The grace period for visa violators ends in 10 days, and deadline will not be extended any further, the Interior Ministry pointed out, and has advised all expats with expired residency permits to amend them before the deadline.
A joint cooperation between various security sectors is likely as Kuwait prepares to launch the largest security campaign once the grace period ends. Anyone found staying in Kuwait with an expired residency permit, will be arrested.
At present, there are more than 100,000 visa violators in Kuwait, and ever-since the grace period began in March, only 5000 people have so far taken advantage of the grace period and amended their status.
Meanwhile, visa violations in Kuwait have hit a new high, with about 180,000 expats residing in the country without valid permits. Since the month of August, a 38 percent spike occurred, wherein the total number of visa violators were around 130,000.
The first grace period began at the start of the pandemic in the month of March, and was supposed to end in May. However, the Ministry extended the grace period as the government agencies were shut due to lockdown, and hence, expats were allowed to extend their residency permits and visit visas for another three months till the end of August.
The third grace period was announced and was planned to end on 30th November, but the Ministry pushed the deadline further to 31st December.
