Expatriates are warned not to have visiting relatives under their sponsorship exceed the period of their visit visas. If they do, they will be deported and fined under recently tightened Saudi regulations. Deportation of foreign workers whose relatives exceeded their visit visas, and penalty of a SR10,000 fine started right after the Haj season last December, according to Najeer G. Oquendo, interpreter and translator at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), Philippine Embassy (Eastern Province). He said that already several Filipinos, together with their sponsored relatives, have been deported and fined SR10,000. “POLO is forewarning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who sponsor their relatives on visit visa not to violate the law by allowing their relatives to overstay, otherwise they themselves will be deported, together with their relatives, and fined SR10,000,” said labor attaché David Des T. Dicang. Dicang said POLO in Eastern Province is now “swamped with requests for assistance from OFWs who violated the visit visa.” (OFWs are Overseas Filipino Workers). He said there is little that POLO can do except to ask the authorities for clemency and understanding “We want to emphasize, however, that the law is very strict. Violators, without exception, are deported and penalized,” Dicang stressed. Oquendo cited the case of a Filipina nurse as an example. “The latest case was that of a Filipina nurse who sponsored the visit of her husband. Both were deported and fined SR10,000. The intercession and appeal of the hospital management where she worked were not entertained by the Deportation Office of the Ministry of Interior in Dammam,” Oquendo said. Oquendo, who handles deportation cases for erring OFWs, said the law applies to all foreign workers. He cited the case of a South African lady who sponsored the visit of her son who exceed the period of his stay. “Both were deported and the lady was fined SR10,000,” Oquendo said. POLO Eastern Province is now presently handling three cases of possible deportation, according to Oquendo. One case is about an OFW whose son's visit visa had expired, but he claimed that he had submitted a letter to the Office of the Governor in Eastern Province 11 days before the expiry of the son's visit visa in order not to be penalized. “What the POLO office can do here is emphasize that there was a notice given by the workers 11 days before the expiry of the visit visa,” Oquendo said. Another case involved a Filipina teacher of a Philippine school who sponsored the visit of her mother. The teacher, according to Oquendo, wrote a letter to the Eastern Province Governorate seeking an extension of her mother's visit visa a day after the visa expired. “She again wrote a second letter asking for pardon and cancellation of the SR.10,000 penalty, but just the same the Emirate did not answer her appeal. The teacher and mother could face deportation plus payment of SR10,000,” the POLO interpreter and translator said. An OFW, who is working with Saudi Telecom on family status, with wife and four children, sponsored the visit of his mother. He found out that the allowed stay of his mother was only one month, instead of three months. “There was a discrepancy is my mother's visit visa because it was written in English that the visit was for a period of three months, but the Arabic notation specified only one month,” the worker said in his letter seeking help from the POLO office in Eastern Province. He said he is now being asked by the Deportation Office to pay SR10,000, a big amount that he cannot afford. “If there is a valid reason for exception, then we will step in to provide the support,” labor attaché Dicang said. “POLO, however, wants OFWs to be fully aware of the consequences of visit visa violations.” __
