Step by Step procedure to Attest your degree for Saudi Arabia.
In order to change
your profession on
the Iqama, you need to attest your degrees from Saudi Arabian Embassy in your
respective country. In Saudi Arabia, the profession of your visa can be
different from your actual profession. For example, it is possible that the
profession in your Iqama is “General Labor” but you are working as Financial
Analyst in a company. It is important to note that it is illegal to work in
this way and it can lead to several consequences which are described below.
Consequences of having Different Profession
As it is already mentioned, it is illegal to have a different
profession on your iqama, you can be detained in the detention center in case
of any raid of Jawazat in your office.
- Your application for visa
will not be successful if your profession is low profile.
- You cannot get family status
in Saudi Arabia. You cannot bring your family to Saudi Arabia on permanent
basis.
- You cannot apply for visit
visa for your parents, unmarried sisters and others. (See the list of high profile professions)
Process of Attestation of Degrees
- Please make
sure that name on your degrees is same as the name on your Iqama. It
happens several times that while writing the name in Arabic on the Iqama,
Jawazat people don’t care for this. My application has been rejected once
because of inconsistency of name on the Iqama and Degree. In this case,
you need to change the name on Iqama.
- First step
of attestation of degrees in Saudi Arabia is to get two letters from your company requesting Saudi Cultural
Office and Saudi Embassy in your respective country to attest the
degrees. Letters should contain your name, your current
profession, your desired profession and your date of joining to the
company.
- These
two letters should be attested by the chamber of
commerce of the city where your company is registered. They will charge
you SR 25 for each letter.
- To get the
degrees attested in Saudi Arabia, you need to go to Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MOFA) and present these two letters to them. Keep in mind; they only
accept letters attested by the chamber of commerce. You
need to present your Iqama to them. Here, the employer in your Iqama
should be the same company which has generated the above two letters. In case of inconsistency, they will not attest
these two letters. They will charge you SR 30 per letter.
- After this,
you need to send these letters to Saudi Embassy and Saudi Cultural Office
along with degree. Before, Saudi Embassy and Saudi Culture Office,
you may have to attest these degrees by some education commission and
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in your Native country. However, it is
suggested to send original letters, copy of your iqama, copy of your visa, copy of
your passport and original degree to someone you know in your country.
Assign him to do this work for you.
- If you
don’t have any such friend who can do all this for you, you can contact
some agents who do the same for some charges. They will charge you around
SR 300 for the attestation of documents. According to recent changes in
the degree attestation process, some embassies are asking for original
passport of the candidate as well.
- If any of
the above requirements are not fulfilled, you can ask the same agent to get
it confirmed. They have some sources in Embassy and can help you out.
- Get your
attested degrees back in Saudi Arabia and hand them over to your Mandoob
in your company. He will do the rest of work. However, it is important to
decide who will pay the change of profession fee. I think change of profession fee is SR 1,000/- and
it is a burden upon you if you have to pay it.
- If you have
Saudi Degree, there is no need to attest it to apply for permanent family visa.
- SAMPLE LETTER FOR DEGREE ATTESTATION
Letter to Saudi Embassy, click pic to enlarge
