allowing payments to be made at any bank.
Sponsors should be able to pay the fees through any bank, whatever it is. It is possible that Riyad Bank and Al-Rajhi Bank have made some kind of deal with the passport department. Surely the passport department should study the matter and allow cash payments. It seems pointless for sponsors to have to open accounts they do not need at banks they do not deal with in order to perform a transaction which is required only once or twice a year. It should be possible to convince other banks to cooperate and serve the public by making their payments easier.
