My colleague had a 5-year-old son who came to Kuwait on a visit visa. The father waited for his visa to be renewed before attempting to transfer the child as his dependent.
Due to some delay the father’s visa was renewed only after 2 months of the child’s visa’s expiry.
He didn’t know what to do, so he just waited for the amnesty and sent the boy back home.
The immigration officer at the airport held the departure of the child and asked for the father to report and explain why he let the boy’s visa expire while he had a valid working visa.
But the father was at work and couldn’t come to the airport.
On the last flight call, the airline supervisor approached the immigration officer who allowed the child to travel.
I have asked my mandoop (office representative) about this case and he has told me the father will have to pay the penalty of KD 600 at the immigration before he can leave Kuwait for a vacation in his home country.
I’m interested in this case because I know some people who had this kind of problem during the last amnesty.
Can you please advise what to do in this case, as the father wants to have a vacation this year and his visa will be renewed again.
The Mandoop says his visa cannot be renewed because the immigration will see his record in their computers.

Name withheld
Answer: There seems to be something fishy about this case or you don’t know all the facts.
First of all, people were allowed to leave the country without paying fines and they were only asked to pay these fines if they wanted to legalise their status in the country.

Secondly, you can’t transfer the visit visa of a five-year-old child to a dependent visa. This privilege is only for infants – less than two years old.

Thirdly, there is no such thing as a dependent being allowed to leave the country if there is a fine to be paid. The payment has to be made before the departure.

But, all said and done, if in reality such a thing has happened the best way to confirm this is to check with the Interior Ministry. Just ask your friend to go to the Interior Ministry headquarters in Dajeej, go to the section on travel bans and provide his ID card. If there is indeed the KD 600 fine, there must be also a travel ban on him. So if this is the case, no transaction of his - including driving licence and residence - will be processed until the fine is paid and the travel ban lifted.