The total number of residence permits granted to expatriates in year 2022 was 2,838,613, which is an increase of 318,000 compared to 2021, local daily reported quoting the immigration report issued by the Central Department of Statistics

The report highlights that the largest increase in residence permits was for domestic workers and civil work, with 162,000 new residences granted to domestic workers and 165,000 for the private sector. The report also notes that 67.2% of first-time permits were issued to expatriates from non-Arab Asian countries.

Private sector saw an entry of only 22,258 expat workers and an increase in the number of families with an average of 23,416 residents joining the sector.

According to the report, there were 27,690 expats who violated the country’s residency laws last year, 34% of them holding domestic worker residency permits, and 32% of them entered on visitor or temporary residence visas. The number of residency violators in 2022 was the lowest in the past three years.