Saudi Family Residence Visa and Dependent Iqama 2026: Eligibility, Documents, Fees and the Full Absher Process

To bring your wife and children to live in Saudi Arabia you need a family residence visa issued through MOFA and stamped at a Saudi mission abroad, after which each dependent is registered for a dependent iqama tied to your own. The visa issuance fee is commonly cited at SAR 2,000 per application, covering all dependents on that application.

The cost that dominates everything afterwards is the dependent levy, the muqabil murafiqeen, at SAR 400 per dependent per month, or SAR 4,800 a year each. For a wife and two children that is SAR 14,400 annually, dwarfing every other fee in this guide.

Item	Position in 2026
Who you can sponsor	Spouse and children; parents are not eligible for residence
Salary threshold	No official published table; planning ranges around SAR 4,000 to 6,000 by family size
Profession	Matters more than salary; labour categories are excluded
Family residence visa fee	SAR 2,000 per application
Dependent levy	SAR 400 per dependent per month
Levy-free window	First 90 days after a dependent arrives
Medical insurance	Mandatory per dependent, market-priced
Where you apply	MOFA e-visa platform, then embassy stamping; Absher and Muqeem in-Kingdom

This guide covers the residence route for a spouse and children. If you want to bring parents, that is a visit visa only and cannot be converted, covered in our Saudi family visit visa for parents guide. The levy itself has its own detailed treatment in the Saudi dependent fee guide.

Saudi Arabia does not publish a universal salary table for family sponsorship, and multiple guides state plainly that none exists publicly. That is genuinely unusual and it changes how you should approach the question.

Profession matters more than salary

Eligibility is assessed against your iqama profession category at least as much as your income. Reported excluded categories include general labourers, drivers, housemaids and domestic staff, gardeners, and unskilled construction trades where mason, plumber and electrician are classified as general labour. Eligible categories cluster around professional, technical, managerial, healthcare, education, IT, finance and skilled-trade titles.

This mirrors Qatar, where the profession on the ID decides the outcome. If your iqama profession does not reflect the skilled work you actually do, that is the first thing to fix. Our iqama profession mismatch guide covers the correction process.

The salary numbers people quote

Commonly cited planning ranges, none of which is law:

• Wife only: around SAR 4,000 per month and above.
• Wife plus one child: around SAR 4,500 to 5,000 and above.
• Wife plus two or three children: around SAR 5,000 to 6,000 and above.

The flat SAR 5,000 figure you see everywhere is the upper end of one planning range, not a confirmed legal minimum. Treat these as budgeting guidance, not entitlement.

What actually gets checked

Reporting suggests the figure examined is your Qiwa-authenticated registered basic salary, not your total package with allowances. That is a meaningful distinction: a package of SAR 6,000 built from a SAR 3,500 basic plus allowances may present very differently from a SAR 6,000 basic. Check what your registered contract actually says before assuming you qualify.

We should also flag one thing we could not verify: claims that your employer's Nitaqat band affects your personal ability to sponsor family appear to conflate employer-level visa restrictions with individual sponsorship. We found no official rule linking the two.

Getting this distinction wrong is expensive, because the two products do not connect.

Aspect	Family visit visa	Family residence visa
Who qualifies	First-degree relatives including parents	Spouse and children only
Duration	Short-term, single or multiple entry	Long-term, leads to a dependent iqama
Produces an iqama?	No	Yes
Convertible to residence?	No, must exit and reapply	N/A
Dependent levy applies?	No	Yes, SAR 400 per month after 90 days
Extensions	Processed through Absher	Renewed with the iqama cycle

The conversion trap

A family visit visa cannot be turned into a residence visa inside the Kingdom. The person must exit and apply for a different visa type from abroad. Families who bring a spouse on a visit visa intending to convert discover this only when they try, and by then they have spent money on a route that does not connect to where they want to go.

If long-term residence is the goal for a spouse or children, apply for the family residence visa from the start. Use the visit visa for what it is designed for: relatives who are coming to visit, especially parents, for whom it is the only option.

The parent case is covered fully in our Saudi family visit visa for parents guide, including the June 2025 grace period reform and the embassy stamping steps by country.

