KUWAIT CITY, May 5: Director of Automation System at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Abdulhakim Al-Sha’ban has announced the launch of online residence visa renewals, thereby eliminating the necessity to visit the Labor department.

He declared that the online process is due to start from 20th of May, stressing that the initiative is aimed at making the residence visa renewal process easier for employers and their employees as well as eradicate long queues and delays during visa processing.

He said the process will start major companies after finalizing some procedures related to portal (electronic gateway), which will be completed by 20th of this month. He stressed that this process will include the Labor department in all governorates of Kuwait.

Al-Sha’aban revealed that the process was experimented on various companies that issued work permits for their employees through visa agencies, which is then followed by the online process, adding that the trial was successful.

He also added that this process will be implemented first for residence visa renewals in companies and institutions, after which it will be implemented for issuance of work permits to newcomers in Kuwait or when transferring commercial visa to work permit. The third and fourth phases of implementation are final cancellation of visa when exiting Kuwait and other visa transfers respectively.

Al-Sha’aban concluded that this step to establish online processes is based on strict directives issued by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Rajeeb for expediting various processes handled by the Ministry for the benefit of employers and employees.