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Hi. My name’s Jon and, for over
a decade, I’ve been helping
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people to move to different parts of Asia.
In this video, I am going to give you an in-depth
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guide to living and working in Saudi Arabia.
So, let’s get going.
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Okay, so you’re in a position now were you’re
thinking about moving to Saudi Arabia to work.
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Okay, there are three things that
you need to think about when you’re
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going through that process of relocating.
Number one is the visa to enter the country.
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Number two is the residence permit
to live and work in the country.
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And the third one is your employment contract.
Let’s start with your visa first. If you go to
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Saudi Arabia on a tourism visa then that
allows you to move around Saudi Arabia
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and to see things, go visit attractions, etc.
Now, when you’re going to work there (in the
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future), you might go to do other things like
look at apartments to rent, go to the office
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where you’ll potentially be working…
But you’re not working – you’re not
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doing something where the employer
is going to pay you for that work.
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If you were doing that, then
you would need a different visa.
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The next thing to be aware of is your
residence permit. It’s know as an Iqama.
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So, that’s I Q A M A… Iqama.
That is the key document
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that you need to work in Saudi Arabia.
In my experience of dealing with people
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that are that are there and are thinking to work
for another company; they be saying “my Iqama is
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still valid for another six months”,
or twelve months, or whatever it is.
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In there past, there was a number of different
rules where, once you had that Iqama and you
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went out to Saudi Arabia, you had to work
for the first employer for a year or two
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before you could switch to another company.
Now, that has been changed. The
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employees now have extra rights.
So, if you go somewhere and you decide
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to go and work for someone else – and that other
company has offered you a job – you can switch.
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Even of you have been there only
a few months, or a few weeks.
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What the other company will do is they
will become your sponsor on the Iqama.
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So your residency permit switches
from one company to another.
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When you have the job offer, the
company who’s employing you in
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Saudi Arabia will arrange for the Iqama.
Then, once you’re going into Saudi Arabia,
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you need to go in on the correct visa that
allows you to enter and then work on that Iqama.
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Okay, the next thing to be aware
of is the employment contract.
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Obviously, when you talk to a
company the new role out there
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– even if you already work for that company – you
do need to have an employment contract in place.
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You may have emails going backwards and forwards
where there are different documents, different
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PDF forms and things that you complete.
So you may think “I have my employment
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contract and everything is good.
I’m now employed in Saudi Arabia”.
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The key factor here is that your employment
contract needs to go onto the database in Saudi
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Arabia – their local employment database.
That’s called the Qiwa… Q I W A.
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If your company doesn’t upload the
documents to the Qiwa database,
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then you’re not working legally.
If you’ve signed different things, different
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documents/offers… nothing actually is legal in
Saudi Arabia until it’s on the Qiwa database.
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So you do need to make sure that your employer
puts your signed contract onto that database.
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And that is something that
they should be aware of.
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The HR departments in the Kingdom will
know that’s a process you have to follow.
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If you’re an expat and you’re not already
in Saudi Arabia, you won’t have access to
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the Qiwa database yourself and you won’t have a
username and password until you’re in-country.
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You just need to check with your HR
department that your contract is on
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the Qiwa database and you have your Iqama in
place that allows you to stay in the country.
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And, that you have the correct
visa to enter the country.
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I did mention that, if you change
companies, the new company would then
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put your contract of employment onto Qiwa.
They will then be the sponsor of your Iqama.
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Once a new company goes on the database to become
your sponsor, your current company can’t say no,
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they can’t stop you transitioning to the new
employer – unless there’s any particular issue
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like something in your contract that you
haven’t delivered that’s actually a signed
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part of your contract, or maybe your Iqama
has already expired, or something like that.
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Provided you have a valid Iqama
and there’s no other reasons,
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you can easily move to a new company within
Saudi Arabia without having too many problems.
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Having said all this, I should say I am not
a lawyer, and I’m not an immigration advisor,
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so please do your own research as well and
talk to your HR department as you are moving.
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Saudi Arabia’s income tax…
Well, for the most part,
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if you’re working in Saudi Arabia, you
should not be paying any income tax.
