Saudi Arabia is considering setting up a ‘green card’ system, similar to that used in the US, as part of an overall strategy to raise $100 billion in revenues annually by 2020, according to reports.
The Deputy Crown Prince “revealed Saudi Arabia’s inclination to introducing a system for residents that is similar to the American green card system which will be another source of revenue for the national economy amounting to billions of dollars,” according to Asharq Alawsat, a Saudi-owned publication based in London.
According to the wide-ranging and lengthy interview the Deputy Crown Prince had with Bloomberg last week, the proposed green card system “includes a plan to charge companies a fee for hiring more foreign workers above official quotas could raise $10 billion each a year,” Arabian Business reports.
It is likely that more details would emerge about the green card program as part of the launch of the National Transformation Program, which the Deputy Crown Prince said would be announced in less than a month.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Reports in English-language newspapers based in Saudi Arabia lauded the decision.
Nidal Ridwan, chairman of the Federation of Labor Committees in the Kingdom, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that he “expected the formation of an independent authority to implement the new system.
“The new system will bring a lot of economic and social benefits. Non-Saudis will pay what the Saudis pay including Zakat, value added tax and insurance premiums. They will be allowed to own real estate and run trade, industry and service firms,” said Ridwan.
Arab News interviewed Saleh Ampaso Bucay, a senior systems engineer at Tawuniya, who has been working in Saudi Arabia since 1992. Bucay described the move “as a dream come true.”
“I am just like many other expatriates who have spent more than half of their lives in this country. All my children were born here. So it is really a great honor if this privilege of either permanent residence or a green card is granted to us,” Bucay told Arab News.