Saudi Arabia is stricter than the UAE on sons and comparable on daughters, and firm on parents.

Relationship	Eligible?	Condition
Wife	Yes	Attested marriage certificate
Sons under 18	Yes	Attested birth certificate
Sons 18 to 25	Yes, if studying	Proof of enrolment at a recognised school or university, required at each renewal
Sons at 25	No	Mandatory sponsorship transfer; he needs his own iqama
Unmarried daughters	Yes, no fixed cutoff	A certificate confirming she is unmarried is required at renewals between 18 and 25
Parents	No	Visit visa only; no iqama is created

The age-25 transfer for sons

This is a hard stop rather than a renewal question. A son reaching 25 must move to his own iqama with his own sponsor, typically through employment. It takes months to arrange, so start at 24. A gap between his dependent status ending and a new iqama beginning creates a compliance problem with real consequences.

A note on conflicting age rules

One official Saudi source we could access states a son's age should not exceed 18 for the residence visa itself, but that page is scoped to families of diplomatic mission staff and does not govern ordinary private-sector expatriates. The general rule reported for private-sector families is 18, extended to 25 with proof of study. Do not apply the diplomatic page's stricter figure to your own case, and confirm if your son is near either threshold.

Parents, definitively

Parents are not eligible for family residence or a dependent iqama. This is the most consistently corroborated rule across every source we checked, with no official page contradicting it. A visit visa is the route, and it creates no residency.

Saudi portals are login-gated, so no public consolidated checklist could be verified. This list is compiled from consistent practitioner reporting, with one official item noted.

Document	Applies to	The detail that matters
Attested marriage certificate	Spouse	Legalised through the Saudi embassy or consulate abroad and the Saudi MOFA chain
Attested birth certificates	Each child	MOFA attestation is explicitly required on the one official page we could access
Certificate that a daughter is unmarried	Daughters	MOFA-attested; required at renewals between 18 and 25
Dependents' passports	Everyone	Commonly cited as six months validity plus two blank pages; not officially confirmed
Sponsor's iqama	Sponsor	Sufficient remaining validity, with three months cited as a minimum
Medical insurance	Each dependent	Mandatory, from an approved provider
Qiwa-authenticated contract or salary proof	Sponsor	Registered basic salary is what is examined
Proof of eligible profession	Sponsor	Iqama profession category is decisive
Recent photographs	Dependents	Per specification
Passport page with KSA arrival stamp	Dependents	Needed at the in-Kingdom iqama registration stage

Attestation, and the language point

The chain runs through the Saudi embassy or consulate in the country of issue and ultimately the Saudi MOFA process. One detail worth knowing: the official MOFA e-service page we reviewed states data is entered in Arabic, so budget for certified Arabic translation of documents that are not already in Arabic, attested on the same chain.

Our Saudi apostille and attestation guide and the attestation glossary entry cover the mechanics. For Filipino applicants specifically, see the Filipino documents attestation guide.

Three platforms are involved and it helps to know what each one does before you start.

• MOFA e-visa platform, historically known as Enjaz: where the visa request is validated and routed to a mission abroad.
• Absher: the Ministry of Interior platform where you, the sponsor, manage family members and resident ID services in-Kingdom.
• Muqeem: where iqama status, the dependent levy balance and renewal payments are handled, with payment through SADAD.

1. Confirm eligibility. Profession category first, then registered basic salary, then iqama validity.
2. Attest the certificates through the Saudi mission chain, with Arabic translation where needed. This is the long pole.
3. Sponsor or employer requests visa authorisation for the family residence visa.
4. MOFA validates eligibility and the relationship and the request is submitted through the MOFA e-visa platform.
5. The request routes to the Saudi embassy or consulate in your family's country for stamping. Your family submits passports there.
6. Family travels to Saudi Arabia on the issued visa.
7. Medical examination on or after arrival, as required.
8. You register each dependent for a dependent iqama through Absher, under family members and resident ID services.
9. Ongoing management through Muqeem, including the dependent levy, which must be paid in full before renewals or exit and re-entry visas can be issued.

