After a decade, Kuwait to resume visas for Pakistanis

Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Sunday announced that after a 10-year pause, Kuwait has agreed to resume visas for Pakistanis.

The minister's statement came during on a day-long visit to the gulf country for this very purpose.

According to the minister, he met the Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah and conveyed special greetings from Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"There has been a big development on the front of Kuwaiti visas that had been stopped for Pakistanis since 2011. Family and business visas between Pakistan and Kuwait will now be restored," he announced, in a statement on Twitter.

The minister said that there will also no longer be any restrictions on technical visas in the fields of medicine and oil.

He said Pakistanis will now be able to obtain visas online and visit Kuwait.

According to Ahmed, the Kuwaiti prime minister noted that Pakistan and Kuwaiti ties and long-standing, dating back seven decades.

“Pakistani families and the business community faced great difficulties with the Kuwaiti visa ban,” he tweeted, hailing the role of Pakistani labour in the development of Kuwait.

“Restoration of worker visas will create new employment opportunities for Pakistanis and business visas will boost trade between the two countries.”

In mid-March, the minister had announced that talks were underway for Kuwaiti visas to be issued again for Pakistanis.

According to Arab News, Kuwait had stopped issuing visas to nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2011 "over what it said was difficult security conditions" in these countries.

The interior minister's visit to Kuwait follows Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah on the sidelines of the Special Meeting of the General Assembly on Palestine in New York last week.