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I think that is probably not a surprise to most
people. The same as elsewhere in the Middle East.
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The thing you need to be aware of is that you
need to be tax-resident within Saudi Arabia.
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You need to be spending at least six
months of the year in the country.
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You can’t just be dropping in for a few weeks
and calling yourself a tax resident there.
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The rules are different, I believe,
if you own property and you have
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permanent residency in Saudi Arabia.
For most expats, you need to be spending
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at least six months of the year working / living
in Saudi Arabia in order to be tax resident there.
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You may also have some other tax obligations if
you’re from countries that do double-taxation
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– you just need to check on that.
Also, if you work in Saudi Arabia for a
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short period but you’re not actually employed in
the country (you’re employed by someone overseas
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but you’re going to do work there and you’re
paid for the work in Saudi Arabia) then that
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may be subject to withholding taxes, for the
work that you are paid for in the country.
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For most people, working in Saudi Arabia,
you should be tax free. Which is pretty good!
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Let’s talk about accommodation.
Obviously, accommodation varies
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hugely in Saudi Arabia.
It’s a huge country.
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It really depends on where you’ll be based.
If you’re based in a big city like Riyadh, Jeddah,
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Dammam, then you can live in a compound or you
can just find an apartment or a villa to live in.
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If you’re going to work on a construction
site in a remote location, then that will
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usually have a compound provided for
the staff working on that project.
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In most cases, that will be covered by your
employer and you won’t have costs with that.
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But it’s not always the case. Even on those
remote locations, sometimes a company may
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give you a housing allowance and you need
to go and find your own accommodation.
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Most of the time, you’ll rent somewhere in
a compound, but you may get an apartment.
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To explain what a compound is…
Sometimes we have those ideas of compounds being
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high-security and away from the local population.
Certainly, in the big cities, a compound is
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just like an apartment complex with swimming
pools and gyms and different facilities.
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Yes, there is security. There
is a security guard on the gate.
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But it’s not really different from
living in any other apartment complex.
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They do vary massively, especially in the cities
like Riyadh, in terms of what they provide.
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Most would have a swimming pool and a gym, but
some are really lavish and luxurious, where they
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have 7, 8, or 9 swimming pools and slides.
They’ll have restaurants on site, cinema
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facilities, maybe different shops and things.
Even your dry cleaning. Everything done on site.
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You never need to leave the compound,
apartment from going to work.
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So you will obviously pay for that…
Generally speaking… I’ll focus on Riyadh
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as I just came back from there and I was
spending time with different people there…
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I would say that compounds are not cheap.
They’re not the cheapest option.
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In a basic compound, with just a pool
and gym, even a 1 bedroom unit within
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that compound in US dollars you’re at least
going to spend 1500 a month pretty easily.
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If you go up through the different levels as to
what you want in terms of facilities, a 2 bedroom
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is maybe 30,000 to 40,000 US dollars per year.
These are only rough figures.
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If you go really full-on and want one
of the really luxurious compounds,
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you could spend eighty to ninety thousand
US dollars a year on living in the compound.
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It does come down to; Are you getting
a housing allowance? Are you paying
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for it yourself, or is the company
just including it in your package?
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Ideally then, the company will be providing
you with the compound accommodation.
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Then you just need to know; Where is
that compound? Where will I be staying?
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At least then, you know what to expect and
what kind of facilities you’ll get to have.
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If you want to save money, if you’re in the
larger cities, apartments are the cheapest option.
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You could rent an apartment, even in
Riyadh, under a thousand US dollars a month.
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I would say that’s probably possible.
If you were looking at the luxurious end
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for a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment maybe
that’s thirty to fifty thousand US a year.
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And then you have villas and half-villas.
A half-villa is like a flat,
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where the villa is split into more than one unit.
It’s not an apartment. You have half of the villa.
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They’re possible as well. They
cost a bit more than apartments.
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Again, apartments are the cheapest option.
Compounds are excellent.
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You can get away from everything there.
Again, they are not cheap.
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Do check with your HR.
Are you going to be pay
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for the compound? Are they paying?
