Sponsor Does Not Want To Renew Visa

My wife still holds an Article 18 visa which expired this July 16. However, due to disagreements between the business owner and sponsor, the sponsor does not want to renew my wife’s visa or even just to extend it because according to him, the owner of the company needs to pay him first the required sponsorship fee before he can help my wife with her visa. As an additional information, their business license is valid until 2018.

What are the options left for my wife? Can the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor or the Public Authority for Manpower help my wife obtain a visa extension just to give her extra time to consider her other options to stay in Kuwait? On the other hand, what is the process of cancelling her expired visa (just in case) if she decides to go back to Philippines?

Name withheld 
Answer: The easy solution to this problem is for either company to get an Article 14 (temporary residence) visa which can be extended up to 3 months. This residence can be obtained after payment of a KD 2 per day fine for the duration she has been on an expired residence.

On the other hand, if your wife has been in the country for over three years after being hired from abroad or over one year if she did a local transfer to this company, she can resign and ask for a release. If the company is not paying her for the work and has left her in a limbo she can approach the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, through the Labor Office in the area to get a release and transfer to another firm.

In such a case even if the company is unwilling to release her or get her residence, the Labor Office can get her temporary residence for the duration of the case. For the cancellation of the residence, she has to accompany the company representative to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor where she has to state that she has received all her dues (if that is the case) and the visa will be cancelled.

She will then be given some time to leave the country. In case the company is not willing to cancel the residence, she can file a case with the Labor Office which will call the company and question it over the issue. It can then order for the cancellation of the residence or even sanction a transfer if you have found a new sponsor.

 

SOURCE : ARABTIMES

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