New visa fee won’t dissuade inflow of foreign investments into Saudi Arabia, says minister

Majed al-Qasabi, Saudi Arabia’s commerce minister, said on 17 November that the new visa fee will not dissuade foreign investments from flowing into their country.

His spokesman was quoted by the Agence France Presse as saying that the minister was confident that foreign investments to Saudi Arabia will not be impacted negatively.

According to him, business captains and investors will now be able to get multiple entry visas for up to two years, giving them access to enter the west Asian country any number of times.

Earlier, business people were given visas which had a maximum validity of one year. The one or two-year visas would cost $1,333 and $2,133, respectively, while single-entry business visas would cost $533, These visa fees were hiked substantially by as much as seven times in October.

When the visa fee was hiked, many diplomats were of the view that higher fees would discourage many small and medium-sized companies from investing in the Arab country.

But a visa consultant said that these changes were not applicable to the United States or the European Union. On the other hand, it would only increase marginally for UK citizens.

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