How To Transfer Your Family Members Under Your Sponsorship

Salam Brothers, May Allah protect our families. I was living with my parents, 1 brother and 1 sister in KSA since I was a child. Then I graduated, got a job and transferred my Iqama to a company. Last year my father passed away (May Allah bless his soul) leaving behind my mother, brother and sister. I started researching on how to transfer them on my Iqama but faced many difficulties due to lack of clear guidelines/requirements/procedures in governments offices. However after running around for 2 months, I finally transferred my Family members under my sponsorship. Below were the requirements, I got them in pieces from different gov. departments. I compiled them and divided them into 4 phases.

Phase 1: Collecting the required documents.

  1. Letter from you in Arabic to explain the situation.
  2. Salary Certificate and NOC from company with chamber of commerce stamped. Profession should match as mentioned in your Iqama.
  3. Certificate print from GOSI (Salary should match as mentioned in Salary certificate)
  4. Your Valid Iqama & Passport Copy.
  5. Your Birth Certificate copy. If not in Arabic, get it translated from any authorized translation center.
  6. Father’s Iqama & passport copy.
  7. Father’s death certificate copy
  8. Mother’s Iqama & Passport copy
  9. Brother’s Iqama & Passport copy (If you have any brother). Kindly note that you can only transfer your brother under your sponsorship if he is under 18 years old and studying in school.
  10. Brother’s Birth Certificate Copy. If not in Arabic, get it translated from any authorized translation center.
  11. Sister’s iqama & Passport copy (If you have any sister)
  12. Sister’s Birth certificate copy. If not in Arabic, get it translated from any authorized translation center.
  13. Confirmation letter from your brother’s school with their stamp. This letter should also be stamped from Ministry of Education in KSA.
  14. Letter of confirmation from you in Arabic that sister is not married. Because you cannot transfer your sister under your sponsorship if she is married.
  15. A good profession on your Iqama. (Not sure about it. But mine was “Commercial Manager”).

Take all these documents to Jawazzat in Legal Affairs Department. They will verify documents and your information and will issue you a letter on the same day. The letter is addressed to court to issue a verification letter (صك اعاله) to prove that your case is genuine.

Jawazzat will return all above documents to you. You have to bring them again with court’s letter.

Phase 2: Getting Letter of confirmation from court (صك اعاله Sak-A’ala)

To get the Sak-A’ala from court (كتاب العدل), you need:

  1. Letter that Jawazzat gave you.
  2. 4 witnesses. They should know you and witness to judge that your father is dead and you are the only one/legal guardian to take care of your family. All should have valid Iqama.
  3. Original and copies of Iqama of yours and all family members.

Go to the court, they will register your case and will send you to a Judge with witnesses. Wait for your turn. Judge will call your name and will ask you to state your situation. If you don’t know Arabic, court will arrange for a translator. Then Judge will ask witnesses to witness if your situation is genuine. Once it is finished and court is satisfied, Judge will give you and witnesses a paper to sign. Once you sign, Court will issue the letter (صك اعاله Sak-A’ala).

Take this letter with all the other previous documents to Jawazzat to submit the case.

Phase 3: Final submission of documents in Jawazzat.

Submit all the documents with court’s letter in Jawazzat (Legal Affairs Dept.). They will register your case and ask you to come back in few days. In my case, they ask to wait for 15 days. Check back on that day. If your case is approved by Legal Affairs Department, they will issue you another letter to complete the final step of transfer.

Phase 4: Final Procedure Of  Family Iqama Transfer

Once you get the final approval from Jawazzat, below must be fulfilled:

  1. Fingerprints enrollment of all family members. If not done, take all your family members to fingerprint enrollment department to enroll their fingerprints.
  2. Filled transfer form of each family member.
  3. Original Iqama and passport with their copies of all family members.
  4. 2 passport size pictures of each family member.

Take all these documents to Jawazzat (Transfer of Service Department) with the final letter you got from legal affairs dept. and submit. They will transfer all the member immediately under your sponsorship. You will receive an SMS notification and you can also check in your Abshir Account in MOI under Sponsoree Services. All your family members will appear there.

I know that procedure is too long and with lot of hassles, but this is what I have gone through and Allah helped me and opened up the path ways. Now I can renew their Iqama with 1000 SAR for 2 years for each family member and most importantly, my family is living with me now.

I never paid any fees to complete the above process except some small expenses occurred on documentation and forms. Beware of agents sitting outside of Jawazzat. They ask huge money to get your family transfer on your Iqama but cannot give the guarantee. One asked me to pay 40000 SAR  and he will get it done 2 weeks.  Please always try to go via legal ways.

JazakAllah.