The assistant minister was responding to British Deputy Consul General Michael Cockle, who told the newspaper on Friday that British businessmen were frustrated by their inability to obtain entry visas to Saudi Arabia quickly.
“The Saudi diplomatic missions abroad have blanket clear instructions to give utmost attention and provide all facilities to ensure entry visas are granted to businessmen very quickly. This of course includes British businessmen,” Prince Khaled said.
He reiterated that the embassy in London had never rejected any request from any British businessman to visit the Kingdom. “We give British businessmen the type of entry visa they request, whether a single entry for one trip or multiple for three months, six months or a year,” he said.
The assistant minister said the representative of the UK Trade and Investment Office in London makes regular visits to the consular section in the embassy to finish visa procedures for businessmen.
“The last visit of the representative to the embassy was on Feb. 17, when entry visas to a group of British businessmen were duly finalized and given to him,” he explained.
Prince Khaled recalled that during 2011 alone, the Saudi embassy in London issued 35,377 entry visas for commercial purposes.
In his interview with the newspaper, Cockle, who is the head of the trade and investment section at the British Consulate in Jeddah, asked the Kingdom to review the procedures for granting entry visas to British businessmen and investors.
“Our businessmen complain that it takes them a long time to obtain entry visas to the Kingdom,” he said.
