Qiwa for employers: work permits, permit inquiry and Nitaqat

Qiwa is the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development's platform where employers issue and renew work permits for non-Saudi staff, check each permit's status, transfer workers and track their Nitaqat band. A work permit is issued within 90 days of the worker's entry and can be renewed once 180 days or less remain.

This guide is for business owners and HR staff. It explains what Qiwa does, how the work permit service works, how to run a work permit inquiry, how your Nitaqat band decides what you can do, and the rules on expired permits that applied from July 2026. It is current as of October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice: for a specific case, check the official service page and speak to a licensed adviser.

What is Qiwa?

Qiwa is a government platform under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development that connects private-sector employers with the people they employ. The Ministry's services guide describes it as the main digital platform for all services of the Saudi labour system, covering an establishment's journey from founding to expansion [1]. The Ministry's own service pages send employers to Qiwa for work permits [2].

For an establishment, the Ministry's Qiwa services guide lists, among others [1]:

• registering the establishment and managing its business account;
• hiring and managing current employees;
• issuing and renewing work permits for expatriate workers;
• transferring employees between establishments and changing occupations;
• issuing Saudization certificates;
• customised work regulations, and creating and documenting employee contracts electronically.

Why a work permit in Saudi Arabia is not optional

The Labor Law is plain on this. A non-Saudi may not work in the Kingdom without a work permit from the Ministry (Article 33), and no other permit or licence from another body replaces it (Article 34) [3]. The worker must have entered the country lawfully and be authorised to work, have skills or qualifications the country needs, and be under contract with an employer and under that employer's responsibility [3].

Three more articles shape what employers do in Qiwa [3]:

• Article 35: the Ministry may refuse to renew a work permit if the employer breaches the job-localisation (Saudization) standards.
• Article 38: the employer may not assign the worker to a job other than the one on the permit.
• Article 40: the employer bears the recruitment fees, the residence (iqama) and work permit fees and their renewal, occupation-change and exit-and-return fees, and the worker's return ticket when the relationship ends, unless the worker is unfit for the work or leaves without a legitimate reason.

The work permit is also one of the conditions for issuing or renewing the worker's residence permit [2]. In practice, a lapsed permit soon becomes an iqama problem as well.

How to issue or renew a work permit (رخصة عمل) on Qiwa

The Ministry's "Issue and renew work license" service is electronic and needs no documents [2]. The steps it publishes:

1. Log in and choose your establishment.
2. Open the service "Issue and renew work license".
3. Search for and add the expatriate workers whose permits you want to issue or renew.
4. Select the workers and send the request. A review ticket with a payment number is issued.
5. Receive the request number and details by text message.
6. Pay through a local bank using the SADAD payment number, then follow the residence permit with the Passports.

The service page lists a fee of SAR 100, paid through SADAD, and an immediate service time [2]. The total you pay may include other amounts linked to the worker, such as the expat levy where it applies; Qiwa shows the amount before you pay.

Timing rules that matter

The same service page sets the timing [2]:

• First permit: issue it within the first 90 days after the worker enters the Kingdom.
• Renewal: allowed when 180 days or less remain before the permit expires.
• After payment: the permit status updates in about one hour, and the payment appears in the Passports systems within 24 hours.
• No cancellation: a work permit cannot be cancelled once it has been issued or renewed.
• Red band: permits cannot be issued or renewed while the establishment is in the red band.

Because a renewed permit cannot be cancelled, check the worker list before you pay. If the worker is about to transfer or leave, renewing first and asking questions later costs money you cannot recover.

Work permit inquiry (استعلام عن رخص العمل): where to check a permit

A work permit inquiry answers one question: is this worker's permit valid, and until when? There are three places to look, depending on who is asking.

The Ministry's public inquiry page also offers an establishment data inquiry and an establishment Nitaqat inquiry [5]. Use it before you hire a worker from another establishment: a transfer request into a red-band establishment is not allowed [4].

How your Nitaqat band controls Qiwa services

Nitaqat is the Ministry's Saudization programme, first launched in 2011, which places each establishment in a band according to its share of Saudi employees [4]. The Ministry's 2026 procedural guide for the developed Nitaqat programme lists five bands: platinum, high green, medium green, low green and red [4].

What each band allows, according to that guide [4]:

In the green and platinum bands, the guide allows renewal of current workers' permits regardless of the length of their residence, provided no more than six months remain on the worker's iqama at renewal [4]. In the red band, the guide also bars new work permits for incoming workers [4].

The practical lesson: your band is not a report you read once a year. A drop to red stops renewals for every expatriate worker at once, and Article 35 of the Labor Law gives the Ministry the same power [3]. Watching the Saudization ratio monthly is part of permit management; our guide to HR management for small businesses covers the routine.

Expired work permits: the 2026 rules

An expired permit is not a problem you can leave for later. In 2026 the Ministry set a deadline for the oldest cases, and Qiwa shows each permit's status in the employee list, so check it every month.

A correction window until 31 December 2026. On 30 June 2026 the Ministry extended the grace period to correct the status of two groups: expatriate workers whose permits expired more than 12 months earlier, and workers who joined an establishment more than 6 months earlier without a work permit being issued [6]. The new deadline is 31 December 2026, after which the Ministry says the prescribed regulatory procedures apply [6].

Common mistakes employers make on Qiwa

• Letting the 90-day window pass for a new arrival's first permit [2].
• Renewing a permit for a worker who is leaving. It cannot be cancelled afterwards [2].
• Ignoring the band until renewal day. In the red band no permit can be issued or renewed [2][4].
• Assigning a worker to a different job than the one on the permit; Article 38 forbids it [3].
• Passing permit fees to the worker. Article 40 puts them on the employer [3]; the same goes for payroll deductions, covered in our guide to payroll calculation in Saudi Arabia.

Keeping permit dates out of spreadsheets

Most permit problems are calendar problems: a 90-day window, a 180-day renewal window, a six-month iqama limit and the 31 December 2026 correction deadline. An HR system that reads employee records can hold these dates and send reminders well before each window closes. If you are choosing one, our guide to an HR system for Saudi companies lists the modules to ask about.

Your next step

Log in to Qiwa this week, open the employee list and sort it by work permit expiry. Renew any permit with 180 days or less left, check your Nitaqat band before you pay, and correct any long-expired permit before 31 December 2026. If you want those dates to come from your own HR records rather than a manual check, O AI builds HR and business systems for Saudi companies.