My wife was working for a company and currently she is on vacations. Unfortunately she couldn’t resume work as agreed with her firm and according to her company rules she should be terminated for overstaying. Its been almost 3 months now and her residence expires at the end of August.

What I want to know is can I bring her back and transfer her residence to dependent residence. (my salary is KD400). I am also afraid that her company may take some legal action against her so that she can’t enter Kuwait. Are there any restrictions that they can hold her transfer until she has worked for them for over 3 years.

Name withheld
Answer: The company can terminate her services without notice as she has been absent for over 7 days without any reason. They can also seek cancellation of her residence while she is outside the country and they can refuse to give her a release so that she can transfer to your residence.

More importantly the firm can seek legal action against her if she had a fixed-time contract and violated the terms of the deal. In such a case the firm can ask for compensation, at least for money equal to the salary for the uncompleted part of the contract.

If the deal was not a fixed-time contract, then you don’t have to worry about anything. Let the company terminate her or cancel her residence, you can apply directly for a dependent visa (after cancellation of the current residence) and get her to Kuwait on the new document.

Please also remember that  although she will be terminated, she should be considered as having resigned and must be given all benefits due to her. In this connection please see Articles 42 & 53 of the Kuwait Labour Law.