If you work in domestic service, there is an important detail directly tied to your iqama renewal date: the insurance obligation on your contract changes fundamentally after the first two years of your employment.
📜 The First Two Years: A Mandatory Obligation on the Recruitment Company
Under Cabinet Decision No. 591 of 1442H, recruitment companies and offices — for domestic workers recruited through them on behalf of the client (employer) — are obligated to insure the domestic worker's contract, with the cost of this insurance included within the costs of the contract concluded between the company or office and the employer. This obligation applies only for the first two years from the contract's start date.
"Recruitment companies, with respect to domestic workers recruited through them on behalf of the client, and recruitment offices, are obligated to insure the domestic worker's contract, and to include the cost of this within the costs of the contract concluded between the company or office and the employer, for the first two years from the start of that contract."
🔄 After Two Years: Insurance Becomes Optional at Renewal
The same text clarifies precisely what happens afterward: "insurance shall thereafter be optional for the employer upon renewal of the worker's iqama." In other words, the turning point is exactly your iqama renewal date — from that moment on, continuing the insurance is a decision left entirely to the employer, not an automatic legal obligation.
Many workers do not know that the insurance protection automatically guaranteed during the first two years may not continue afterward unless the employer chooses to renew it. You have the right to ask your employer clearly, as your iqama renewal date after completing two years of work approaches, whether the insurance will continue or not — so you know your actual situation.
🏛️ Who Oversees This?
The decision tasks the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) with approving the necessary insurance policy templates in accordance with the Cooperative Insurance Companies Control Law, while the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development determines the implementation mechanism in agreement with the Ministry of Interior and the Central Bank, and reviews the policy annually to study the adequacy of its benefits for the recruitment market.
✅ What should you do now?
- If you are within the first two years of your contract, make sure insurance is active — this is an obligation on the recruitment company that requires no consent or payment from you.
- As your iqama renewal date approaches after two years, ask your employer clearly whether the insurance will continue.
- Use Sanad to understand your full rights related to your contract at this turning point.
- Cabinet Decision No. 591 dated 13/10/1442H — Instructions on Domestic Worker Insurance