Kuwait affirms commitment to new residence regulations

Brig. Adel Al-Hashash, Director of the General Department of Public Relations and Moral Guidance, said Sunday there will be no backing down on the fees recently levied on the residence of foreigners in Kuwait.
"The fees are part of the residency law; they are related to the updating of data after the extension of the validity of passports or the transfer of data from expired passport to a new one," Al-Hashash, also Acting Director of the Security Media Department, told reporters.
"The Residence Affairs Department put in place an integrated system for the transfer of expatriates' data," Brig. Al-Hashash said, urging those concerned to review their data with their respective residence affairs divisions.
The regulations grant an expatriate a two-month grace period after the expiry of their passports to update their data; after which they will be liable to fine, he pointed out.
Brig. Al-Hashash called on all foreign residents, or their sponsors, to verify the expiry dates of the expats' passports and residencies and update the data without delay in order to avoid penalties.
"Those who renewed their passports outside Kuwait need to review with the residence affairs department in order to update the data within at least one month after entry into Kuwait; otherwise they could be fined," he made clear.
"A foreign resident who has valid residence and invalid passport will be fined at a rate of KD two per day or a maximum of KD 600 in case they fail to update their data within the specified periods of time; those who have invalid residence and invalid passport will face the maximum fine," he affirmed. Those who fail to update their residence or passports will neither be able to leave the country nor enter it, he said, noting that the media campaign over the last two months contributed to raising the awareness of the expats in this regard.
Brig. Al-Hashash added that the Residence Affairs Dept. set up teams for receiving the expats willing to update their data and addressing their applications as soon as possible.