Booking the Saudi SVP (Takamol) Test From Bangladesh: The 24 TTCs, the USD 85 Fee and the 27% Who Fail

If you are going to Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh in a trade, the SVP test - the Takamol test - is now part of almost every work visa. From the Saudi portal's own data and the Bangladeshi press:

• Fee: USD 85 per attempt since early September 2026, paid by card on svp-international.qiwa.sa. No official taka figure exists; at mid-market rates it is roughly Tk 10,500, before your card's charges.
• Centres: 24 on the portal's public list on 5 November 2026 - 21 of them BMET Technical Training Centres, plus Bangladesh-German TTC in Mirpur, the BRTC Central Training Institute in Gazipur and one private centre in Dhaka.
• Occupations: 714 activated for Bangladesh on 13 October 2026 - 27 fewer than India and Pakistan, mostly in mining, quarrying and metal processing.
• Cleaners and loaders: no lasting exemption. The Business Standard reported in September 2026 that the Saudi embassy in Dhaka has not issued them visas without an SVP certificate since mid-2025.
• Failure rate: 27% - 122,909 of 447,572 Bangladeshi candidates tested since mid-2023, as of 16 September 2026 (TBS).

That failure rate is the number to take seriously. More than one in four Bangladeshi candidates fails, and each retake now costs USD 85 again. The rules of the test itself are in the SVP exam guide; this page is about booking it from Bangladesh, the centres, the money and passing first time.

The portal groups Bangladeshi centres by division rather than by town, which is why a Patuakhali centre is listed under "Barishal". The full list on 5 November 2026:

Three things stand out.

Chattogram is thin. The country's second city has no centre of its own on the list; the only Chattogram-division centre is at Ramu, in Cox's Bazar. Candidates from Chattogram, Feni and the hill districts are choosing a journey.

The Dhaka label hides distance. Shariatpur, Kishoreganj and Tangail are all "Dhaka" on the portal. Choose "Dhaka" expecting Mirpur and you may be assigned Shariatpur.

Counts disagree. The Dhaka Tribune reported 27 Takamol-approved centres in November 2025; the portal lists 24 now. The portal's city filter on the day you book is the only live answer.

The official SVP user guide (version 7, November 2025) says the time and location "will be assigned automatically and randomly" after you choose the method, city and language. Because the portal's "cities" in Bangladesh are divisions, the random assignment can land you anywhere in that division. Look up the address on your ticket the day it arrives. If you cannot reach it, you can reschedule once, at least 72 hours before the test. If you do not turn up, the fee is lost.

A TTC principal told Bonik Barta in July 2025 that "TTC is only a test center" - it administers the test; it does not sell bookings, choose candidates or influence marks. Anyone offering you a particular TTC, or a "guaranteed" one, is not describing the official process.

The pattern in that last row matters: when the fee was USD 50, about Tk 6,000, agents and computer shops charged Tk 7,500-12,000 to make a booking any candidate can make on the portal. With the fee at USD 85, the same markup would put agent quotes well above Tk 15,000.

Bangladesh's government asked Takamol to cut or waive the retake fee. TBS reported in November 2025 that Takamol said it "will be considered seriously"; the Daily Star reported on 8 October 2026 that the request had not been granted. So every retake is the full USD 85.

The booking screen asks you to confirm that your employer should refund one test fee for the occupation on your work visa. In practice, the Bangladeshi press has reported repeatedly that workers pay. Raise it with your recruiting agency in writing before you pay.

One separate fee is often confused with the test: the Wage Earners' Welfare Board fee rose from Tk 3,500 to Tk 5,500 on 20 September 2026 (TBS). It is not an SVP charge.

For a while, cleaners and loading-unloading workers were the big open question. The sequence, as The Business Standard reported it:

• July 2025: loading-unloading testing started at 9 TTCs, with 20 planned. The Saudi embassy in Dhaka gave loading-unloading visas a grace period to 20 July 2025, and suggested cleaners might get a few more months. The government's adviser asked Riyadh for relaxation.
• September 2026: TBS reported that since mid-2025 the embassy has not issued visas to cleaners and loaders without an SVP certificate.

So if your visa says cleaner or loader, plan for the test. Do not rely on an agent's claim of an exemption unless you can see it on pacc.sa: search your visa occupation and select Bangladesh. If it shows as activated, the test applies.

On the PACC site, pacc.sa (the old pacc.qiwa.sa redirects there), search the occupation exactly as it appears on your visa and select Bangladesh. If it is activated, expect to need the test; if it is not, the official FAQ says the test is not required. On 13 October 2026, 714 occupations were activated for Bangladesh. TBS and the Daily Star describe the Bangladesh scope as 73 occupations - a figure that counts trades differently from the portal's catalogue - and the Dhaka Tribune reported 188 trades in November 2025. The portal's own search is the only number that decides your case.

Engineers do not take the SVP; they register with the Saudi Council of Engineers instead (SCE accreditation).