If you’re paying, then do some
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research to figure out what compounds
are available where you’re heading.
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Okay, let’s talk about day to day cost of living.
I would say it’s similar in Saudi Arabia to
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anywhere else in Asia, in my opinion.
Basically, if you want to buy local
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products and eat in local restaurants,
then the cost of living will be cheap.
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If you want to buy everything that you would have
back home, then it’s not going to be so cheap.
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In Saudi Arabia there are different
supermarkets. As an expat you
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might be heading to Carrefour, or Tamimi.
There’s also a couple like Hyperpanda and Lulu.
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You may not be so familiar with them.
Maybe Carrefour you’ll be familiar with.
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I’ve shopped in Carrefours in a few
different countries and – nothing again them,
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they’re really good and well-equipped
supermarkets -but they’re not cheap.
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Again… for Western products in Asia locations.
So you will spend a bit more than
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maybe you would back home.
If I talk about restaurants…
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I’ll give you some idea of things I spent
money on whilst I was last in Riyadh.
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I went to a nice restaurant in
the centre of Riyadh where I had
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a burger and fries and a coke zero (very
Western) which cost me US twenty dollars.
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I had a few trips to Costa Coffee
(which is a brand from the UK).
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An espresso cost me three dollars fifty cents US.
Peach Refresher drink was
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5 dollars thirty cents US, roughly.
Also, in a little café in Riyadh having a ciabatta
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sandwich and a tea cost about ten US dollars.
Going out in the evening time, I went to a bar
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(obviously there’s no alcohol) but I had a
mojito. A virgin mojito. With beef sliders.
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That cost me about twenty one US dollars.
Going to Starbucks, I had a very unhealthy
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breakfast (which is mentioned in one
of my other videos), a carrot cake,
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a blueberry muffin, and a grande latte. It
came to sixteen dollars and 80 cents US.
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Compared to other capital cities,
I would say it is kind of similar.
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If you are living in a big city, you
are going to pay big city prices.
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Those are the prices in Riyadh.
In other cities, I think it’ll be cheaper.
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Big city prices where you hope
to have big city salaries.
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If you want that Western lifestyle
living in Riyadh or other places,
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then you are going to pay for that.
I would that it was reasonable compared to
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what I’m used to from visiting different cities.
I would say the prices were pretty reasonable.
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You can take that into account.
I don’t know how much that helps.
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Not so much more expensive, but not cheap.
Don’t be moving thinking that everything
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is going to be super cheap just
because the country is tax free.
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There is still 15 percent VAT (Value Added
Tax) on food and other good in Saudi Arabia.
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So be aware of that too.
--
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If you have not been to Saudi Arabia before, or
you have not been to a primarily-Muslim country,
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you might not know what to expect from people.
Part of the etiquette within the Islamic culture
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is to act with good manners, decorum, and decency.
So it’s fundamental in Saudi Arabia for people
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there to be polite to you as an expat as well
as their friends and colleagues and family.
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For people in Saudi Arabia, in my
experience and the experience of
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people I have dealt with in the country, the
locals don’t tend to be too argumentative.
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If you are someone that is argumentative and
loud and shouty, you will need to tone that down.
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If you are going to be expressing your opinions
on different things (whatever that is) and you
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are a loud and aggressive person, then
that is not going to go down so well.
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I know that in the Western we are sometimes
encourages to argue, to get our points across,
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and to offer different points of view.
Not just in Saudi Arabia. Generally, in Asia,
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people are not as argumentative a Westerners are.
If you’re in the country, make sure that you
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treat people with politeness and
respect, and you will get on well.
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--
Another
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issue facing expats is thinking about… Will I fit
in? Will I stick out like a sore thumb and be the
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only expat in town, where everyone is going to
stare at me and ask me “where are you from?”?
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In my experience, when I was in
Saudi Arabia, I certainly wasn’t
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the only expat in town. In Riyadh, that is.
You have to remember that 40 percent of the
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population in Saudi Arabia are non-Saudi.
Being an expat in Saudi Arabia
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is not such an usual thing.
