Jobs in Saudi Arabia for Pakistanis still come through a sponsoring employer. You apply, you get an offer you can verify, you do the medical if it is required, you pass the Protector of Emigrants in Pakistan, and only then do you fly. After arrival the job lives on Qiwa and the residence lives on the Iqama. Apna Ghar will not invent an average riyal wage. Advertised salaries are not HRSD contracts, and a WhatsApp broadcast is not a contract at all. Read the basic salary separately from housing, transport and food allowances before you compare two offers.
How to apply without buying a contract
Prefer a company name you can search, a person who replies from that company’s domain, and a contract that states the wage in riyals. Domestic work is a different system from a company job. Do not sign a company-looking paper for a house job, and do not accept a house job that says you may “work outside on your own Iqama”. That sentence is how people become illegal while holding a plastic card that looks official. Nurses should read nurse jobs because the licence sits with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, not only with the hospital’s advert. Trades should still ask whether a test or an attested certificate is required before they pay a shop to invent one.
- Ask for the employer’s name, the city, the job title, the basic wage, the allowances, the hours and who provides housing.
- The visa path from Pakistan is the Saudi work visa guide. Check the visa number on the official enquiry before you fly. A PDF can be edited.
- Book Wafid only if the instruction names it, and only on the official portal. See the medical guide.
- Clear the Protector. If an agent is involved, their name must be on the Bureau of Emigration OEP list. See licensed agents.
- Convert the wage with SAR to PKR and the salary converter. Use the basic line, not the agent’s total.
- Keep your passport. A receipt is required if anyone holds it overnight.
- Use the CV format so dates and licence numbers are easy to check. Do not decorate it.
- After arrival, ask HR how your contract appears on Qiwa and how the Iqama is issued. See the Iqama guide. You should be able to see your own file.
Basic salary, allowances, and why the advert does not count
An advertisement, even a polished one on a company page, is not the employment contract. In the UAE people talk about MOHRE contracts. You are not in that system when the job is in Saudi Arabia. The binding paper is the contract the Saudi employer will stand behind and register, not a banner that says “salary up to”. Read basic pay on its own. Then read housing, transport, food and any site allowance. End-of-service and everyday life depend on which line is which. A high “package” with a tiny basic is a different job from the same package written as basic. Ask who pays overtime, who pays the ticket home, and whether the probation wage is the same as the later wage. If the answers are only spoken, they are not answers.
Qiwa is the labour platform workers are told to use for contracts and transfers. Absher is where a resident later sees Iqama services. Neither of them is a website an agent in Pakistan should log into with your one-time password. Do not share a code. Transfers between sponsors exist under Saudi rules and they are not automatic. Read the Ministry of Human Resources guidance, or look at your own Qiwa file, before you pay anyone who promises a transfer. A “free visa”, meaning a visa you work on for someone other than the sponsor, is a common way to become illegal. Avoid it even when the salary sounds higher.
Warning signs
Walk away from a fee before a visa number exists, from a Gmail address pretending to be a ministry, from a contract that does not name the employer, and from any request to send your family’s documents to a stranger. Walk away from a medical booked by a token shop. If you have already paid, stop the next instalment, keep the evidence, and use the FIA and Bureau complaint guide. The job, if it is real, can be checked without another transfer. The city matters too. A Riyadh offer and a remote site offer are not the same life. Ask where you will sleep, how you will leave the site, and what a day off actually means.
Fees, fines and salary thresholds change. If a number is not written on the official page linked below, treat a WhatsApp figure as unchecked.