Bahrain: Issuances of family dependent visas by status (new, renewed) (Q3 2008 – Q2 2018)

Family dependents
New Visas Renewals Total
2008 Q3 3,080 3,073 6,153
Q4 6,128 4,451 10,579
2009 Q1 7,123 6,439 13,562
Q2 7,581 8,326 15,907
Q3 5,904 5,152 11,056
Q4 5,119 6,974 12,093
2010 Q1 6,241 11,539 17,780
Q2 6,021 10,897 16,918
Q3 5,795 6,670 12,465
Q4 4,890 7,244 12,134
2011 Q1 5,024 9,538 14,562
Q2 6,135 9,199 15,334
Q3 5,450 5,910 11,360
Q4 5,067 7,319 12,386
2012 Q1 6,553 9,953 16,506
Q2 7,031 9,923 16,954
Q3 6,763 7,057 13,820
Q4 4,936 7,970 12,906
2013 Q1 7,636 10,150 17,786
Q2 7,814 11,056 18,870
Q3 6,248 7,375 13,623
Q4 5,492 8,746 14,238
2014 Q1 6,955 11,595 18,550
Q2 8,172 11,913 20,085
Q3 6,949 8,186 15,135
Q4 6,030 9,505 15,535
2015 Q1 7,740 11,760 19,500
Q2 8,202 12,921 21,123
Q3 6,926 8,412 15,338
Q4 5,485 10,757 16,242
2016 Q1 8,488 14,243 22,731
Q2 8,277 13,971 22,248
Q3 6,325 8,626 14,951
Q4 6,583 10,689 17,272
2017 Q1 8,724 13,461 22,185
Q2 8,753 12,895 21,648
Q3 7,888 8,681 16,569
Q4 7,033 10,521 17,554
2018 Q1 7,104 13,856 20,960
Q2 7,310 15,034 22,344

Source: Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), Expatriate Management System (EMS)

ANNEXED NOTE
 
1. Technical Notes and Definitions

Within the scope of Law No. 19/2006 on regulating the labour market, the LMRA Expatriate Management System (EMS)
issues regular, temporary and investor work visas for foreign workers in the private, governmental and non-commercial, non-government sectors,
as well as records and issues residency visas to their family dependents.
The system tracks visa applications, renewals, mobility of workers between employers and from one occupation to another.
Domestic workers are registered separately.
The system is updated continuously and linked with other labour-related databases of the Kingdom, including CIO, GDNPR, GOSI, PFC, CSB,
Ministry of Labour (MoL), and Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC).

The Expat Management System (EMS) distinguishes four types of visas for operational purposes: regular work visas for workers with 24-month validity;
temporary work visas issued for workers with 6-month validity; investor work visas issued for investors investing up to BD 100,000;
and dependent visas issued for family members of eligible foreign workers.
A Regular worker is engaged to work in an enterprise for a long period of time, i.e. for more than six months and usually two years with possibility of renewal.
An Investor is a person who invests up to 100,000 Bahraini dinars.
A Temporary worker is engaged to work in an enterprise for a short period of time, i.e. for less than two years and usually six months.
Four major categories of workers in terms of their status in employment are employees, employers, own-account workers, and unpaid family workers.

The definitions that the LMRA adopts for its data can be found in the Glossary section: (http://blmi.lmra.bh/mi_glossary.xml)

2. Institution which provides data 

Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA).

3. Data availability 

The LMRA publishes these data under its Bahrain Labour Market Indicators (http://www.lmra.bh/blmi), data section (http://blmi.lmra.bh/2018/06/mi_data.xml), table 33.
Figures and results are often reported in tables in both PDF and Excel formats.

Date of access: December 2018