Final exit from Saudi Arabia: what is settled before the iqama closes
Final exit ends the iqama. Before the visa: the award, unused leave, the ticket, and not signing a release before the transfer arrives.
Final exit means the residence relationship ends when you fly. Coming back after that needs a new visa from an employer, not a stamp on the old passport. If you want leave and then a return, the other visa is exit and re-entry. Do not let someone issue “final” while you think it is a family visit.
What is paid before you travel
Article 88 sets the settlement window: a week at most if the employer ends the contract, two weeks if you end it. Inside that settlement come unpaid wages, the end-of-service award as calculated, and pay for leave days you did not take. Article 111 pays a wage for accrued leave if the relationship ends before you use it, and a proportion for the part of the year you worked. Leave itself is in its guide.
The ticket back to your home country, once the relationship has ended, sits with the employer under Article 40, except the two cases that move the cost to you: you are shown to be unfit for the work, or you want to return without a legitimate reason. Ask about the ticket in writing if it has not been booked, and do not accept it being deducted from the award as an “exit fee”.
The release
A paper saying “I have received all my rights”, signed before the transfer, is a dangerous paper. Ask for a line-by-line statement: days worked, unpaid wages, the award, leave pay, the ticket. Match the award to the calculation. Then look at the bank account, not the promise. Signing under “or else an absence report” is not a settlement. The window after a contract ends, and the risk of disappearing, are in the absence guide. Final exit is one of the options inside that window if the contract has ended and no new one is signed. It is not a substitute for claiming wages that were never paid.
Once the visa is issued, travel inside its period. Staying past it puts you back into an iqama problem, not an automatically extended visa. Photograph the visa, the release and the Qiwa contract before the account closes.
This is a practical order drawn from the articles, not permission to travel. Check your status in Absher and Qiwa on the day you fly, not only two weeks before.
What the visa closes, besides the ticket
The iqama is cancelled by final exit. The bank account can be restricted once the identity has ended, so move what you need to move before you fly, or the same day after you have seen the settlement, not a week after you land. The passport stays with you. A cash card whose number you do not know is not your entitlements. Photograph the contract, the release, the visa and the last transfer before the Qiwa account closes.
Dependants are not closed because you left, unless their iqamas are ended by a separate step. Do not leave a family in the Kingdom on an iqama that expires a week after you fly, with neither their residence nor their exit arranged. Ask in Absher about every name, not only yours.
If your status is “absent from work”, final exit may be one of the two options inside the window, and it may not be available once the window has ended and the status at Jawazat has changed. Do not buy a promise that an office will issue final exit. Open Absher and see whether the service is there. If it is not, ask the ministry on 19911 before you hand over the passport.
Sources
Rules and fees change and differ by country and employer. Always check with the official authorities before paying or signing anything.