SAUDI ARABIA

Hello World – On the 10th March 2014 at 09:11AM our beautiful daughter Zayna was born, at Al Mana General Hospital in Hofuf, Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.

Along with the excitement of our new bundle of joy comes the paper work to process since being born in Saudi. I hope you will find the below a little helpful of going through the process.

On Birth:

At the hospital they will provide you a notification of birth and a vaccination card. The “On birth”  sectionshould have been completed. Get the notification of birth document stamped at the hospital (there are 3 stamps needed and it should take a day or 2 so you might need to come back). They will also ask for copies of the parents Iqama’s (Residence Cards) so keep that on hand.

Birth Certificate:

Next up you will need to visit the Ministry of Interior (Update: You may be required to make an appointment now online). There is a window (In Al Ahsa – Window #5) for Non-Saudi’s (Notification of Birth – Non-Saudi) have the following documentation ready:

– Completed application form – this you will receive at the ministry and is in Arabic – so have someone help you with this one
– Bring along the following documents.
– Parent’s Passports (originals and copies)
– Parent’s Iqamas (originals and copies)
– Parent’s marriage certificate (originals and copies)
– Notification of birth (originals and copies)

Don’t expect the teller to speak any English but they might speak a little broken English. Immediately they will print an Arabic Birth Certificate. It’s free. Once completed you will need to get in stamped by the security and the ministry official – they usually in the same building.

Passport:

Next up you need to visit the South African Embassy in Riyadh (or consular in Jeddah). We went to Riyadh details are:

South African Embassy
King Khalid Road
Um Al-Hammam East
Riyadh

Tel: + 966 1 442 9718
Tel: + 966 1 442 9719
Tel: + 966 1 442 9720
Fax: + 966 1 442 9708
Fax: + 966 1 442 9712

GPS Co-ordinates – 24.668345, 46.663892 or 24°40’06.0″N 46°39’50.0″E

[wpgmza id=”1″]

Gentleman in charge is Vinesh / Vuyo and their manager is Lesley.

Have the following documents ready:

– Completed application form – this you will receive at the embassy (BI-24 / DHA-529 / BI-73)
– Bring along the following documents.
– Parent’s Passports (originals and copies)
– Parent’s Iqamas (originals and copies)
– Parent’s marriage certificate (originals and copies)
– Notification of birth (originals and copies)
– Parents ID Books (originals and copies)
– Birth Certificate – Needs to be translated into English by an approved translator
– Passport photos (35mm x 44mm) – Keep 8 just in case (only 4 was used)

Checklist is here.

Note: you can apply for a temporary passport which is issued immediately at SR100 – Permanent one is SR223.

Note 2: Most taxi’s don’t like to visit embassies and those that do might be expensive. Negotiate

Note 3: Get the taxi’s number so you can call him when you done.

Note 4: Expect the process for temp passport to take about 4 hours – Embassy times are from 08:30 to 16:00 so start early.

Iqama:

Lastly is the Iqama.

Visit the Passport office (Jawasat)

In Al Ahsa > Foreign Section > Window 11 – Gentlemen’s name is Waleed – keep the following documentation ready:

– Completed application form – this you will receive at the ministry and is in Arabic – so have someone help you with this one
– Bring along the following documents.
– Parent’s Passports (originals and copies)
– Parent’s Iqamas (originals and copies)
– Notification of birth (originals and copies)
– Passport of baby (Temporary or Permanant)
– Birth Certificate

Note: they will ask to register the dependant on the mother or father’s profile. I chose the father as I’m registered with Ministry of Interior online (https://www.moi.gov.sa) – so I can use the e-services of visa and exit/re-entry etc.

Don’t expect the teller to speak any English but they might speak a little broken English. Immediately they will print an Iqama. It’s free.

Wooooh … And you all done.

Other:

Contact Details:

Jeddahj@dirco.gov.za

khans3@dirco.gov.za 

sterleym@dirco.gov.za

http://www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/sa_abroad/sas.htm