MPs Delay Blanket Ban on Converting Entry Visas into Work Permits

A blanket ban on turning entry visas into work residence permits has been pushed back, after MPs on Tuesday withdrew a draft amendment to Bahrain’s 1965 Aliens (Immigration and Residence) Law for further study and put off a decision for a fortnight.

The proposal would add a new Article 7 (repeated) stating that an entry visa granted to a foreigner may never be converted into a residence permit for work. Parliament had already backed the text once, but the Shura Council rejected it in principle. The Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee had urged MPs to keep to their earlier decision, saying the measure is aimed at protecting job opportunities for Bahrainis, easing unemployment among citizens and supporting the national labour market plan so that Bahrainis remain the first choice in hiring.

Acting Labour Minister Yousif Khalaf told the chamber that misuse of visit visas had been recorded in detail by a parliamentary inquiry, which found 37,000 violations in 2023 and more than 8,500 people in a single year switching from visit visas to work visas. He said the government, through the Interior Ministry, had moved to deal with this, with Interior Minister Decision 16 of 2024 raising the fee for changing status to 250 dinars and tying any conversion to the same guarantor. Under that decision, a visit visa may be converted to a work or dependent visa only for the original sponsor, a dependent visa may be turned into a work visa for the same fee, and tourist visit visas are not converted into work permits. ‘A foreigner cannot simply enter Bahrain and hand out CVs,’ he said, ‘because any change of status is confined to the same guarantor.’

Khalaf pointed to figures for 2025 as evidence of the impact. In the first quarter, 708 people changed their visas; in the second, 849; and in the third, 912, bringing the total for the first three quarters to 2,469 conversions. He argued that, without the current system, many people would leave to a neighbouring state and re-enter Bahrain to obtain new visas, whereas the present rules had eased the burden ‘to a large extent’. In the government’s written view, the goal of supporting Bahraini workers is shared, but the earlier pattern has eased and there is no further legal need to amend the Aliens Law.

The cabinet’s opinion also points to Article 18 of the 1965 law, which already allows the state to grant residence permits to foreigners who can support themselves or who wish to work, under conditions laid down by the authorities. It cites Interior Minister Decision 25 of 1976, which bars entry visas for non-Bahrainis who intend to work unless a no-objection certificate has been issued after a work permit or government sponsorship is obtained, and stops visit visas being issued where the papers or circumstances show that the real purpose is work. The government stresses that residence for foreigners is a matter for the executive’s discretion and argues that a blanket statutory bar on converting entry visas into work permits would cut across the existing framework.

The Labour Market Regulatory Authority says visa switches are already bound by clear conditions and monitored in coordination with the Interior Ministry, with people who frequently change status tracked and followed up.

MP Mohammed Al Ahmed agreed that the power to grant or refuse residence is a sovereign function of the executive, but said the House still had to decide if around 2,400 conversions in three quarters counts as an acceptable level or a continuing problem. He recalled that the earlier figure of more than 8,500 conversions had, in his words, made Bahrain resemble an international base for job hunters arriving on visit visas, adding: ‘We need to judge whether this new number is now acceptable or still a negative pattern, before we answer the Shura Council and its reliance on an eighty-seven per cent drop.’

With the draft now withdrawn for closer study and a new vote delayed by two weeks, the gap between Parliament’s earlier stance, the Shura Council’s refusal and the government’s reservations remains unresolved.