Regular Workers			Investors			Temporary
		New Visas	Renewals	Total	New Visas	Renewals	Total	New Visas	Renewals	Total
2008	Q3	9,014	5,630	14,644	31	5	36	455	3	3
	Q4	27,238	5,640	32,878	78	23	101	1,793	24	24
2009	Q1	34,458	8,298	42,756	93	55	148	2,340	86	86
	Q2	27,693	29,431	57,124	105	128	233	1,013	620	620
	Q3	24,234	25,948	50,182	91	65	156	538	406	406
	Q4	25,648	32,258	57,906	97	69	166	832	582	582
2010	Q1	24,992	39,256	64,248	139	86	225	1,653	277	277
	Q2	24,229	31,852	56,081	186	111	297	524	330	330
	Q3	25,208	27,477	52,685	139	115	254	445	476	476
	Q4	25,266	27,382	52,648	141	177	318	632	346	346
2011	Q1	22,929	28,220	51,149	117	193	310	1,300	214	214
	Q2	22,070	27,210	49,280	153	187	340	561	378	378
	Q3	29,075	22,966	52,041	128	137	265	593	178	178
	Q4	28,407	28,141	56,548	121	143	264	650	358	358
2012	Q1	30,517	32,925	63,442	172	238	410	863	377	377
	Q2	30,485	28,613	59,098	222	244	466	1,194	437	437
	Q3	31,083	26,381	57,464	236	213	449	956	395	395
	Q4	28,814	27,357	56,171	210	252	462	1,547	449	449
2013	Q1	32,200	28,589	60,789	264	302	566	1,242	364	364
	Q2	32,181	28,210	60,391	260	278	538	386	210	210
	Q3	28,841	27,855	56,696	214	218	432	420	310	310
	Q4	24,649	31,480	56,129	253	269	522	475	257	257
2014	Q1	27,176	37,012	64,188	320	348	668	864	238	238
	Q2	3,817	4,359	8,176	47	47	94	14	19	19

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) 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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