Kuwait hikes minimum salary requirement for expats to sponsor families

Kuwait has hiked the minimum salary requirement for expatriates to sponsor their families, local media reported.

Kuwait’s deputy Prime Minister and interior minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah has issued a decision stating that only expatriates earning a monthly salary of KD500 (around $1,645) or above will be able to get family visas, Al-Anba daily reported.

The decision states: “For dependent visa, the monthly salary of the sponsor shall not be less than KD500 and this salary shall be determined by the work contract on which he/ she was granted residence in the country.”

Previously expats earning a minimum of KD450 were eligible to sponsor their spouse and children.

However, the director general of residency affairs can exempt those already in Kuwait or those born in the country from the salary condition, the report said.

The decision also exempts expats working in the following professions from the rule –

* Advisors, judges, members of the prosecution, experts and legal researchers in the public sector

* Doctors and pharmacists

* Teachers at universities, colleges and higher education institutes

* School principals, vice-principals, supervisors, teachers, social workers and laboratory technicians in the public sector

* University financial and economic experts

* Engineers

* Imams and muezzins

* Library rectors

* Health ministry employees (nurses, paramedics, technicians and social service workers

* Social workers in the government

* Journalists, media persons and reporters

* Coaches and players at sports clubs

* Pilots and flight attendants

* Funerary workers