Electronic Authorization in Saudi Arabia

Electronic Authorization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a service introduced by the Ministry of Interior in 2018. It is also offered by other government entities in Saudi Arabia, replacing paper-based authorization. This service allows a citizen to issue an electronic authorization for another citizen to act on their behalf in a civil procedure.

Electronic authorization is a service available to both citizens and residents, but it is restricted to authorizing only Saudi citizens.

To use electronic authorization, both the authorizing individual and the authorized person must have verified accounts that are activated on "Absher," the Ministry of Interior's online portal.

Through electronic authorization, any Saudi citizen can authorize another citizen to act on their behalf in civil procedures. The service also enables citizens abroad to renew their national identity cards by authorizing another citizen through the Ministry of Interior’s platform.

Additionally, it allows citizens to grant government entities access to their personal data without requiring a printed copy from the Civil Status Office.

The electronic authorization system provided by the Ministry of Interior offers up to twenty-one services, including issuing and canceling travel permits for dependents, reporting lost or damaged passports, issuing and renewing residency permits (Muqeem ID), receiving a residency permit after printing, issuing and canceling exit and re-entry visas, issuing and canceling final exit visas, reporting the loss of a residency permit or a resident’s passport, reporting the absence of workers, adding or separating dependents, changing a dependent’s status to head of a household, changing professions, transferring services, updating personal information, extending visit visas, issuing and renewing passports, receiving passports, and registering Exited and Did Not Return cases.

There are two ways to use electronic authorization. The first applies if the citizen is already registered on the Ministry of Interior’s website, while the second applies if they are not registered, requiring them to first create an account and answer a security question. After this step, both methods follow the same process: selecting the sector to be authorized for data access, confirming the authorization request, and completing the authorization, with the option to print the authorization details and visit the relevant sector.

The Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (ZATCA) in Saudi Arabia has launched an electronic authorization service for customs brokers through its website.

The Absher platform also introduced an authorization service for driving vehicles inside and outside Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs activated electronic authorization for visas to prevent forgery of authorization documents issued by granting entities within Saudi Arabia.