Nitaqat Categories Explained: A Guide for Employers
Nitaqat has five bands since 2026: Yellow was removed and its establishments became Red. What each band allows, how your quota is set, and how to move up.
In short: Nitaqat classifies every private-sector establishment by the share of Saudi nationals it employs, and your band decides whether you can issue visas, renew permits and transfer sponsorship. Since the 2026 cycle there are five bands — Platinum, High Green, Mid Green, Low Green and Red. The Yellow band was removed and establishments in it were reclassified Red.
What Nitaqat bands actually measure
Your band is not an absolute percentage. It is your Saudization rate measured against the quota set for your activity and size band.
This is the single most common misunderstanding, and it matters. An establishment at 35% Saudization sounds healthy — but against a 40% quota it is below target, and therefore Red. Another establishment at 22% against a 20% quota is Green. The raw percentage on its own tells you nothing until you know what it is being compared to.
So there are two numbers you need: your current Saudization rate, and the quota that applies to your establishment. Our Nitaqat calculator takes both.
The five bands
| Band | Position relative to your quota |
|---|---|
| Platinum | Substantially above the quota |
| High Green | Above the quota with comfortable margin |
| Mid Green | Above the quota |
| Low Green | At the quota, with no margin |
| Red | Below the quota |
The thresholds between the Green tiers are set per activity and size band rather than by a single national table, so treat the ordering as reliable and the exact cut-offs as something to confirm on Qiwa.
What changed when Yellow was removed
Under the Nitaqat cycle phased in through April 2026, the Yellow band was eliminated. Establishments previously classified Yellow were reclassified Red.
The practical consequence is the loss of the buffer. Under the old model, drifting below your quota put you in Yellow — restricted, but with a warning period and room to correct before the serious consequences landed. That intermediate step is gone. Below the quota is Red, immediately, with the restrictions that come with it.
This changes how the risk should be managed. Monitoring your band quarterly was defensible when there was a warning tier between you and a visa freeze. It is not defensible now, particularly for establishments sitting in Low Green, where a single resignation can move you across the line.
How your quota is set
Quotas are determined by:
- Economic activity — the registered activity of the establishment, not its informal description. Ratios differ sharply between sectors, and food service and retail carry some of the more demanding ones.
- Size band — small, medium, large and giant establishments face different requirements for the same activity.
- Periodic policy revision — quotas are raised over time as sectors mature, which means an establishment can slip a band without hiring or losing anyone.
Because a quota can move underneath you, "we were Green last year" is not evidence that you are Green now.
For how entity form and licensing interact with these requirements, see the guide to different types of businesses in Saudi Arabia.
What each band means in practice
Platinum and High Green
Priority access to government services, faster visa processing, and the widest flexibility in workforce management — including transferring sponsorship of employees from establishments in lower bands. In practice this is also a commercial advantage, since a strong band is visible to counterparties in tenders and contracts.
Mid Green
Full access to the transactions that matter day to day: new visas within quota, work permit renewals, and profession changes.
Low Green
You meet the quota, so you are not restricted — but you have no margin. One departure can put you in Red, and since Red now arrives without an intermediate step, the position is more fragile than the colour suggests. Establishments in Low Green should be treating Saudization as an active hiring plan rather than a status to maintain.
Red
New work visas and sponsorship transfers are effectively frozen. The compounding problem is the one employers underestimate: because you cannot replace people who leave, and the people most likely to leave are non-Saudi staff whose permits you cannot renew, the ratio does not simply sit still. It moves against you every month you stay there.
Red also restricts your ability to change employee professions and blocks a range of downstream transactions, and it is visible to government counterparties.
Moving up a band
The mechanics are straightforward; the sequencing is what determines how long it takes.
- Establish your actual quota, not the sector average. Everything else depends on this number being right.
- Calculate the gap in headcount, not percentage. "We need 8% more" is not actionable. "We need 6 more Saudi employees at current headcount" is. Note that the arithmetic works both ways — the gap also closes if total headcount falls, which is worth understanding before you plan around it.
- Identify the roles to nationalise. Some roles recruit far faster than others. A plan built around roles with a deep local candidate pool closes the gap in a quarter; one built around scarce specialisms does not.
- Recruit against a deadline, and account for the fact that hiring, onboarding and GOSI registration all have to complete before the headcount registers.
- Monitor monthly. The band updates continuously as your workforce changes, so a plan you check quarterly is a plan that discovers problems a quarter late.
Retention matters as much as recruitment here. Hiring Saudi nationals who leave within the year means paying the acquisition cost repeatedly without ever moving the band.
How SCPL helps
Saudization is a hiring problem with a compliance deadline attached, which is why it usually needs both capabilities at once.
- Band assessment — your actual quota, your current position against it, and the headcount gap in real numbers.
- Recruitment of Saudi nationals — sourcing and screening against the roles that will actually close the gap, not the roles that are hardest to fill.
- Ongoing monitoring — monthly tracking, so a change in your workforce or a revision to your quota surfaces while there is still time to respond.
- The surrounding compliance — GOSI registration, Qiwa contract authentication and WPS filing, which all have to be correct for the headcount to register properly.
Saudization and Nitaqat services →
FAQ
How many Nitaqat bands are there?
Five, since the 2026 cycle: Platinum, High Green, Mid Green, Low Green and Red. The Yellow band was removed and establishments in it were reclassified Red.
We were in the Yellow band. What are we now?
Red, with the restrictions that carries — new work visas and sponsorship transfers are effectively frozen. This applies now rather than as a future risk, so it is worth confirming your current status on Qiwa rather than assuming the position you last checked still holds.
Is a 30% Saudization rate good?
It depends entirely on your quota. Against a 20% quota it is comfortably Green; against a 40% quota it is Red. The percentage is only meaningful relative to the requirement set for your activity and size.
How often is our band recalculated?
Continuously, against your current workforce, which is why it can change without any deliberate action on your part — a resignation, an expired permit or a revision to your sector's quota will all move it. Monthly monitoring is the practical minimum.
Can a Red-band establishment recover?
Yes. Recovery means raising your Saudi headcount enough to cross back above the quota, which restores access to the transactions that were restricted. The difficulty is that a visa freeze constrains the workforce changes you can make while you are in it, so the recovery route runs through Saudi hiring rather than any adjustment to your existing non-Saudi staff.
Do outsourced or seconded workers count toward our ratio?
Saudization is calculated on your own establishment's registered workforce. Workers who remain another company's employees are not counted as yours, so do not assume an outsourcing arrangement improves your band. Check the treatment for your specific arrangement before relying on it — see our guide to service outsourcing versus labour outsourcing.
General information as at August 2026, not legal advice. Nitaqat rules changed materially through 2026 and quotas are set per activity and establishment size — verify against the official sources below, or ask us to check your establishment's actual position.
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.