If you’re thinking about how you’re
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going to communicate, “I don’t speak Arabic… I can
only communicate in certain languages”… Basically,
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as long as you have English, then you’re all good.
Again, if you’re going to restaurants and
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F&B establishments, a lot of the people
working there will be form other places.
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Certainly, there’s a lot of people from the
Philippines working in F&B (Food & Beverage).
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The locals themselves can speak English as well.
Some will speak broken English, but a lot a
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perfectly fluent in English.
Some people in Saudi Arabia
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will have studied overseas.
Most people that I have encountered
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in Saudi obviously speak English.
There will be some people that
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don’t and can only speak Arabic.
With the Saudi Vision 2030 and the
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amount of work that is being that is being
done to achieve the ambitions of the kingdom;
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there is more and more people coming form
different places to work in the country.
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So, communication is a huge part of that.
Most people are communicating through English.
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As long as you have English as your main
vocabulary, then you should be fine.
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Or, if you are from other
countries, then it depends…
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If you are from China and you are going to work
for a Chinese company, obviously people there will
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be communicating in Mandarin, or Cantonese.
So it depends on your own situation.
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Generally, English is the best language to be
communicating with everyone in the country.
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So, if you’re an expat, don’t
worry. You’re not the only one.
00:19:28
Driving styles and traffic in Saudi Arabia…
I am going to base this mostly on Riyadh as
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that is the place that I have
been to and had experience of.
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When I speak to people that live in Saudi
Arabia as expats, or who visit there regularly,
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they all have the same complaint.
The same issue with the country.
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And that is; driving in the country.
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Being in Riyadh, I would say that from a traffic
point of view, I did not find traffic too bad.
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Certainly, I saw some traffic
at certain times of day.
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Like when I went to Al Wadi (Wadi
Namar), the reservoir and waterfall
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and tried to come out of that on a Friday
afternoon certainly it was very busy.
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There was lots of cars trying to get in there.
But, generally speaking, for a city of
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7.5 million people, I did not
find traffic in Riyadh bad at all.
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Certainly not as bad as some of the places that I
visit in Southeast Asia (sorry Jakarta, Manila!).
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Riyadh was okay.
I think it’s more the driving
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‘style’ that some people don’t enjoy.
The kind of tailgating and changing
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lanes and different things.
For people in the Middle East,
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people there kind of live in their cars.
Obviously it’s a very hot place in the summertime.
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Riyadh actually gets cooler in the winter as well.
So people do live in their cars.
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It’s the only way to get around, really.
There’s a lot of people on the road.
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Now, when I was in Riyadh, I
travelled around using Uber.
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I didn’t have any issues.
The drivers drove pretty nicely.
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The vehicles were all good. No issues.
I did see some fender-bender
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accidents while I was in the country.
Even if you’re there just a few days,
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there is a good chance you will see someone
bumping into someone else on the road.
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Saudi Arabia, over the last 20 years,
has had 86,000 deaths on the roads.
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If you look at people who die in hospital
in Saudi Arabia - 81% of people that die in
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hospital in Saudi Arabia is because they
were involved in road traffic incidents.
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There is definitely improvement
needed in the country.
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If you are male, aged between 16 and 30,
living in Saudi Arabia – traffic accidents
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are the main cause of death.
Pretty shocking statistics.
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There is a lot of work
needed to improve the roads.
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However, I would say, again, where
you’re based makes a huge difference.
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Riyadh is the capital and is a more modern city.
I found the infrastructure there to be
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pretty good.
The roads were all of a modern standard.
00:23:04
Obviously, when it rains, they flood.
It doesn’t happen very often,
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but it did happen whilst I was there in April.
As part of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is
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improving the infrastructure on the roads.
If you have heard of NCAP ratings when
00:23:27
buying a car, those are the new car assessment
ratings that were developed by the UK, Swedish,
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and Australian governments a few years again.
There’s also iRAP standards, which is the
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international standard for
road assessment programmes.
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Saudi Arabia has adopted the iRAP for roads.
So they are building roads to an international
00:23:50
standard now, around the country.
They are aiming to reduce road traffic deaths
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to 6 people per 100,000 in the kingdom.
