Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Qiwa platform, under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, has started providing a new service of facilitating payment of work permit fee through credit cards and mada debit cards.

The amount can be debited from the Qiwa digital wallet of the employers. Earlier, it was possible to make the payment of work permit fee only through the SADAD payment system. Some bank cards offer services to recover part of the amounts paid through it, or earn its owner free points.

Provision of the new service coincides with the updating in the beginning of the new fiscal year as the fiscal year of many establishments occurs at the beginning of the Hijri year. The Qiwa platform reported that it updated the data of work permit fee for the financial year in the current week, and that is in conjunction with the updates of the financial years of establishments in the electronic services portal of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD).

The platform started stopping some electronic services for establishments that are not complied with documenting 50 percent of the workers’ contracts in the second phase, which ended in the second quarter of the current year 2023. The most important among these suspended services include instant visas, transfer of services, and requests to change profession. This comes after the decision of MHRSD to oblige establishments to document contracts of employees electronically through the platform, covering three phases.

By the end of the third quarter of the current year, establishments will be required to document the contracts of about 80 percent of their employees. There are a number of steps to follow for the documentation of contracts: These steps are as follows: Log in the account of the establishment; then choose the establishment; then electronic services; create a new contract; enter the verification code sent to the mobile; manage and document contracts; enter employee data, enter contract details, and upload the contract.”

The ministry began transferring many services to the Qiwa platform, and the latest of which was the Ajeer program, which is specialized in organizing temporary work and facilitating access to the workforce.

The program unified access to the platform with the data of the Qiwa platform itself. It is noteworthy that Qiwa platform provides the ministry services and solutions to enhance the electronic services provided to the local employment sector.