Ajeer Permits in Saudi Arabia: The 2026 Rules
From 26 January 2026, Ministerial Decision 60339 caps Ajeer permits at three years and puts obligations on the receiving company, not just the provider.
In short: Ministerial Decision No. 60339, effective 26 January 2026, replaced the fragmented Ajeer guidance with a single framework. It draws a formal line between service outsourcing and labour outsourcing, requires every arrangement to be documented on Ajeer before work starts, caps permits at three years, and places obligations on the company receiving the workers as well as the one providing them.
If you are buying workforce services in Saudi Arabia, that last point is the one that changed your position — not just your supplier's.
What changed
Before 2026, Ajeer operated under scattered guidance and was widely treated as an administrative step — a permit you obtained so that a worker from one establishment could work at another.
Ministerial Decision No. 60339, issued 25 October 2025 and effective 26 January 2026, turned that into a structured compliance framework. The substantive changes:
- A formal legal distinction between service outsourcing and labour outsourcing, with different rules attaching to each.
- Mandatory documentation on Ajeer through an electronic Ajeer Contract, before any work begins.
- A three-year ceiling on permits, tied to the underlying service contract.
- Role-to-role consistency — the worker must perform the same profession recorded on their work permit.
- Obligations on the beneficiary, meaning the company receiving the workers, not only the provider.
That last change is why this matters commercially. Under the old approach, a company buying labour could reasonably treat compliance as the supplier's problem. It no longer is.
Service outsourcing vs. labour outsourcing
Everything downstream depends on which of these you are actually doing, and the answer is determined by how the work is run — not by what the contract is titled.
Service outsourcing. The provider manages its own employees and resources to deliver a defined output over a fixed duration. Payment is tied to delivery of the service, not to hours worked. Facility management, plant operations and maintenance, and scoped cleaning or security contracts sit here.
Labour outsourcing (also called manpower outsourcing, and what most people mean by "manpower supply"). A non-Saudi employee is placed at a beneficiary establishment and works under the beneficiary's supervision and direction. The beneficiary provides the tools and integrates the worker into its own operations. Payment typically reflects hourly rates or labour cost.
The practical test is two questions:
- Who directs the work day to day? If the answer is the receiving company, it is labour outsourcing.
- What is the provider contractually obliged to deliver? A result, or a number of people?
A contract titled "service agreement" that prices per worker per month and puts those workers under the client's supervisor is labour outsourcing, and will be treated as such.
Who can use Ajeer
Both sides of the arrangement must satisfy conditions — this is not a check the provider passes alone:
- A valid commercial registration or professional licence
- Compliance with the Wage Protection System
- Meeting Nitaqat (Saudization) requirements
- Employee consent to the outsourcing arrangement, unless the original employment contract already provides for it
That consent requirement is easy to overlook and sits with the employer of record. An arrangement agreed between two companies without it is not properly constituted.
The permit itself
- The Ajeer Permit is linked to the service contract and may not exceed three years.
- The service provider — the original employer — issues and renews it. That responsibility does not transfer to the beneficiary.
- Employee data is registered through an electronic Ajeer Contract on the platform.
- The permit must be in place before work starts. Not in progress. In place.
Renewal is a scheduled obligation, not a reminder-driven one. A permit that lapses does not create a grace period.
Who is responsible for what
| Service provider (the employer) | Beneficiary (the receiving company) | |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | Register all employee data via the electronic Ajeer Contract | — |
| Permits | Issue before work begins; renew on schedule | Confirm a valid permit exists before allowing work on site |
| Profession | Keep the registered profession aligned with actual duties | Do not assign tasks outside the registered profession |
| Supervision | — | Supervise only within the scope of the permit |
| On revocation | — | Return the employee within one working day |
The provider remains the legal employer throughout — work permits, renewals and labour-law compliance stay with them. The beneficiary directs the work and carries the obligations that follow from directing it.
What is explicitly prohibited
The decision names three practices directly:
- Registering a worker under a profession that does not reflect their actual role. The historically common workaround of registering against whatever profession the quota allowed is now a named violation.
- Assigning tasks outside the employee's registered profession or the scope of the service contract.
- Starting work at the beneficiary's site before the Ajeer Permit is issued.
Each of these is the kind of thing that happens through operational drift rather than deliberate decision — a worker gets moved to a different line, a project starts a week before paperwork clears. The framework does not distinguish between the two.
Where liability lands
Two provisions are worth reading closely.
Expiry is not a soft deadline. If an employee remains on site after the permit expires, a violation is deemed to occur from the first business day following expiry. There is no informal window.
The provider's liability is not reduced by the client's instructions. The service provider bears full liability regardless of whether the work continued under the beneficiary's direct instruction. The same applies where a renewal fails or is refused.
Beyond direct penalties, misclassification carries regulatory exposure and can affect Nitaqat standing — which in turn affects visa issuance and sponsorship transfers across the whole establishment, not just the arrangement in question.
If you are the one buying
Most guidance on this framework is written for providers. If you are the company receiving workers, three practical checks:
- Ask the provider for their licence and their Ajeer documentation. Not a reassurance — the records. If an arrangement is properly constituted, producing them is trivial.
- Check what you are actually buying. Per-head pricing with your own supervisor directing the work is labour outsourcing, whatever the contract is called. That is legitimate when the provider is licensed for it and the arrangement is documented through Ajeer. It is a problem when it is not.
- Consider whether you need people or a result. If you need a facility maintained or a plant operated, service outsourcing is usually the better structure commercially as well as legally, because performance obligations sit with the provider rather than with your supervisor.
SCPL provides licensed recruitment — where we source candidates you employ directly — and scoped service outsourcing, where our own supervised employees deliver a defined scope such as facility management or plant O&M. If what you need is licensed labour outsourcing, we will tell you that rather than structuring it as something else. The difference between the two structures is set out in full on our services pages.
FAQ
Is labour outsourcing legal in Saudi Arabia?
Yes, as a regulated activity rather than a prohibited one. It requires the appropriate licence and must be documented and approved through Ajeer, with permits capped at three years and professions matched to actual duties. What creates exposure is doing it outside that framework.
Does the three-year cap reset on renewal?
The permit is linked to the service contract and may not exceed three years. Treat the ceiling as applying to the arrangement, and plan the underlying contract accordingly rather than assuming indefinite rolling renewal.
Who is penalised if a permit lapses — us or the supplier?
The service provider bears liability for permit issuance and renewal, and that is not reduced by the beneficiary's instructions. But the beneficiary has its own obligations: not assigning work outside the registered profession, and returning the employee within one working day of revocation. Both sides can be exposed by the same lapse.
We were told our arrangement is "secondment", not outsourcing. Does that help?
The framework looks at substance — who supervises, and what the provider is obliged to deliver. The label on the arrangement does not determine which rules apply.
Where do we verify all this?
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Ajeer platform itself, and the official text of the decision. Links below. Nothing in this guide replaces the official text or qualified legal advice on your specific arrangement.
This guide summarises publicly reported detail of Ministerial Decision No. 60339 as at August 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Rules in this area changed materially in January 2026 and may change again — verify against the official sources below before relying on any of it.
Official sources
Verify current requirements directly with the authorities — rules and fees in this area change, and the official portal is always ahead of any guide, including this one.