And hopefully less than that as well.
00:24:08
Again, I would say, I have never been to a
big city and thought “this place has really
00:24:14
nice traffic”… apart from Singapore.
Singapore is one place where you don’t
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see much traffic.
But the reason for
00:24:22
that is because it has an amazing public
transport infrastructure system in place.
00:24:28
In Riyadh, for the last decade, they have been
building the Riyadh Metro, which is the metro
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rail network within the city.
It has not opened at the time
00:24:38
of filming, which is in mid-2024.
By the end of 2024, the Riyadh Metro
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will hopefully be open and it will have six lines
covering 176 kilometres of track and 84 stations.
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The whole project has cost
over 22 billion US dollars.
00:25:04
Basically, if you’re coming and living
in Riyadh, you have different options.
00:25:09
You could buy a vehicle.
If you want to buy a vehicle,
00:25:16
you have to sort a few things out first.
You have to be working in the country legally.
00:25:20
You would have had to have got a bank account. You
would have got a local driving licence. And then
00:25:25
you can go out and buy a vehicle.
If you come as a visitor
00:25:28
and just want to get around, Uber
(for me at least) was the best option.
00:25:34
Uber works fine in Saudi Arabia. You don’t need
your local bank account set up before you can use
00:25:41
Uber. I don’t have a bank account in Saudi Arabia.
Uber, in the kingdom, only does transport.
00:25:50
It doesn’t do Uber Eats and those
kind of stuff. It’s only the cars.
00:25:56
You can travel around by Uber.
Or you could rent from your
00:26:00
standard kind of car rental company.
So, if you have any problems, or someone
00:26:04
bumps into you, at least you can go and get
another car and sort that out pretty quickly.
00:26:11
The other option is to take the metro. It’s not
open yet, but it will be open by the end of 2024.
00:26:17
Most of the places of work, where people
will be going, should be on that network.
00:26:26
Traffic and driving standards
in Saudi Arabia are not ideal.
00:26:34
If you are in one of the cities,
then you can still drive yourself
00:26:37
around and your should be okay.
Hopefully the standards will improve
00:26:40
over the next few years as well
If you are in a smaller location,
00:26:44
then you have the option of driving
yourself around or having a driver.
00:26:50
Generally speaking, bigger
cities have more traffic.
00:26:53
If you are in a remote location, you
probably won’t have so many issues.
00:27:00
It’s up to you really.
It’s not ideal,
00:27:04
but I wouldn’t say it’s horrendous.
00:27:08
It probably is the main thing that people
complain about when moving to Saudi Arabia.
00:27:13
Hopefully, it won’t put you off.
Air connections…
00:27:19
I went to Riyadh a few weeks ago and I went from
Singapore to Riyadh and I had to go through Dubai.
00:27:29
Because there are no direct flights
between Singapore and Riyadh.
00:27:33
And Singapore to Saudi Arabia… I think there are
some flights to Jeddah, but there isn’t much.
00:27:42
And then, from Riyadh, flying to most locations
in Asia… again, not too many direct flights. I
00:27:48
think there’s a flight to Manila.
Again, because a lot of people
00:27:52
from the Philippines work in Saudi Arabia.
There are flights back to the UK direct.
00:28:00
The connectivity in Saudi Arabia at the moment,
in the middle of 2024, is not very good.
00:28:07
The King Khalid airport as it is now, in
Riyadh, is being redeveloped to become
00:28:16
the largest airport in the world. It
will be known as King Salman Airport.
00:28:21
And Jeddah Airport is going through
expansion and there are new airports
00:28:28
being built in the Red Sea (for the Red
Sea development) and the NEOM developments,
00:28:34
and all these big Public Investment funded
projects that are happening around the country.
00:28:41
Also, Matarat, which is the civil
aviation authority for Saudi Arabia…
00:28:47
they have a programme to redevelop
26 different airports in the country.
00:28:51
At the moment, as I say, the connectivity is not
good and that is a downside of Saudi Arabia at
00:28:56
the moment when you compare it to the nearby
neighbours of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Doha.
