Medical fitness and health licences
This guide sets out where the medical examination sits in the sequence of bringing a worker in, its appointments and documents, and the health licences certain activities require before they may be carried on.
Where the examination sits in the chain
The medical examination is a condition within the residency route, not a standalone errand a company may request whenever it suits. It falls between the worker's entry and the completion of their residency, and it can neither be brought forward past what precedes it nor have what follows it deferred around it.
Because it requires the worker in person, it is the step to plan around before any other. A delayed appointment stalls the residency, a stalled residency stalls the identity card, and a stalled card stalls every transaction that asks for it afterwards.
The appointment and the wait
- Nature
- An appointment is booked and the worker attends, so the period follows the appointment rather than the documents.
- What the office carries
- Booking the appointment, following it, and passing the result into the residency file.
- What nobody can carry
- The attendance itself. There is no substitute for the worker at this step.
The healthcare fee and private insurance
Work permits carry a healthcare fee, settled among what a company pays for its worker. That fee, however, falls away where the worker holds private health insurance meeting the prescribed conditions.
Where private cover is already in place and the fee goes on being paid alongside it, the same protection is paid for twice. Reviewing it once can change the whole annual cost of a workforce.
Professional and facility licences
A separate route entirely: anyone practising a health profession needs a professional licence, and anyone operating a health facility needs a licence for the facility. Both are renewed periodically, and letting either lapse stops the work rather than merely the transaction.
Renewing a health licence calls for technical conditions that differ by profession and by facility, so it sits outside routine work and is quoted in writing after the case has been studied.
Where things stall
- Deferring the booking after the worker's entry, which delays the whole chain.
- Paying the healthcare fee while holding qualifying private insurance.
- The worker's details on the examination result differing from the passport, so it is returned at the point of linking.
- Letting a professional licence lapse, which stops the employee working in law.
This guide is a general account. The Ministry of Health and the Labour Market Regulatory Authority are the final references for the conditions, fees and periods of examinations and licences, all of which may change without prior notice.
Where does the medical examination sit in the recruitment sequence?
After the permit issues and the worker enters, and before the residency is completed. It can neither be brought forward past what precedes it nor deferred past what follows.
Does the healthcare fee fall away where private insurance is held?
It does where the private cover meets the prescribed conditions. Where cover is already in place and the fee goes on being paid alongside it, the same protection is paid for twice.
What is the basic health care fee?
90 BHD for one year within the permit package, and 45 BHD for six months. It is part of the package, not a separate fee.
Which health licences do some activities require?
Certain activities call for professional or facility health licences before they may be practised, issued by the competent health authority with their own conditions and terms.
The healthcare fee and private cover
Send your headcount and the cover you hold, and we set out whether the fee falls away for you and what proving it requires.