Saudi Arabia was among the world’s top countries that granted the highest number of visas in 2012, with 55 percent of these having been given for Umrah and Haj purposes, local media said quoting a Saudi diplomat.

The Foreign Ministry has now installed 18 fingerprint systems in its embassies abroad to facilitate visa issuance formalities, while work is underway to install even more such systems, according to the Director General of the branch ministry in the Eastern Province, Sulaiman bin Ahmed al-Aqail.

Al-Aqail, who was addressing a monthly meeting at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EPCCI), said that the branch ministry was keen to provide all required facilities to the business sector for their role in the developmental process of the Kingdom.

He said that the branch ministry attests nearly 1,000 documents per day, including work contracts, birth certificates and agencies. Three new attesting offices are planned, two within EPCCI branches and the third at Ahsa chamber of commerce and industry (ACCI).

In the first quarter of the current year, the branch ministry of foreign affairs extended 407 exit and re-entry visas, cleared 2,271 business visit visas, 473 government visit passes, 30,685 family visit visas, and 2,271 work-related visas in addition to a number of medical treatment and personal visit visas, he said.

Meanwhile, some 13,000 cases raised against Saudis abroad were received by Saudi care sections at Saudi embassies, of which 11,360 cases, or 85 percent, were resolved amicably before referred to courts, Al-Aqail said.