Timeline

Secondary estimates put the end-to-end process at roughly two to four weeks from visa issuance abroad through entry to iqama registration, varying by embassy, document readiness and nationality. There is no official service level agreement for private-sector expatriates. A three-business-day figure does exist on an official page, but it applies only to families of diplomatic mission staff and should not be generalised.

Our Absher account registration guide covers setting up the platform you will live in afterwards. If you would rather have the file run for you, see the Saudi family sponsorship service.

Saudi portals are login-gated and no public fee schedule could be verified directly, so every figure here is drawn from consistent practitioner reporting. Confirm at the payment step.

Cost	Amount (SAR)	Notes
Family residence visa issuance	2,000	Per application, reportedly covering all dependents on it
Dependent iqama issuance	No separate charge	Beyond the dependent levy
Dependent levy	400 per dependent per month	SAR 4,800 per year each; pro-rated on 3, 6 and 9-month renewals
Levy-free window	First 90 days	From the dependent's arrival
Sponsor's own iqama renewal	650 per year	For context; SAR 600 for domestic workers
Over-18 dependent renewal	500 per year	Single source only; treat as unverified
Medical examination	200 to 500 per person	Varies by provider
Medical insurance, annual	Roughly 500 to 3,000 per person	Sources conflict; market-driven, not a government fee
Late iqama renewal penalty	500, then 1,000, then 1,000 plus deportation risk	Escalating by offence; single detailed source

The levy is the whole story

Work the arithmetic before you commit. A wife and two children cost SAR 14,400 a year in levy alone, roughly SAR 1,200 a month off your net income, indefinitely, on top of insurance, schooling and housing. Against that, the SAR 2,000 visa fee is a rounding error.

This is the single most important financial decision in Saudi family sponsorship, and it is why our dependent fee guide exists as a standalone piece: there is no under-18 exemption, the fee accrues while dependents travel, and it blocks exit visas when unpaid.

Run your own numbers before starting the process. Ask us for a costed projection across the years you plan to stay, and we will include the levy, insurance and renewal cycle.

Every year brings fresh rumours that the dependent levy is being cut or abolished. Here is what actually happened, in order, so you can judge for yourself.

1. July 2017: the levy was introduced at SAR 100 per dependent per month, rising by SAR 100 each year.
2. July 2020: it reached SAR 400 per month, where it has remained.
3. March 2024: the Finance Minister said publicly that a study was underway to re-evaluate the fee, citing its effect in pushing families and spending abroad. No new figure and no repeal was announced.
4. September 2025: the Cabinet authorised the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, with the Ministry of Finance and the Non-Oil Revenue Development Center, to define and set dependent fees, stating that total dependent fees should be equivalent to fees imposed on expatriate workers in the private sector. This was an enabling decision; no specific new rate was published.
5. December 2025: the Cabinet abolished a different fee, the employer-paid expatriate worker levy of SAR 300 to 800 per month per employee for licensed industrial facilities. This is not the family dependent fee and the two are widely conflated in coverage.

The honest conclusion

As of the most recent verifiable information, the SAR 400 per month dependent fee remains in effect and unchanged. A revision for skilled expatriates was under study and has been formally authorised, but no confirmed new rate or exemption has been published. Guides dated into 2026 still list SAR 400 as current.

Plan on SAR 400. If a reduction arrives, it is a windfall. Building a family budget on a rumoured cut that has been rumoured since 2024 is how people end up unable to pay a levy that blocks their exit visas.

Two separate health requirements, often confused.

Mandatory medical insurance

Each dependent must hold medical insurance from an approved provider, and it is a hard condition rather than a recommendation. Cost is market-driven rather than a government fee, and sources conflict meaningfully on the range: one puts it at SAR 800 to 3,000 per year per person, another at SAR 500 to 2,000 and above. Both agree it varies by provider, age and cover level, so get an actual quote rather than budgeting from a range.

The arrival medical

A medical examination is required on or after arrival as part of establishing residence, commonly cited at SAR 200 to 500 per person. Our Saudi medical test for iqama guide covers what is screened and where.

