A new residency law, effective late 2025
Amiri Decree No. 114 of 2024 repealed Kuwait's older 1959 foreigners' residency law, and its
Executive Regulations, issued as Ministerial Resolution No. 2249 of 2025, took effect 23 December 2025.
The reform introduced tiered residency durations -- up to 15 years for investors licensed under
Kuwait's Foreign Direct Investment Law, and up to 10 years for real estate owners and children of
Kuwaiti women -- while standard employment-based residency (iqama) remains around 5 years, tied to the
duration of the underlying employment contract and work permit. Iqama renewal is generally handled
through the Ministry of Interior's residency affairs department, with the employer-sponsor typically
responsible for initiating renewal, and lapses can attract fines or, if prolonged, deportation risk.
Fees for standard residency renewal, health insurance and dependant permits were also revised as part
of this reform, along with changes to the mandatory expatriate health insurance scheme that residents
must maintain to keep their iqama valid; NRIs should confirm current figures and insurance requirements
directly with Kuwait's immigration authorities rather than rely on older cited amounts.
The sponsorship system remains, with new safeguards
Kuwait's employer-sponsor (kafala) structure was retained under the new law rather than abolished,
meaning a work permit and residency generally remain tied to a specific sponsoring employer, and
transferring sponsorship between employers typically requires the current sponsor's consent or a
qualifying exception. A standard minimum sponsor salary threshold applies for bringing dependants
(spouse and children) into Kuwait on a family residency permit, with certain professional exemptions
for higher-skilled or higher-earning categories. The new law also explicitly criminalizes visa trading
-- exploiting or facilitating sponsorship in exchange for money -- with penalties including fines and
imprisonment, reflecting an enforcement focus alongside the structural reforms, and NRIs should be
cautious of informal arrangements that promise residency outside the formal sponsorship channel.
Political context worth being aware of
Kuwait's Emir dissolved the National Assembly (parliament) in May 2024 and has ruled by decree since,
which is why recent immigration reforms have come through Amiri decrees and ministerial resolutions
rather than parliamentary legislation; this also means the pace and direction of further reform can
shift relatively quickly compared with a jurisdiction legislating through an active parliament. A
previously proposed parliamentary bill from 2020 to cap Indian nationals at a fixed share of Kuwait's
population was never enacted into law, though periodic public and media discussion of expatriate
demographic composition has continued. NRIs should rely on official government announcements from the
Ministry of Interior or Kuwait's Council of Ministers, and on updates from the Indian Embassy, rather
than unverified reports or social media, when assessing demographic-policy developments that could
affect residency conditions.
