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Updated January 2023

If you are an expat in Bahrain and you wish to leave the country, you are obliged to apply for the cancellation of your work visa. Other types of visa can also be cancelled if you don’t intend to continue living or being in the country. Keep reading to find out the requirements to cancel your Bahrain visa.

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How can I cancel my Bahrain visa?

It is advisable to deactivate your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, water, electricity, and telephone connections if you want to avoid having any unpaid debts in Bahrain before cancelling your Bahrain visas.

Bahrain visa cancellation is pretty simple and easy to perform. However, different types of visas would require different ways to cancel them.

Bahrain work visa cancellation

To cancel a Bahrain work visa, the employer should be the one who starts the process of work visa cancellation and prepare the required documents below:

Termination declaration form
Employee work permit
Dependents Residency Permits

The cancellation can be done by visiting the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) website and applying for the service through the EMS system of LMRA. Employers will have to fill in the ‘termination declaration’ form, sign it together with the employee and upload it to the system.

Employers need to visit the Client Services Counter at LMRA three working days after completing the application. They also need to bring along the employee’s and their dependents’ original passports for manual cancellation by the immigration officers.

Following are a few special circumstances to consider when cancelling a work visa:

The employee should leave the country within 30 days from cancellation. During this grace period, he/she is not allowed to take up any other form of employment.
As per the LMRA guideline, it is necessary that the employer inform the employee before termination and work permit cancellation takes place, as both employer and employee should sign the termination form; it is the responsibility of the employer to upload the form onto the system for each termination application.
In case an expat visa is cancelled when he/she is out of Bahrain during their period of approved leave, the employee will have to seek legal assistance in their home country or in Bahrain. To submit a formal complaint, file a court case for ‘unlawful dismissal’ against the employer.

Bahrain family residence visa cancellation

If you have a family residence visa under a sponsor, you might need to cancel the work permit first before cancelling the residence visa of your family.

Below are the required documents for Bahrain family residence visa cancellation:

Application form for Residence Visa Cancellation with sponsor’s signature
Original passport of the applicant
Original ID card of the applicant
Copy of sponsor’s passport
Original passport of the sponsored family member
Three copies of the approved cancellation certificate filled by typing agent
Copy of establishment card.

The Bahrain family residence visa cancellation is usually made by the company or the sponsor. If not, you can visit the immigration department that issued the visa, along with the passport and other documents required for cancellation, pay the requisite fee, and get the typing work done.

Bahrain visit visa cancellation

To cancel your Bahrain tourist visa, you can send a visa cancellation request to the official website of the Bahrain Government using your registered email and include your Visa reference number, and you will receive a notification once your visa has been cancelled. You can cancel the tourist visa as a guarantor, authorized person, and visa holder (without a guarantor).

The cancellation of the Bahrain visa would take up to 3 days of processing time.

Bahrain visa cancellation charges

The required charge or fee for the residence family visa cancellation is around BD 70. However, no charges are required for the cancellation of the other visas.