Muqeem Portal Explained for Expats & Employers

If you live and work in Saudi Arabia, many of the residency actions that affect your daily life happen inside a system you may never log into yourself: مقيم. It is the online platform of the General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) that employers and sponsors use to manage residency (iqama) and visa services for the expatriates under their sponsorship. This guide from سعودي ليفنج explains what مقيم does, who uses it, what it costs establishments, and how you as an expat see the results of what your employer processes.

What Muqeem is (and who can access it)

مقيم is built for establishments, not individual expats. Companies, sponsors, and their authorized administrators log in to handle residency and visa transactions on behalf of their workers. As an expat, you normally do not have your own مقيم account. Instead, you see the outcome of these transactions through أبشر, your printed iqama card, or your digital iqama.

In practice this means your sponsor initiates the paperwork inside مقيم, and once it is completed you can verify the result on your own أبشر account.

Core services employers handle in Muqeem

The platform brings most day-to-day Jawazat transactions into one place. The most common services include:

• Issuing and renewing resident permits (iqama) for workers under sponsorship.
• Printing or reprinting the physical iqama card.
• Generating single and multiple exit–re-entry visas for travel and return to the Kingdom.
• Issuing final exit visas, including during the probation period.
• Extending visit visas.
• Updating passport and personal information for residents.
• Changing the profession listed on the iqama where the rules allow it.
• Querying detailed resident information — entry data, current status inside or outside the Kingdom, visa data, and expiry dates.
• Issuing entry permits to Makkah for eligible residents during restricted periods.
• Producing electronic Jawazat forms prefilled from the system.

What this means for you as an expat

Because you rely on your employer to act inside مقيم, timing and communication matter. Before you travel, confirm your sponsor has issued the correct exit–re-entry visa and that your iqama is valid for the trip. Keep an eye on your iqama expiry through أبشر, and remind HR ahead of renewal deadlines. If your passport is renewed, ask your employer to update the passport details in مقيم so your records stay consistent. Whenever you need to confirm a status or a visa, check أبشر or your digital iqama rather than assuming a transaction is complete.

Muqeem subscriptions for establishments

Access to مقيم is sold to establishments as an annual subscription priced by the number of residents on the company's sponsorship. Subscriptions come in tiered packages — commonly described as Basic, Advanced, and Professional (or "Comprehensive Muqeem") — which cover a set number of users and either unlimited or per-transaction operations.

Approximate annual base bands, for one Gregorian year, are structured roughly as follows:

• 0–9 residents: about 1,100 ريال سعودي.
• 10–49 residents: about 2,300 ريال سعودي.
• 50–99 residents: about 3,600 ريال سعودي.
• 100–199 residents: about 5,600 ريال سعودي.
• 200–800 residents: about 7,550 ريال سعودي.
• 801+ residents: per-resident pricing of roughly 11–12.65 ريال سعودي depending on package level.

These are indicative bands; the exact figure depends on the package tier and resident count, so employers should confirm current pricing when renewing.

Per-transaction fees and the points system

Many مقيم implementations use a points-based schedule where individual Jawazat operations are charged in "points" that correspond to a ريال سعودي value. Depending on the contract, a single operation typically maps to somewhere between 15 and 60 ريال سعودي, billed as both an operation fee and points. Current examples include:

• Iqama printing: around 75 points / 15 ريال سعودي.
• Information update (such as a passport update): around 300 points / 60 ريال سعودي.
• Resident entry permit to Makkah: around 250 points / 50 ريال سعودي.
• Visit visa extension: around 250 points.

Note that these are separate from any government fees or fines linked to the underlying service. Because pricing and points mapping vary by contract and can change, always confirm the current amounts before processing.

Getting it right

The safest approach for both sides is to plan ahead and verify. Employers should keep their subscription active, budget for per-transaction operations, and process renewals and exit visas well before deadlines. Expats should track their iqama and visa status independently through أبشر and their digital iqama. For any specific fee, timeline, or eligibility question, confirm the details on the relevant official Saudi government portal before you act.

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