The pre-departure medical, if applicable

If your family holds a passport from one of the countries covered by the Wafid system, formerly GAMCA, they may also need pre-departure screening at home before the visa is issued. That is a third exam with its own certificate and a 60-day validity that cannot be extended. Our Wafid and GAMCA guide covers timing it so the certificate is still live when the visa comes through.

Three health steps, three costs. Budget for all of them rather than assuming one covers the others, and sequence the Wafid screening against the visa timeline rather than doing it first and watching it expire.

Dependent iqamas renew on your cycle, and the mechanics are dominated by the levy.

Renewal increments and levy arithmetic

Renewals are available in 3, 6, 9 or 12-month increments, with the levy paid pro rata: SAR 1,200 for three months, SAR 2,400 for six, SAR 3,600 for nine, SAR 4,800 for twelve, per dependent. Shorter renewals do not reduce the annual cost; they only spread it.

The levy gates everything

The dependent levy must be paid in full before renewals or exit and re-entry visas can be issued for dependents. This is the mechanism that turns an unpaid levy into a family that cannot travel. Payment runs through SADAD and bank portals linked to Absher and Muqeem.

What changes at each renewal

• Sons aged 18 to 25 need current proof of enrolment at a recognised school or university at each renewal.
• Daughters aged 18 to 25 need a certificate confirming they remain unmarried.
• Sons reaching 25 must transfer to their own sponsorship; this is not a renewal option.
• Insurance must be current for each dependent.
• Your own iqama must be valid, since dependent status is derivative.

Late renewal

Reported penalties escalate: SAR 500 for a first offence, SAR 1,000 for a second, and SAR 1,000 plus deportation risk for a third. This comes from a single detailed source and we could not cross-verify it against an official Jawazat schedule, so treat the structure as indicative. Our Saudi iqama renewal guide covers the process, and the greyed-out renewal button guide covers the most common technical blocker, which is usually insurance.

Six recurring issues, with the first two being the ones that decide whether this is viable for you at all.

1. Ineligible profession category. An iqama registered as a labour category blocks sponsorship regardless of what you earn. Fix the registered profession first or the application goes nowhere. See the profession correction guide.
2. Levy affordability. SAR 4,800 per dependent per year is a structural commitment, not a one-off cost. Families who do not model it properly end up with an unpaid balance blocking exit visas.
3. Registered basic salary versus package. The Qiwa-authenticated basic is reportedly what is examined, so a generous total package built on a low basic can present worse than expected.
4. Incomplete attestation on the marriage or birth certificates, or missing Arabic translation where the original is not in Arabic.
5. Attempting to convert a visit visa. It cannot be done. The person must exit and apply for the correct visa type from abroad.
6. Insurance lapse. This is the most common technical blocker on renewals and typically shows up as a renewal that simply will not proceed.

The question to answer first

Before any paperwork, answer two things honestly: is your iqama profession in an eligible category, and can you carry SAR 400 per dependent per month for as long as you intend to stay? If either answer is no, nothing else in this guide helps, and it is far better to know that before you have paid for attestation and a SAR 2,000 visa fee.

If the answers are yes, the rest is a well-trodden administrative path with a clear sequence.

Saudi family residence is unusual among GCC systems in that the hard part is not the application, it is the arithmetic. The visa fee is modest, the process is well defined across MOFA, Absher and Muqeem, and the document list is conventional. What decides most families' outcome is whether the iqama profession is in an eligible category and whether SAR 400 per dependent per month is genuinely sustainable for the length of the posting.

Get those two answers right and everything else is sequence: attest, request, stamp abroad, travel, medical, register the dependent iqama, then manage the levy and renewals through Muqeem.

Wathim handles Saudi family sponsorship end to end: profession and eligibility review, the attestation chain, the MOFA visa request and embassy coordination, the dependent iqama registration in Absher, and the renewal and levy cycle afterwards. Send us your iqama profession and family composition and we will start with a costed eligibility assessment. More on the Saudi family sponsorship service and the Saudi residency visa service.

Related reading: the Saudi dependent fee guide, the family visit visa for parents, the iqama renewal guide, the GCC salary comparison, and the dependent fee and family sponsorship glossary entries. Everything Saudi is indexed on the Saudi Arabia hub.