In order to apply for a Saudi Arabia visa, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London require a letter with specific information to be provided. We have provided a template of the letter required.
Please use this template and apply it to your own company letterhead with the appropriate signatory completing it.
The word format of this letter is downloadable via this link
An image of it can be seen below with the information required to complete this. If you require additional information, please email or call us.
Employer Support Letter Image Version
You are required to scan this letter during the precheck before sending us your documets.
In order to translate the relevant parts of the Saudi invite, please visit our invitation page
Saudi Arabian Employer Support Letter Completion Guide
This letter is one of the most critical parts of the application. The completed employer support letter will be attested by the Arab British Chamber of commerce in London and is a mandatory requirement before the Saudi Embassy in London will issue the visa. Most Saudi visa rejections are as a result of the employer support letter which needs to accurately match the Saudi invitation and application form. To assist business and governmental visa applications, please kindly utilise the points as below for the core sections to ensure it is completed accurately
Pre Checking of your Employer Support Letter
We request as a part of our inhouse process that all applicants email us the first draft ESL to our team which will allow us to undertake the check accuracy of it. You can either scan the first draft, or email across the word document and we can advise on accuracy as we receive it. Most employer support letters require some form of change, therefore as many of these letters will require signatures from a senior team member, we advise that these are checked at this stage and our team members can work through any changes with you to advise accordingly. We generally aim to provide our employer support letter feedback within 30 – 60 minutes.
Important Rules and Completion Guidelines
British Company Registration Number for ESL
Only United Kingdom companies can be stated here. If you do not have a UK based company (foreign company), then you can still apply for a Saudi visa from the Embassy in London, however the letter must be legalised from the Saudi embassy in that country. For example if the employer is registered in the UAE, then the employer support letter must first be legalised by the KSA embassy in Dubai. We would advise that the drafted letter is carried out with our company first. Please see the details as below in our British Company Registration number section.
Letterhead: Logos/company letterheads to be inserted in the letter. If an applicant has a UK based company, however there is no official logo/branding, it is advised that some form of official branding be placed on the letter. If this is not available, then please kindly contact our Saudi Arabia Visa processing team.
Important: All Employer Support Letters for the Saudi Visa application needs to be the original, with the original wet signature. Please ensure that no print out of ESLs with scanned signature is sent as these will lead to rejection of the Saudi Arabian business visa.
British Company Registration Number for ESL
This is the company’s house registration number. The ABCC will undertake a database to validate UK company authenticity.
Please note that if your employer is based abroad, and you are in the UK, a letter from a foreign company will need to be legalised by the Saudi embassy in that country and we will submit this letter with the rest of the application. If your employer is based but has a UK based office also, then we would advise you to have this office issue your UK Employer support letter for your Saudi Visa.
If a business visa applicant is either self employed or a freelancer, the same issue with the ABCC and company verification holds, therefore it is advised that saudi visa applicants register a company (7 working days to show up on the companies house database so this timeframe would need to be considered), or liaise with an associate from a Ltd company that could help in this format.
Saudi Arabia Visa Applicant Job Title
The job title on the employer support letter needs to be exactly the same as the job title as stated on the letter of invitation from the Saudi Arabian MOFA Chamber of commerce.
This will be on your invitation and either written in Arabic or English. We strongly recommend applicants emailing us the invitation for a precheck.
Please note that in March 2020 the Saudi Arabian government removed the “working visit” visa which was the category for temporary work to be undertaken in the Kingdom. Therefore the “business visit” visa is generally only available to those whose job title will reflect non working roles, and more seniority, for example Manager, Investor, Director, President, Chief of a role, head of, consultant, advisor and so forth. The new rules remove the option for working related activities to be undertaken in KSA. Please visit our invitation page where you find this in detail. Please note that if your role requires you to travel, however not undertake any manual work, please contact our team members for further advice on the situation and rule in order for us to help facilitate your visa application.
Invitation Number
This number is at the top left hand side of your invitation, typically beginning with a 7. This number is used to create the enjaz application which is submitted with your Employer support letter to the embassy for visa processing. As the enjaz is created based on the invitation number, the same number needs to be displayed on the ESL.
