Exclusive: Expat visa ban could go beyond six months

A surge of expatriate workers in 87 occupations forced the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) to stop issuing visas for six months, a senior official from MoM has said.

Salim Al Hadrami, Director General of Planning and Development at MoM, said, "The provisional decision banning licences for recruiting non-Omani manpower for 87 occupations, is meant to regulate the labour market and avail more job opportunities for citizens."

Salim Al Hadrami added that these jobs will now go to Omanis, with the decision to implement the ban to be revisited every six months. "The decision was taken to study the labour market status in this respect, and to assess and review the decision every six months," he said.
 

A six-month ban on expat workers in certain sectors was imposed by the MoM from January 25, 2018. The decision came into effect following a ministerial decree issued by Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri on January 24, 2018.

Sectors affected by the ban include IT, media, air traffic, engineering, accounting and finance, technicians, insurance, marketing and sales, administration and HR. Here's a full list of the 87 jobs affected by the ban.