What is the ruling on selling work visas?
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The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The honorable Shaykh, some people obtain a visa that costs them approximately three thousand riyals, then they sell it for between eight and ten thousand riyals to another person so that this person can bring his brother. What is the ruling on that?
The Shaykh : First: tell your brothers what a visa means?
The questioner : The workers' right, O Shaykh. The visa.
The Shaykh : We have not yet reached understanding of it.
The questioner : The right of residence, O Shaykh. The right to bring in workers.
The Shaykh : Meaning, the permission to hire a worker?
The questioner : Yes, exactly.
The Shaykh : This is the visa, the permission. That is, he takes a permission from the ministry to hire a worker, then he sells this permission to someone who hires a worker. This is forbidden and not permissible. Because we say: if you need this worker, the visa is in your hand. And if you are not in need of it, return the visa to the one from whom you took it. It is not lawful for you to sell it. If we were to permit this, everyone would buy visas and profit from them. And this is lying. If he takes a visa on the condition that he will hire a worker, then sells it, he has become a liar. Yes. But tell me: if he no longer needs the worker, because the man took a visa on the condition that he truly wanted to hire a worker, but then he no longer needed him, does he sell it? The answer is: no, he returns it. Because it was granted to him on the condition that he himself would hire a worker. Then he no longer needed him, so let him return it. Because there may be people waiting for the visa. Yes.
The honorable Shaykh, some people obtain a visa that costs them approximately three thousand riyals, then they sell it for between eight and ten thousand riyals to another person so that this person can bring his brother. What is the ruling on that?
The Shaykh : First: tell your brothers what a visa means?
The questioner : The workers' right, O Shaykh. The visa.
The Shaykh : We have not yet reached understanding of it.
The questioner : The right of residence, O Shaykh. The right to bring in workers.
The Shaykh : Meaning, the permission to hire a worker?
The questioner : Yes, exactly.
The Shaykh : This is the visa, the permission. That is, he takes a permission from the ministry to hire a worker, then he sells this permission to someone who hires a worker. This is forbidden and not permissible. Because we say: if you need this worker, the visa is in your hand. And if you are not in need of it, return the visa to the one from whom you took it. It is not lawful for you to sell it. If we were to permit this, everyone would buy visas and profit from them. And this is lying. If he takes a visa on the condition that he will hire a worker, then sells it, he has become a liar. Yes. But tell me: if he no longer needs the worker, because the man took a visa on the condition that he truly wanted to hire a worker, but then he no longer needed him, does he sell it? The answer is: no, he returns it. Because it was granted to him on the condition that he himself would hire a worker. Then he no longer needed him, so let him return it. Because there may be people waiting for the visa. Yes.