Regular Workers			Investors			Temporary
		New Visas	Renewals	Total	New Visas	Renewals	Total	New Visas	Renewals	Total
2008	Q3	18,930	15,033	33,963	89	13	102	1,417	411	411
	Q4	42,887	22,167	65,054	113	64	177	2,748	510	510
2009	Q1	50,535	30,519	81,054	143	157	300	1,873	439	439
	Q2	37,057	31,875	68,932	172	129	301	1,162	760	760
	Q3	35,956	29,456	65,412	242	68	310	779	612	612
	Q4	36,450	35,797	72,247	168	74	242	1,089	600	600
2010	Q1	42,203	42,558	84,761	251	91	342	1,990	329	329
	Q2	39,612	33,739	73,351	324	114	438	704	323	323
	Q3	38,642	29,195	67,837	219	134	353	516	500	500
	Q4	36,440	30,330	66,770	189	196	385	854	368	368
2011	Q1	31,023	31,566	62,589	187	210	397	1,249	203	203
	Q2	31,731	29,528	61,259	239	199	438	682	399	399
	Q3	41,949	25,142	67,091	203	143	346	641	175	175
	Q4	42,073	30,307	72,380	196	150	346	805	366	366
2012	Q1	45,185	34,221	79,406	297	247	544	981	376	376
	Q2	44,954	30,672	75,626	350	253	603	1,388	445	445
	Q3	43,480	28,227	71,707	319	227	546	1,179	397	397
	Q4	42,596	29,177	71,773	341	259	600	1,925	458	458
2013	Q1	44,431	30,182	74,613	409	317	726	971	376	376
	Q2	45,222	29,932	75,154	314	286	600	441	191	191
	Q3	42,462	29,610	72,072	352	224	576	472	310	310
	Q4	39,840	33,325	73,165	436	269	705	519	259	259
2014	Q1	41,856	38,709	80,565	464	369	833	945	251	251
	Q2	5,421	4,556	9,977	90	41	131	26	18	18

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

1. Technical Notes and Definitions

This table shows the flow of work permits (or visas) applications that are given to foreigners distinguished by the type permit granted by the LMRA (EMS).
The LMRA Expatriate Management System (EMS) stores information and past history of sponsors and workers, and their dependents, within the scope of Law No. 19/2006 on regulating the labour market. The scope of the system covers regular, temporary and investor work visas for foreign workers, their dependents, in the commercial sector, the government sector and the non-commercial, non-government sector. It presently excludes domestic workers, and work visas for artists and certain other categories of workers in non-civilian organizations. The system tracks visa applications, renewals, mobility of workers between employers and from one occupation to another as well as notification of termination and runaway workers, and in general all operations of LMRA including inspection and offence management. 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 dependent members of eligible foreign workers.
Work Visa is a legal certificate to allow a foreign worker to enter the country for working purposes for a period of two years with the possibility of renewal.
Regular Worker is a worker 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.
Investor is a person who invests up to 100,000 Bahraini dinars.
Temporary Worker is a worker engaged to work in an enterprise for a short period of time, i.e. for less than two years and usually six months.
Worker is a generic term that refers to an employed person in general, or to an employee, a self-employed, or a particular category of worker, such as full-time or part-time worker, depending on the context in which the term is used. Four major categories of workers in terms of their status in employment are employees, employers, own-account workers, and unpaid family workers.

2. Institution which provides data

Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA).

3. Data availability

The LMRA publishes these data under its Bahrain Labour Market Indicators (BLMI) section. The BLMI dashboard can be found in: (http://blmi.lmra.bh/2014/03/mi_dashboard.xml). The general BLMI data with other non-LMRA sources can be found: (http://blmi.lmra.bh/2014/03/mi_data.xml)
Figures and results are often reported in tables in both PDF and Excel formats.
Data for this LMRA table found here: (http://blmi.lmra.bh/2014/03/data/ems/Table_32.pdf).
The definitions that the LMRA adopts for its data can be found in the Glossary section: (http://blmi.lmra.bh/mi_glossary.xml).

Date of access: August 2014

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