00:29:05
The connectivity of those airport
locations is vastly superior to
00:29:09
anywhere in Saudi Arabia at the moment.
However, like I say, these airports are
00:29:14
being built and Saudi Arabia has announced
that there is going to be a new airline.
00:29:20
At the moment, Saudia is the main airline for
the country but they’re launching Riyadh Air.
00:29:27
By the middle of 2025, they’ll
have flights operational.
00:29:32
By the end of this decade, by 2030, they
should be flying from Saudi Arabia to
00:29:40
100 destinations around the world.
At the moment, in 2024, connectivity
00:29:47
is not ideal but hopefully, by the end of
this decade, it will be vastly improved.
00:29:55
Another thing that comes up a
lot from people I deal with,
00:29:58
or at least the female people I deal with, is
obviously the rights for women in Saudi Arabia.
00:30:05
Because there is no way of denying that it is a
country going through transition in terms of human
00:30:12
rights and certainly rights for women.
In 2017, Mohammed bin Salman agreed
00:30:22
certain rights to females in the country.
From 2017, women have been able to drive in the
00:30:29
country without having to have a male chaperone.
They have access to government services like
00:30:34
schools and hospitals that they can go
to without having to take a male partner.
00:30:40
And they’re also allowed to enter sports
games and to watch the football and everything
00:30:48
that happens in the country as well.
Like I say, this is still evolving.
00:30:55
In 2022, Saudi Arabia has a new women’s
football team that played its first ever game.
00:31:06
So there are still things happening. The country
is still going through a transition in terms
00:31:10
of how that works between men and women.
In my experience though, when I was there
00:31:14
and I would go for coffees, there’s lots
of ladies in the coffee places and they’re
00:31:20
out with their friends and chatting, in the
same way it would be in a western culture.
00:31:27
When I went out in an evening
to a bar where, like I say,
00:31:30
there’s no alcohol, but there are still bars.
I went to watch a football game in the evening.
00:31:37
There were man and women mixing there.
There were some tables where there was all
00:31:40
men and some tables were there was
all women. It wasn’t so different.
00:31:47
I think that ladies working in Saudi Arabia
should get by without too many issues and
00:31:55
you may find out that you are respected
for going there and contributing as well.
00:32:01
In terms of what women wear in offices and things…
Again, there’s no rules.
00:32:10
In 2017 they got rid of the requirement to
wear the hijab, which is the head scarf.
00:32:15
You don’t need to wear a head scarf.
Some ladies choose to wear an abaya,
00:32:20
which is like a long dress which basically is
from head to toe. It covers you. But you don’t
00:32:29
have to. You could wear trousers and a shirt, or
anything that you want to go work in an office.
00:32:38
But, generally speaking, you should wear something
that’s… well… kind of fits in with the culture.
00:32:46
And you don’t have to wear a head scarf. You
don’t have to wear an abaya. Some ladies choose
00:32:52
to because they feel comfortable with that.
You will also see lots of ladies who are in
00:32:58
Saudi wearing the niqab, which is the full
covering, with face covering as well. Where,
00:33:07
obviously, you just able to see the eyes.
Even the ladies that are wearing the niqabs,
00:33:15
they’re out having coffees and chatting with
their friends. It’s very normal in Saudi.
00:33:21
If you are an expat female working in Saudi
Arabia, there are no specific requirements on
00:33:27
anything you need to wear or any way you need
to act other than to just be respectful and
00:33:31
just dress the way that you’re comfortable.
Okay. So this is the end of the video today.
00:33:39
Whether you watched the video in its entirety,
or you dipped in and out of a chapter or two,
00:33:42
I really am hugely grateful to you for
supporting my channel. And I hope that you
00:33:48
found some of the information in here useful.
If you’re thinking now of that move to Saudi
00:33:54
Arabia, I really hope it goes well
for you, your family, and your career.
00:33:58
And, as far as my channel goes, so far, my
videos have been focused on Saudi Arabia.
00:34:05
But I will be adding content
about other parts of Asia soon.
00:34:08
So please stay tuned and if you
could help by liking and subscribing,
00:34:12
I’d be massively grateful to you.
Thanks very much, all the best.
