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Your iqama decides almost everything in Saudi Arabia: whether you can work legally, travel, open a bank account, get a SIM in your own name or rent a room. If it expires while you are still in the country, the legal fine falls on your employer, but the trouble at a checkpoint falls on you. You never need to ask a middleman, and you should never pay one, to find out where your file stands. Everything below is free and takes about two minutes on your own phone.

Before you start

• Your iqama number (10 digits, usually starting with 2), or your border number if you have just arrived and the iqama has not been issued yet.
• Your date of birth. Some screens ask for the Hijri date, so it helps to know both.
• The mobile number registered against your file. If your employer registered their own number instead of yours, ask them to change it. You cannot control your own file without it.

Method 1: Absher

Absher (absher.sa) is the Ministry of Interior platform and the one that matters most. Register once using your iqama number and a SIM registered in your own name. After logging in, look under the passports (Jawazat) services for your resident data.

What you can see there: your iqama number, issue and expiry dates in both Hijri and Gregorian, your registered profession, your sponsor, and whether an exit or re-entry visa is open on your file.

Check your job title, not only the expiry date. The profession printed on your iqama is often not the job you actually do. This is not cosmetic. It affects which licences you can apply for, some bank and insurance products, and how a labour case is read later. If it is wrong, ask your employer in writing to correct it.

Method 2: Muqeem

Muqeem (muqeem.sa) is the residency platform that employers use. It also offers a public validity check that does not require you to log in, which is the fastest way to answer one question: is my iqama or visa valid right now. Use it before you book a flight, sign a rental contract or hand money to anyone.

Method 3: Qiwa, for your contract

Qiwa (qiwa.sa) belongs to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. This is where your employment contract is registered: your filed job title, your filed wage and your contract end date. In a wage dispute, the version on Qiwa is the version that counts. Read it now, while nothing is wrong, and check that it matches what you were promised before you flew.

If it is expired, or close to it

1. Tell your employer in writing. A WhatsApp message is fine. Keep it and do not delete the chat.
2. If nothing happens, follow up in writing again, and take a screenshot of the expiry from Absher or Muqeem on the same day.
3. Escalate to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (hrsd.gov.sa) and to your embassy’s labour or community welfare wing.

Renewing your iqama is your employer’s legal responsibility and the cost is theirs, not yours. If someone tells you to pay for your own renewal, write everything down and get advice before any money leaves your hand.

Three rules that will save you money

• Never give your Absher password or OTP to anyone: not an agent, not a colleague, not your employer. Whoever holds your Absher can move your file.
• Never pay to check your status. Every method above is free. Any website charging a fee to look up your iqama is not an official one.
• Screenshot everything, with the date visible. A screenshot taken today is worth far more than a memory in six months.

Does your status show huroob? That is an absconding report, not a system error, and the first week decides how hard it is to clear — here is what to do.

Verify before you act

Rules and screens change, and this guide is written to help you find the right official place rather than to replace it. Confirm anything important on the official sites themselves: absher.sa, muqeem.sa, qiwa.sa and hrsd.gov.sa. If you are not sure what a status means in your own case, ask in the community: say which country you are in, what your permit type is, and what you have already tried.