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Visa Cost Tracking: Where the Cost per Expatriate Hides

Dashboard illustration for visa cost tracking, showing Cost per expatriate, Government fees, Agency and medical

Last updated 2 October 2026

Visa cost tracking is hard because the charges are paid to different authorities, on different platforms and at different levels. The work permit fee and the monthly levy go to HRSD through Qiwa, iqama and exit visa fees through Absher Business or Muqeem, premiums to an insurer, and fines wherever they arise. To track cost per expatriate, record every charge against the employee, the entity and the transaction type, and show fines and corrected errors on their own lines.

Disclosure: WASNA Digital Solutions implements Infinigent DIM. This article does not rank vendors, and the visa cost tracking record described here can be kept in any tool, including a well-built spreadsheet.

The cost map for visa cost tracking

Under Article 40 of the Saudi Labour Law the employer bears the fees for recruiting a non-Saudi worker and for issuing and renewing the residence permit and work permit (Labor Law). HRSD’s guidance on employer costs adds fines resulting from delay, change of profession, exit and re-entry visas, transfer fees and the return ticket (HRSD). For visa cost tracking, the table maps those items, from the work permit fee Saudi Arabia employers pay to the return ticket, to the place where each one is charged.

Cost lineCharged byRecord against each employeeFigure in official or press sources
Work permit feeHRSD, through QiwaPeriod covered, payment date, entitySAR 100 per worker for 12 months, or SAR 25 for a quarter (HRSD rules)
Monthly financial equivalent, known as the expat levyHRSD, through QiwaMonthly charge, rate category, entitySAR 700 per worker per month where foreign workers do not exceed Saudi workers, SAR 800 where they do.
Iqama issuance and renewalJawazat, through Absher Business or MuqeemRenewal period, amount, reference numberNot stated here (see note below the table)
Platform service feesAbsher Business, QiwaPer transaction, and any subscription shareSAR 51.75 per iqama renewal and SAR 103.5 per re-entry visa extension, outside the annual Absher Business package (Saudi Gazette, 2025). Qiwa subscription fees vary with establishment size (KPMG).
Medical insuranceInsurer, under Council of Health Insurance rulesPolicy, premium, start and end datesVaries by policy
Exit and re-entry and final exit visasJawazatVisa type, amount, cancellationsNot stated here (see note below the table)
Transfer of services and change of occupationHRSD and JawazatTransaction, amount, who requestedNot stated here (see note below the table)
Fines for delayJawazat, HRSDCause, amount, owner of the missed taskSAR 500 for a first late renewal and SAR 1,000 for a second, as announced (Saudi Gazette, 2019).
Recruitment and return ticketAgents, airlines, the employerInvoice, date, employeeVaries

The levy deserves an exact definition. HRSD calls it the financial equivalent, calculated monthly for each foreign worker under the establishment’s unified number. The Ministry of Finance refers to expat levies on foreign workers in connection with the Fiscal Balance Program (Ministry of Finance). On 25 March 2024 the Council of Ministers approved a three-year extension of the exemption for small establishments with nine workers or fewer, including the owner. Two expatriates are exempt where the owner works full time and is registered with social insurance, and up to four where at least one Saudi employee also works full time and is registered (HRSD). Exemptions are one reason visa cost tracking for two entities in the same group can show very different costs per expatriate.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm current fees with HRSD, Jawazat or a qualified adviser.

Why these costs stay invisible

Visa cost tracking misses these costs for five reasons.

  • The levy sits at entity level. It is charged per worker but paid through the establishment’s account, so it reaches an employee line only if someone allocates it.
  • Payments run through different channels and budgets. Qiwa accepts bank cards, Sadad numbers and a digital wallet (KPMG), Absher Business has its own fees, and insurance premiums may sit with HR or benefits.
  • Fines need their own code in visa cost tracking. Without one, a SAR 500 penalty lands in a general expenses line and its cause is lost.
  • Errors add a second transaction. Visa details cannot be amended after issue, so an incorrect visa has to be cancelled and replaced (KPMG).
  • Timing creates cost. A final exit visa needs an iqama with at least 30 days of validity left, so a leaver whose iqama is about to lapse must be renewed first (Gulf News, 2025).

How to build cost per expatriate

Visa cost tracking works best when every charge falls into one of three groups, reported separately.

  1. Recurring costs repeat for each period the employee is in post. These are the work permit fee, the monthly levy, iqama renewal and its platform fee, and the insurance premium.
  2. One-off costs arrive with an event. These are recruitment, the entry visa, a transfer of services, a change of occupation, exit visas and the return ticket.
  3. Avoidable costs are fines, visas cancelled and reissued, and renewals forced by poor timing.

Cost per expatriate for a period is then the recurring costs for that period, plus the one-off costs incurred in it, plus the avoidable costs. In visa cost tracking, keep the avoidable total as its own number. It is the figure a finance director can act on, and it is the one that rises when renewal dates are missed (see the guide to tracking iqama expiry).

Entity-level costs such as a platform subscription need an allocation rule, for example by headcount. Write the rule down once and apply it every month.

What each transaction record needs

Iqama cost tracking is one slice of visa cost tracking, and a sensible first slice because renewals recur on a known cycle and carry both a government fee and a platform fee. Whichever slice you start with, each transaction needs the same fields.

  • Employee, entity and cost centre.
  • Transaction type, using one fixed list for every team.
  • Authority and platform, with the reference number the platform gave.
  • Amount, date, who approved it and who paid it.
  • A flag for avoidable costs, with a cause code such as missed expiry, data error or late submission.
  • The receipt, attached to the record and not left in an inbox.

Questions visa cost tracking should let you answer

  • What does each entity or department pay for its expatriate staff in a month?
  • How much did late renewals and corrected visas cost last year, and which causes repeat?
  • Does quarterly renewal help cash flow? Jawazat and HRSD introduced it in 2021 so that employers can pay for shorter periods (Saudi Gazette, 2021), but each renewal is a separate transaction with its own fees, so compare the two using your own figures.
  • Which entities qualify for the small-establishment exemption, and does the cost per expatriate reflect it?
  • Which authority charged each fee? The guide to the iqama, work permit and work visa sets out who issues which document.

Choosing software for cost reporting

If the spreadsheet cannot hold one row per transaction with the fields above, look at visa cost tracking software that sits inside a case record. Put these questions to any vendor and ask to see each one demonstrated.

  • Can costs be reported by employee, department and transaction type?
  • Can fines be recorded as their own category, with a cause?
  • Can fee rates be changed when the rules change, without rewriting past records?
  • Does the record link to your HR system, so the employee’s entity and cost centre are not typed again?

Test your visa cost tracking on one entity

Send us the expatriate headcount of one entity and the places where its visa costs are paid today. We will show how a per-employee cost view would be built from them.

Ask WASNA for a visa cost review

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