Bahrain: Work visa applications for Non-Bahrainis by type or nature of status (Q3 2008 – Q1 2014)

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