“I can’t speak about others, but it has affected my life in one important way,” said 25-year-old Indian national Muhammad Asghar Salami.
He is single and works as an accountant at an Alkhobar-based travel agency and earns just below SR4,000 a month.
Salami says he arrived in the Kingdom on what is popularly described as a “free visa.” It is a kind of visa that helps a person enter the Kingdom on a permanent visa but without any job guarantee. Though it is described as such, it does not come free. It actually costs a fortune and is technically illegal.
Free visas are generally for low-category professions such as drivers, laborers, masons, painters or electricians. Salami’s profession was listed as electrician or qahrabayee on his visa.
“I never gave much thought to the profession. I was desperate to come down to Saudi Arabia. The person who arranged the visa for me told me not to make a fuss about it. ‘It is merely a technicality. Just come down,’ he told me.”
Two months in Dammam and armed with an iqama and a degree in accounting, Salami went scouting for jobs. He was lucky and was hired at the travel agency. He has been there for the last three years.
“I have had no complaints. I get enough and I save enough. I visit India after every nine months,” he said.
However, Salami is now facing a weird problem. Back home in India, young and successful Indians are seen as potential bridegrooms. They are highly valued in the marriage market.
That was not the case with Salami though. At least on seven different occasions his proposals to marry a girl from a decent family were turned down.
“You will not believe it. The reason for rejecting me given by those seven families was the profession on my iqama. They were not interested in marrying their daughter to somebody who is not allowed to bring her to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Salami’s case is not unique. There are hundreds of unmarried expatriates from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who find themselves in similar circumstances. “Thanks to the Internet, parents in India and Pakistan have become very aware of who can get the family into Saudi Arabia. Previously, people would be interested only in the kind of job a guy was doing and the amount he was earning. Now, the first question parents of prospective brides ask is, ‘can he get his wife into Saudi Arabia?’” said Arshad Siddiqui, a longtime Riyadh resident who, along with his wife Zeba, act as matchmakers for many expatriates. “They are not ready to take the risk.”
Salami says his best option now is to marry a girl who is from his country and is a daughter of Kingdom-based expatriates.
“She would be an iqama holder, and then I would not have to worry about changing the profession on my iqama,” he said.
Siddiqui said high-earning unmarried expatriates with a low-category work visa based in Jeddah have a distinct advantage.
“We try to convince parents in India to marry their daughters to those in Jeddah because even if they are unable to bring them into the country on a permanent visa, they can always join their potential husbands in Jeddah or Makkah or Madinah on an Umrah visa,” he said. However, that is not a luxury afforded to those in Riyadh and Dammam.
As has been reported in the past, high-earning expatriates working in the Kingdom on low-category work visas are not allowed to bring their families into the country on permanent resident visas. They are issued to only professionals such as engineers, doctors and executives. For well-paid expatriates who fall under the lower visa category, it is a problem destined to keep many alone and unhappy.
