My Hijra

Four ways in, and that is how people arrive and how they describe themselves. Underneath there are only two permits, and it is worth knowing which one you are heading for before you start.

• Employment

  An employer sponsors you, and the permit is an iqama tied to that employer. The route cannot be started alone: the employer holds the quota, obtains the authorisation and issues the iqama.

• Residency

  You pay for the right to reside. No employer, no company. This is Premium Residency, applied for directly.

• Business

  You set up or move a company, and the company qualifies you. The permit at the end is Premium Residency.

• Investment

  You put capital in, including into property, and the holding qualifies you. The permit at the end is Premium Residency.

Three of the four doors end at the same permit

Employment gives an employer-sponsored iqama. Residency, business and investment all land on Premium Residency — one government service with seven products behind it. They are three ways of qualifying for the same permit, not three different permits. The map shows them converging because they do converge.

Buying a property does not grant residency

It makes you eligible to apply. A separate application and a separate approval are both mandatory, and the residency lasts only while the qualifying ownership is maintained — if the asset is sold it must generally be replaced within 90 days or the residency ends. The qualifying property must be residential, developed and ready to occupy, appraised by a TAQEEM-accredited valuer, and free of mortgage.

There is no freelance route

The Freelance Work Document is a Saudi-citizen scheme. It is not open to expatriates, and there is no self-sponsored freelance permit. If a route you have read about rests on freelancing your way in, it does not exist.

In the holy cities a company may do what a person may not

Premium Residency does not give you ownership in Makkah and Madinah. Article 2 of the Premium Residency Permit Law grants a holder ownership "in areas other than the cities of Mecca and Medina and border areas", and inside the two cities grants usufruct instead — a use right for a period not exceeding 99 years, transferable, taken by deed from a notary public. A company is a separate question and the answer is different: one incorporated in Saudi Arabia is not treated as non-Saudi under M/14 even if it is wholly foreign-owned, so it may hold property in the two cities for business purposes and staff housing. That is a materially wider permission than the permit gives a person, which is why how you are structured sits upstream of the property question.

The MISA licence is now called Investment Registration

Under the updated Investment Law the Ministry of Investment issues an Investment Registration. The old term is still in common use, including by people who will be advising you, so both names refer to the same thing.