Kuwait family visit visa for relatives of residents

The sponsor is a resident of Kuwait whose Civil ID is registered with the Public Authority for Civil Information and who can authenticate with the Kuwait Mobile ID app. When the request is made, the platform checks the Civil ID against Ministry of Interior records and stops the application if the sponsor is not eligible for family visit sponsorship or not allowed to sponsor the chosen relationship. The ministry does not publish the eligibility criteria themselves on the platform, so a sponsor who is blocked should ask the General Directorate of Residency Affairs.

Relationships offered in the form are father, mother, spouse, son or daughter, and others. The visit is meant for seeing family: gatherings, holidays and personal occasions.

Kinship is proved with civil documents. A spouse is linked by a marriage certificate, a child by a birth certificate, and a parent through the account holder's own birth certificate. Each document must be uploaded as a single PDF that contains the original and an Arabic translation made by a certified translation office in Kuwait. Civil documents issued abroad therefore have to be translated into Arabic in Kuwait before the sponsor uploads them.

The visitor's passport must be valid for at least six months. The platform may also ask for the visitor's residence permit, a valid visa or an entry stamp, and a previous Kuwaiti Civil ID if the visitor has lived there before.

The family visit entry permit costs KWD 3 and the amount is not refunded. It allows one entry within 30 days of issue and up to 30 days in Kuwait. If the visit is extended, the same fee is charged again; overstaying costs KWD 10 per day.

The sponsor creates an account with their Civil ID, sends an authentication request from the platform and approves it in the Kuwait Mobile ID app, then adds the visitor's details. The wizard asks for the visitor's passport pages, photo, relationship documents, reason of visit and where they will stay, with an option to stay with the sponsor. After submission and payment, status updates go to the sponsor's account and email.

A family visitor may not work and must leave once the visit period ends. Visitors who want to settle with the family need a different permit, the dependent visa, which is requested through the residency procedure and has its own conditions. The ministry also lists a private visit entry permit with the same 30-day rules.