In Saudi Arabia, your Iqama is the most important card that serves as your identity and is required for availing any services, for any legal actions and to legally live or work in Saudi Arabia. While it is mandatory to have a valid Iqama to be considered as a legal resident in Saudi Arabia, It is also extremely important to make sure that your English as Well as Arabic name is correct on your iqama and there are no spelling mistakes or any kind of mistakes in your Iqama. However, there are many cases where people got Wrong Name on Iqama with mistake in English or Arabic name on the Iqama and It becomes a problem for them if they don’t get it corrected.
In this post, we will explain how to correct your English or Arabic name in Iqama in Saudi Arabia.
What happens if My Name is Wrong in Iqama?
Your iqama is your identity and your name printed on Iqama is your recognition. Your name on Iqama should be correct as per your passport and Arabic name also needs to be correct without any spelling mistakes.
If you have even small mistakes in your name in Iqama, you might face problems availing any services in Saudi Arabia. E.g.
* you might not be able to open a bank account with an invalid or incorrect name in your Iqama.
* If you need a Police Clearance Certificate, you might face problems due to iqama name errors.
* Even while getting birth certificates for your children, an incorrect name in your Iqama might cause a problem.
Above are just a few examples and list can go beyond as a wrong name in Iqama is subject to an objection by any official in any office.
What to Do If English Name or Arabic Name is Wrong in Iqama?
At first place, once you receive your Iqama by your sponsor, carefully check for your English name as well as Arabic name along with other details in your Iqama Card. If you find any spelling mistakes or any kind of errors in your Iqama. If you find any mistakes in your Iqama in English Name and find that spellings don’t match with your name on Passport or if you find any mistakes in your Arabic name (you can seek help from any one who understands Arabic better), you need not to accept and ask your sponsor to get your iqama corrected. It is always easier and less of a hassle to fix iqama name issues at the beginning as you have no other legal documents or cards got created based on this.
However, if you omitted the mistake at the beginning and found later, you can still get your name corrected. If your English Name is incorrect in your Iqama, you can ask your kafeel/sponor or government relationship officer of your company and he can correct it online and you can get a new Iqama Card printed. This change is a simple process and in a day or so you can get your new Iqama card printed with correct English name.
However, If your Arabic name in Iqama is incorrect, process is a little different. For correcting your Iqama Arabic name, your Kafeel or his government relationship officer will have to go to Jawazat and get your name mistake corrected and get a print of your correct name Iqama from Jawazat.
Please make sure that once you get your name correction in your Iqama, same corrections are done in any other cards that you have (e.g. your driving license, Istimara etc).