A new Amendment has been introduced to the executive guidelines related to employment of expatriates in Iran. According to this Amendment, certain changes need to be applied to the current procedure for registration, issuance of entry permit with frequent entrance, issuance, extension, renewal, adjustments and cancellation of expatriates’ work permit as well as re-issuing work permit.
This Amendment has been announced under Clause. 11 of the Executive Guidelines to Article 129 of the Iran Labor Code. Under the mentioned article, the authority to approve/pass guidelines, deciding on the required documents for any of the above-mentioned processes have been granted to the Expatriates General Office and the Minister of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare.
The recent Amendment has addressed the new changes in 6 different categories:
- Registration of [work permit] file by the employer
- Issuance of entry permit with eligibility to work
- Issuance of work permit
- Extension, renewal and adjustment of work permit
- Re-issuance, cancellation and reduplicated work permit; and
- Organizational Chart
As per clause 1 of the Amendment, all employers (Legal and Natural) must, create a registration file at the same time they submit the application for issuance of entry/work permit and provide the Ministry of Labor with the required documents.
The required documents, as listed in the guidelines are as follow:
- A completed “Employer Information” form.
- A copy of the [employer’s] Official Gazette- including establishment notice and the latest changes of the [employer’s] entity
- A copy of trade or operation license (together with other licenses pertaining to employer’s operation) by the natural employer
- The latest Staff [Social Security] Insurance List
- Completion of the form related to educational and skill transfer activities
Note 1 to Clause 2 of the amended guidelines requires employers to crate an Employer registration file at the same time as issuance of work permit for those expatriates who do not require an entry permit with eligibility to work.
The guideline further requests employers to notify the Ministry of any changes in the company’s gazette.
In addition to the above requirements, Articles 2 and 4 of the Executive Guidelines to Article 129 of Iran’s Labor Code set obligations for employers who employ expatriates. According to Article 2 of the same, employers are obliged to provide necessary documents for issuance of work permit for expatriates withing one months starting from the entry of the expatriate to the relevant departments of the Ministry of Labor. Additionally, those employers must provide certain information to the relevant departments at Ministry of Labor, should they wish to extent an already issued work permit for an expatriate currently working in their organization. In this case, employers must also furnish Ministry of Labor with a report highlighting the educational plan and activities in their organization no later than one month prior to expiry of [the expatriate’s] work permit.
Please do click on the News Digest tab on our website to discover more changes introduced by this Amendment.
