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You may take the help of a government authorised ducumet clearance office to convert employment visa into investor visa,

2- yes you must be available physically in Bahrain at the time of processing renewal of  your work permit or CPR

I did reply to this but strange it didn't go through.

You can initiate the process whether inside or outside Bahrain.  However, during the process, stay wherever you applied from and don't travel in / out of Bahrain.  That will reset the process.  Doing it in Bahrain is quicker and easier.  Because from outside, you will have to cancel the employee's visa and then lodge a new application for investor visa........this means that they will need to do a medical outside Bahrain and then another one when they come in - as an example.

CPR cannot be renewed from outside of Bahrain.  RP, they announced recently that renewals can be done from outside Bahrain.

For visa process and documents etc:

/forum/viewtopic.php?id=750635

Or see LMRA website.

For employment to investor, please advise if you are already a shareholder / partner in an existing company. If the answer here is no, then you must first become a shareholder or partner in an existing active company or company under formation but has to become active then only can have Investor / Businessman visa.

Regarding renewal of visa outside Bahrain, this has recently been implemented by government and the answer is yes you can but it shouldn't be expired. It should be renewed within the renewal window prior to expiry. As for CPR, you must be present inside Bahrain.

Thanks Xtang, yusuf and saleem.

I am a shareholder in a corporation registered in Bahrain. I am back in Bahrain since last weekend. we cancelled my employee visa yesterday and initiated an investor visa. I have couple more questions:

a) currently the status shows as Visa in Process , Await_Evisa in our company portal. so i went to Lmra to check further. they said it is with Immigration now. does anyone know how long it will take for immigration to complete their task, what I am asking is how long will it take for this entire process to finish?

b) my dependents wife and children also with me in Bahrain, and I believe once my initial employee   visa which got terminated meant their status is also terminated on their dependent visa? will they automatically get status once my process is complete or will I have to apply for their dependent visa only once my investor visa is completed?

c) lastly can my dependents travel while my visa is in process? I am assuming they have no visa in process currently.

thanks!!

1) Anywhere from a few weeks to a month

2) You apply for their visa once you have yours

3) They can travel but can't get back till you get them a visa. I would advise not to travel. If your visa takes a few weeks and theirs also, then they are out for a month or more

1) OMG! i really hope it doesnt take that long. I have alot of work in Saudi which requires me there physically. I was told it takes 7-10 days. does anyone have any experience with someone with similar case?

2) my children are actually enrolled in school in ksa. they have vacation this week so I selected this week.  Want to know if them leaving to saudi will have any impact on my current status? I am confused what to do.

3) can they not visit even if they have saudi iqama?

1) Yes usually it's done within 2 weeks. Sometimes takes longer

2) No impact

3) Yes they can visit on Saudi iqama but application will reset

Sorry again - in case I travel to KSA , what do you mean it will reset the application? i will have to apply again? is there any other consequence?

Apply again