A new Amendment has been introduced to the executive guidelines related to the employment of expatriates in Iran. According to this Amendment, specific changes need to be applied to the current procedure for registration, issuance of entry permits with frequent entrance, issuance, extension, renewal, adjustments, and cancellation of expatriates’ work permits, as well as re-issuing work permits.

We touched upon the first chapter of the Amendment in a separate brief earlier.

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 and decide on the required documents for any of the processes discussed above has been granted to the Expatriates General Office and the Minister of Cooperation, Labor and Social Welfare.

As explained in this note, the recent Amendment has addressed the new changes in 6 different categories.

Chapter two of the Amendment explains the formalities and requirements for issuance of entry permits with eligibility to work for expatriates.

While section 1 of the chapter mentioned above has given provincial administrations the authority to issue a work permit for expatriate applicants, the local labour organisation and the general office for expatriates’ work must also consent to issue such licenses. Section 1 further lists a set of documents that must be provided by the employer wishing to recruit expatriates. Those documents may differ depending on the employer (being natural or a legal entity). It is noteworthy that according to this regulation, asylum seekers are not banned from being recruited as an ex-pat workforce, and their employer must ensure all the relevant documents about their asylum status are provided to the authorities (i.e., the original and copies of the asylum booklet with no less than two months validity). This will also apply to expatriates with a unique identity.