1. Register on svp-international.qiwa.sa with your passport. Enter the passport number - not any other number on the page - exactly as printed. It cannot be changed later.
2. Complete the profile with a photo, ID number, education level and password, and confirm the code sent by email or SMS.
3. Start Verification and choose the occupation that is on your visa. MOFA checks the occupation code, and a wrong choice cannot be changed.
4. Choose the method (in person, online where offered, or RPL), then the division and the language. Bengali is one of the nine languages, where your occupation offers it.
5. Accept the centre and time assigned, pay USD 85 by Visa or Mastercard, and print the ticket from the email or SMS.

Two things go wrong most. The name typed differently from the passport - a missing middle name, "Md" against "Mohammad" - and the occupation chosen from memory rather than copied from the visa. Both turn a paid booking into a lost one. The same process from Pakistan, with NAVTTC's figures, is in the Pakistan booking guide; from India, the India guide.

Note what is not on the list: no agency letter, no TTC form and no separate Bangladeshi fee for the test itself. If someone tells you the booking needs one of those, ask them to show you where the portal asks for it. If you are taking the RPL route, a certificate that cannot be verified is rejected, so put it through attestation for Saudi Arabia before uploading it.

Bring your original passport and the printed ticket, and arrive 30 minutes early (the FAQ's figure; the user guide says 15). The test is computer-based, or computer plus a practical marked by an assessor, depending on the occupation. It runs up to 120 minutes; the number of questions is not published and varies between candidates. The pass mark is 50%, and the computer test and practical count together.

For drivers, the BRTC Central Training Institute in Gazipur is on the list, and drivers may be offered RPL with their Bangladeshi licence instead of a test. Either way, the SVP is not a Saudi driving licence; converting in the Kingdom is a separate theory test at 75%.

The result usually appears at once, sometimes up to five days later. The certificate is downloaded from your dashboard, and the embassy and MOFA read it electronically - there is nothing to courier.

One detail is specific to Bangladesh. The official FAQ says a certificate from a computer-only test or RPL lasts two years and one with a practical lasts five. But the portal's own country settings, read on 5 November 2026, list five years for every test type for Bangladesh, while India and Pakistan show the two/five split. We cannot tell whether that is a deliberate rule. The expiry date on the verification page is the one that counts - how to check it, and what to do if the embassy cannot see your certificate, is in the SVP result and certificate guide.

122,909 failures out of 447,572 is not a test that rewards turning up. The reasons that recur in the reporting and in the test's design:

• The computer, not the trade. Many candidates have done the job for years and have never sat a timed multiple-choice test on a screen.
• Safety and method questions. The paper asks how the job should be done safely and to standard, which is not always how it was done on site.
• Language. Reading a question in a second language under time is a skill of its own; choose Bengali if your occupation offers it.
• The practical and the computer test count together. A strong practical does not rescue a weak computer test.

Each failure costs USD 85 and time, and you have three attempts in total. What happens after a fail - to the attempts, the visa and the money - is in the guide to failing the SVP test.

No syllabus or question bank is published - the official FAQ says the test "is based on the general information for the test taker occupation" and that there are no resources to review. What you can practise is the format: multiple choice, on a computer, in the language you choose, against the clock, on the safety and method questions every trade paper leans on.

Start with the free SVP practice test - no sign-up, each question with its answer and the rule behind it, marked at the real 50%. If you already know your trade, go straight to the short sets for electricians, plumbers, HVAC/AC technicians or welders.

For timed practice at full length, the SVP practice bank has original questions for those four trades and timed mocks, for one payment. The questions are ours, written to general trade knowledge - not from Takamol, PACC or any "leaked" pool, because none exists. A TTC's own three-day course (Tk 2,000, per TBS) is a reasonable option too; the point of any practice is to make test day the second time you have seen this format, not the first.

With a 27% failure rate and no fee relief on retakes, the agency's cheapest intervention is before the first attempt: copy each worker's visa occupation exactly into the booking, check the passport name against the machine-readable line, and give every candidate at least one timed practice session. Exam prep for agencies and employers sets up practice access for a batch.

• Any BMET notice on the SVP; bmet.gov.bd did not load for us. BMET's role here comes from the press.
• An official taka fee. None is published; Tk 10,500 is our arithmetic.
• Whether BMET registration, the smart card or Ami Probashi is linked to the SVP booking. We found no source saying so.
• The five-year setting for Bangladesh, which the official FAQ does not mention.
• The centre count. 24 on the portal, 27 in the press, and no live availability list.
• The trade count. 714 activated occupations on the portal, 73 or 188 "trades" in the press, counted differently.
• Any decision on the retake-fee request after 8 October 2026.

The rules of the test: the SVP exam guide. The free SVP practice test.

Want the paperwork handled? Wathim does not sell SVP bookings or results - the booking is yours to make on the portal for USD 85, and nobody can promise a pass. What the desk runs is the paperwork around it: attestation, the Saudi work visa and the iqama once you arrive. Brief the desk with your visa occupation and we will tell you what it means for you.