Nitaqat and Saudization: What Employers Hiring Foreign Workers Need to Know in 2026

By Editorial Team, Pakistan Progressive Associates (PPA)

Quick Answer: Nitaqat is Saudi Arabia's Saudization program, run by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development through the Qiwa platform. It grades private-sector companies into bands (Platinum, High, Mid and Low Green, and Red) by their share of Saudi employees, and your band decides whether you can issue and renew expat work visas. In 2026 the Yellow tier was removed, sector quotas rose, and a Saudi employee only counts toward your quota if their contract is documented on Qiwa and they earn at least SAR 4,000 a month. Most blue-collar and skilled-trade roles remain open to foreign workers.

If you plan to bring in workers from abroad, Nitaqat is the rule that quietly decides whether you can. This guide explains how the bands work, what changed in 2026, and what it means for hiring foreign workforce. It is general information, not legal advice; check your establishment's status on Qiwa and confirm specifics with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD).

What Nitaqat is and how the bands work

Nitaqat is the mechanism that enforces Saudization, the localisation of private-sector jobs. MHRSD grades each establishment by its share of Saudi nationals in the workforce, adjusted for company size and sector, and places it in a band. The bands are Platinum, High Green, Mid Green, Low Green and Red. Companies check and calculate their classification through the official Qiwa portal.

Your band is not a label, it is a set of privileges. Platinum and Green establishments keep the core abilities an employer needs: sponsoring expatriate visas, renewing work permits, and bidding on government contracts. Platinum, the highest tier, adds priority visa processing and unrestricted employee transfers. Red establishments face the opposite: blocked visa issuance, blocked work-permit renewals, restricted access to government portals, and exclusion from public tenders.

What changed in 2026

The 2026 cycle tightened the system in ways every employer of foreign workers should note.

The Yellow tier was eliminated. Establishments that previously sat in Yellow were reclassified as Red, which means immediate exposure to blocked visas and permit renewals. The compliance margin is narrower than it used to be.
Saudi employees must be documented on Qiwa to count. From 15 April 2026, a Saudi employee no longer counts toward your Saudization percentage unless their employment contract is electronically documented and authenticated on the Qiwa platform.
The counting wage rose. The minimum monthly wage for a Saudi national to count toward the quota increased from SAR 3,000 to SAR 4,000.
Sector quotas went up. A new three-year cycle raised Saudization targets across sectors including healthcare, engineering, accounting, procurement, and marketing and sales, as part of a plan to localise more than 340,000 additional private-sector jobs.

What your band means for hiring foreign workers

The practical takeaway is simple. To bring in and keep foreign workers, you need to be in Green or Platinum. If your Saudization slips and you fall into Red, new work visas and permit renewals stop, which can strand a project mid-way. Nitaqat compliance and your ability to hire from abroad are two sides of the same coin, so plan them together rather than treating Saudization as a separate HR task.

Which roles stay open to expats

Saudization mainly targets office and customer-facing roles: administrative, HR support, accounting-clerical, sales, customer service and IT support, alongside rising quotas in professional fields such as engineering, where firms above a size threshold now carry a Saudization percentage.

The skilled and semi-skilled trades that most projects run on, welders, scaffolders, masons, steel fixers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians and heavy-equipment operators, are generally not the roles being localised, so they remain open to foreign workers. Engineering roles sit in between: they are increasingly subject to quotas, so a compliant mix of Saudi and expatriate engineers is the safer approach. Building your Saudization around the roles the Kingdom wants localised frees you to hire the trades and technical staff you cannot fill locally.

Staying compliant while hiring from abroad

A workable approach is to hit your Saudization targets in the professions that carry quotas, document every Saudi hire properly on Qiwa so they count, keep your establishment comfortably inside Green, and then source the trades and technical roles you need from abroad through a licensed channel. Getting the foreign-worker side right, with proper contracts, medical clearance, attestation and visas, keeps the pipeline flowing and avoids the delays that push a company toward the Red zone.

How PPA fits

Pakistan Progressive Associates supplies the skilled and semi-skilled workforce that stays open to foreign hiring, sourced, trade-tested, medically cleared and visa-processed since 1975 so workers arrive documented and deployment-ready. Explore our recruitment agency in Saudi Arabia, manpower supply and OEP compliance pages, or our sector pages for construction, oil and gas and facilities management. For the labour-law basics that sit alongside Nitaqat, see our guide to Saudi labour law for employers.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nitaqat? Nitaqat is Saudi Arabia's Saudization program, run by MHRSD through Qiwa, which grades private-sector companies into bands by their share of Saudi employees and ties key privileges, including expat visa issuance, to that band.

What are the Nitaqat bands in 2026? Platinum, High Green, Mid Green, Low Green and Red. The Yellow tier was removed in 2026, and former Yellow companies were reclassified as Red.

Can a Red-band company hire foreign workers? No. Red establishments face blocked work-visa issuance and permit renewals, so maintaining a Green or Platinum band is essential to keep hiring from abroad.

Do all Saudi employees count toward Saudization? From 15 April 2026, a Saudi employee counts only if their contract is documented and authenticated on Qiwa and they earn at least SAR 4,000 a month.

Are trade and technical roles being Saudized? Mostly not. Skilled trades such as welders, scaffolders, electricians and HVAC technicians generally remain open to foreign workers, while office roles and some professions such as engineering carry rising quotas.