Kuwait Times, Monday, Nov 14, 2022 | Rabi Al Thani 19, 1444
Residency, visit visa curbs eyed; fees to increase
Kuwait:
Informed sources said it was agreed between
members of the parliamentary interior and defense committee and Interior
Minister Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Sabah to hold a meeting at the end of the
month to discuss the new residency law, new mechanisms to grant visit visas and
the rules of issuing residency permits.
Sources said Sheikh Talal told MPs he is ready to attend the meeting, adding the
government’s amendments to the new residency law are ready and will be sent to
the National Assembly soon, where they will be discussed by the interior and
defense committee.
The sources said the minister told MPs that restricting residencies is the title
of the new law, and fees will be tripled. Amendments to visit visas will be
issued in January along with doubling existing fees, with fewer categories able
to obtain visas. Sheikh Talal said strict security campaigns will continue
against residency violators, adding that isolating areas that are full of
expatriates is highly possible to hunt for violators.
Sheikh Talal told MPs that the new residency law includes a five-year residency
permit, as it was in the draft law that was sent to the previous Assembly, but
this permit is not for investors, businesspeople or children of Kuwaiti women.
But he said this item is left for MPs to discuss with the government in case
they want to amend or cancel it.