Duration of visit
Please note that the duration of your visit will be the number of days the applicant will be travelling to KSA. The number of days for your visit will be limited to that stated on your visa. This will typically be 30, 60 or 90 days for UK, EU and non EU applicants. Please see our invitation page for this.
Please note that if your trip is likely to be less than 30 days, then you do not need to concern yourself on what is on the invitation as all invitations will allow a 30 day stay. The duration will need to be stated.
Type of Saudi Visa
Please note that those intending to visit Saudi Arabia for business have only two available visa types. The working visit has now been removed. Please see our job title section, and our invitation page which explains this visa policy in more detail.
A Government visa has a separate invitation type compared to the Saudi Arabian chamber of commerce LOI for a business visa. The difference is that the business visa is a “Request from a visa” where the embassy reviews the paperwork and documents provided and issue the visa based on this, however a government visa is basically an instruction from the Saudi Arabia MOFA to the Saudi embassy in London to grant the visa.
The government visas are often processed in 1 working day as opposed to 2 working days for all other visa types. Please note that even though the government visa carries more authority, the applicant will still need to provide documents that are prepared appropriately along with the photographs, passport, and attested ESL as per the guidance on this page need to be adhered to.
Reasons for travel to Saudi Arabia
The reason for travel will be stated on the invitation letter, often the most common reason will be business meetings and this can be stated. During inspection of your invitation as a first phase, we advise all applicants to email this to us and we can advise what to write on it, and what is stated after an Arabic translation.
Please note that in March 2020 the Saudi government stipulated a new rule where the working visit visa was removed in order for Saudi Arabian locals to undertake these, thus leaving only business people from various positions to apply for visas. Please see our MOFA invitation page for further guidelines, or contact us for more information.
Travel Date
This is a critically important part. If the travel date is too close to the application date, or in the circumstance that your visa has to be resubmitted due to a rejection for another reason, and your intended travel date has gone past the employer support letter, then a new letter will needed to be generated (which subsequently will require new attestation at the ABCC in London). Therefore we advise that clients and visitors enter a date with 2 to 3 weeks slack period to allow for potential issues to be resolved. Note that for the letters to remain valid, they would need to be no older than 1 month from the date stated on the letter.
Number of visits to KSA
The invitation will state the number of visits, whether this is a single entry or multiple entry visa. This is often written in Arabic on the invitation therefore upon starting your visa application process, we advise you to contact one of our visa consultants who will inform you of the number of permitted entries.
Nationality for Saudi Arabia visa Requirements
Documentation for Non UK Nationals
Please note that additional documentation is also required for non UK nationals applying for their Saudi Arabia business visa. We have a dedicated page to this, however the extra requirements are stipulated as below.
Supporting Residential Proof for EU Nationals
For EU nationals, utility bills, bank statements of no less than 3 months are required to support the application. For bank statements, the financials can be deleted for privacy reasons, however the UK address will be required to be shown along with the dates. The proof of residency documents can be original.
Tenancy agreements with a date range will also be accepted.
Supporting Residential Proof for Non EU Nationals
For everyone else applying for their Saudi visa from the embassy in London, that are non EU nationals, then their UK residential proof will be needed for the application including their UK visa, indefinite leave to remain, tiered issued visa. We would advise all applicants to use a label to mark the page that their UK visa is inside to make it clear to our staff members. The embassy will check this. If your UK visa is inside an old passport, please kindly provide the old passport with your application and forms, along with a photocopy. All documents will be carefully returned with your passport and Saudi visa.
Employer Support Letter Signatory
Who can sign the employer support letter
The KSA embassy in London requests that all applicants applying for a business visa have their ESLs signed by either someone in a managerial position or above, a Human resources senior member or so forth. If the visa applicant is the most senior person in the company then another team member also in a senior managerial or director position will be permitted to also sign the ESL as well. If you have any queries regarding who can sign the ESL, then please let our highly experienced team know who will advise.