Cancelling a work permit and transferring a worker
This guide sets out the procedure for cancelling a work permit when the employment relationship ends, the procedure for transferring a worker between employers, and what follows from each in the monthly fee and in the company’s permit ceiling.
Why a permit is cancelled
A permit ends when the relationship between company and worker ends: by resignation, by the end of a contract, or by final departure. Cancellation is what establishes that ending with the authority. Until it is established, the worker remains recorded against the company in law, even if they have in fact left the Kingdom.
The cancellation route
- Period
- Two working days from the point the documents are in order.
- Immediate effect
- The monthly fee stops and a place is freed in the company's permit ceiling.
- Condition
- The company's monthly fees must be settled, or the cancellation stalls as other filings do.
The cost of a forgotten permit
An uncancelled permit costs the company in three places at once:
- A monthly fee paid for a worker who is no longer there.
- An occupied place in the ceiling that blocks a permit for a new worker.
- An inflated headcount that raises the Bahrainisation rate required of the company.
Transferring a worker between employers
A transfer is a route separate from cancellation, moving a worker from one company to another without leaving the Kingdom. Its conditions fall on the receiving company rather than the departing one: room in its ceiling, a Bahrainisation rate that is met, and fees settled.
The order of steps
The receiving company checks its ceiling and its rate before agreeing with the worker, not after. Many stalled transfers happen because the agreement was made and only then did the ceiling turn out to be full, leaving the worker suspended between two employers.
This guide is a general account, and the Labour Market Regulatory Authority is the final reference for any condition or fee.
When is a work permit cancelled?
When the employment relationship ends. The monthly fee stops and a place is freed in the company’s permit ceiling.
What does leaving a permit standing after a worker leaves cost?
Its monthly fee keeps running against the company — 7.5 BHD or 12.5 BHD by band — its place stays occupied in the ceiling, and the registered headcount no longer matches the facts.
What does transferring a worker to another company require?
Room in the new company’s ceiling and a Bahrainisation rate that is met there. The transfer has its own route and conditions at the authority.
Are fees refunded on a permit cancelled before its term?
The authority publishes its refund rules on its own site; they turn on why and when the permit was cancelled and whether the worker had entered the Kingdom. The authority is the reference in each case.
Work permits: issue, renewal and cancellation
Conditions of issue, completion periods, the monthly fee, converting a visit visa, and the cancellation procedure and what follows from it.
Read the guide Procedural guideThe Bahrainisation rate and the work permit ceiling
How the rate for your activity is calculated, how the ceiling shifts as the company grows, and what follows when the rate is not met.
Read the guide Procedural guideViolations: how they arise and how they are settled
How a violation arises with the authority, what it halts, the route to settling it, and why it is expertise work rather than a routine filing.
Read the guide Cancelling a permit or transferring a worker
Send your commercial registration number, and we review the permits standing against you, what can be cancelled and what that does to your permit ceiling.