Nepali foreign employment agencies have urged the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Nepal to simply the visa issuance process for Nepali workers. They have said that since the embassy is new in the country it takes more time than in Bangladesh to get a visa. 

After the process of issuing a visa for Saudi Arabia started in the country, many manpower agencies are applying for visas on the basis of workers’ demand from Saudi Arabia. Earlier, since there was no embassy here, all agencies sending workers had to get ‘visa stamping’ from Bangladesh.

In a bid to make it easier to get a visa, the embassy recently started accepting documents certified by Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), according to Hansa Raj Wagle, president of NAFEA. “Now, the firm that the embassy has entrusted to translate necessary documents needs to speed up its work.” 

To issue a visa for employment in Saudi Arabia, the embassy requires translation of documents like educational certificates and police report into Arabic. After the embassy agreed to its request, NAFEA from last week, has started certifying documents like educational and training certificates, and driving licence. 

Wagle said that their certification is a ‘recommendation’ to the embassy which also means that NAFEA will be responsible if any faulty document is certified. Earlier, to get a visa, aspirants and agencies had to get documents certified by concerned government agencies which had added extra burden on applicants. 

Saudi Arabia is one of the top five major labour destinations for Nepali foreign employment aspirants. In the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, the country has hired a total of 68,364 Nepali workers which include 10,194 individuals who left for Saudi Arabia through personal contact.

Published on: 20 June 2014 | The Himalayan Times