You have done the hard part. You chose a domestic worker, signed the Musaned contract, and arranged the arrival. The first 30 days now decide whether the whole arrangement works. They set the legal footing, they establish the payment routine that keeps you compliant, and they shape the working relationship for years to come.
This is a practical, checklist-led guide to that first month in Saudi Arabia: issuing the Iqama, setting up the electronic salary correctly (mandatory for every employer since January 2026), the insurance you actually need and the insurance you do not, the working conditions the law fixes, and how to use the probation period well. Everything here is grounded in the official Regulation for Domestic Workers and Those in Similar Positions issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.
Your first 30 days at a glance
Onboarding is a sequence, not a single event. Here is the shape of the month before we go step by step.
| When | What to take care of |
|---|---|
| Before arrival / Day 1 | Confirm the Musaned contract details, prepare a private room, agree the weekly rest day, and plan the first conversation about house rules. |
| Week 1 | Medical examination, fingerprints and biometrics, and start the Iqama (residence permit) issuance on Absher and Muqeem. |
| Week 2 | Open or confirm a bank account or digital wallet in the worker’s own name and link it in Musaned, so the first salary is paid electronically. |
| Weeks 3–4 | Settle into the agreed hours and weekly rest, run an honest probation check-in, and confirm the end-of-month salary transfer went through. |
Step 1 — The Iqama and legal paperwork
In Saudi Arabia the employer, not the worker, is legally responsible for issuing the Iqama and for paying every residence and work-permit fee. The Regulation for Domestic Workers is explicit on this in Article 15, and it also bars you from holding the worker’s passport or personal documents. Those stay with the worker.
The practical sequence in the first week is:
- Medical fitness examination at a Ministry of Health–approved centre, which screens for infectious diseases.
- Fingerprints and biometric registration (photo and fingerprints) through Jawazat, accessed via Absher.
- The employer completes the Iqama issuance and pays the government fees through Absher or the Muqeem portal. The Iqama is then issued electronically and appears in both Absher and Muqeem.
Once the medical, biometrics and payment are done, the Iqama is usually issued within a few working days. The exact fee is shown in Absher or Muqeem at the time of issuance, so confirm it there rather than relying on a figure from a blog. Keep a digital copy of the Iqama, the medical report and the signed contract together in one place.
If you have not actually completed the hire yet, the stage before this one is covered in our step-by-step Musaned hiring guide.
Step 2 — Set up the e-salary the right way
Since 1 January 2026, paying a domestic worker’s salary electronically is mandatory for every employer in the Kingdom, including single-worker households. Cash hand-over is no longer compliant. We cover the rule and its penalties in full in our 2026 e-salary guide; here is what it means for your first month.
The monthly salary must be paid in Saudi Riyals into a bank account or a Musaned-supported digital wallet opened in the worker’s own name, and that account must be linked to the digital contract in Musaned. The worker receives a Mada card to access the money. Paying into your own account, a joint account, or handing over cash does not satisfy the rule, even if the worker signs a receipt for it.
- Help the worker open a bank account or a Musaned-supported wallet in her own name. The bank issues a Mada card.
- Link that account to the Musaned contract from your Absher-linked login. Musaned checks that the account-holder name matches the contract.
- Transfer the agreed salary at the end of each month. Musaned records each transfer against the contract.
Set a fixed pay date and keep it. On-time, traceable payments are the single clearest signal of a compliant, healthy arrangement, and they protect you if a dispute ever arises.
Step 3 — Insurance: what you actually need
This is where families most often get confused, so be precise. Two very different things get called "insurance", and only one of them is a general health policy.
- The mandatory contract insurance. Every new domestic-worker contract arranged through Musaned includes a compulsory insurance policy for the first two years, paid by the employer, with the cost built into the recruitment fees. This is recruitment and contract insurance: it compensates for recruitment costs and repatriation if the worker cannot work, absconds or passes away, pays the worker for disability from an accident, and protects the worker if you can no longer pay wages. It is not general health cover.
- Cooperative health insurance. Comprehensive health insurance through the Council of Health Insurance is mandatory only for households that employ more than four domestic workers. If you employ one to four workers, you are not required to buy this health insurance for them.
So for a typical family with one worker, the compulsory two-year contract insurance is already in place from recruitment, and private health cover is optional but worth considering. The regulation still requires you to provide appropriate medical care for the worker (Article 14). The point is simple: do not pay twice for cover you already have, and do not assume a health policy is legally required when, for most households, it is not.
Step 4 — The contract and the rules the law sets
Your relationship is governed by the unified domestic-worker contract, and the Arabic version is the authoritative one. Beyond the salary, the regulation fixes a floor of working conditions that apply whatever the contract says. Knowing them from day one prevents most first-month friction.
| Entitlement | What the regulation sets |
|---|---|
| Maximum working hours | No more than 10 effective working hours per day (Article 10). |
| Breaks and daily rest | A break after no more than 5 continuous hours of work, and at least 8 continuous hours of rest each day (Article 10). |
| Weekly rest | One paid rest day of at least 24 consecutive hours, fixed in the contract. If it is worked, a substitute day or financial compensation is due (Article 11). |
| Annual leave | 30 days of paid annual leave, tied to completing two years of service and renewing the contract; unused leave is paid in cash at the end (Article 12). |
| Sick leave | Up to 30 days on a medical report: 15 days at full pay, then 15 days at half pay (Article 13). |
| Wage protection | Wages paid monthly in Saudi Riyals through the ministry’s approved electronic channels (Articles 17–18). |
A few more day-one facts are worth knowing: the minimum age for a domestic worker is 21, deductions may never exceed a quarter of the wage in the narrow cases where they are allowed (Article 20), and violations of the regulation can carry penalties of up to SAR 20,000 and a recruitment ban. For the full picture of the worker’s rights and your duties as an employer, see our rights and employer duties guide.
Step 5 — Use the probation period well
The regulation lets both parties agree, in writing, to a probation period of up to 90 days (Article 9). During it, either side may end the contract. This is not a formality to skip. It is your structured window to see whether the fit is right, and it is the worker’s window too.
- Agree, on paper, what "doing well" looks like: the tasks, the standard, and the hours.
- Do a genuine check-in at the two-week and one-month marks, calmly and specifically.
- Address problems early and concretely rather than letting them build up in silence.
- If it truly is not working, understand your options before acting. Our guide comparing recruitment agencies, platforms and kafala transfer explains the lawful routes.
Probation done honestly is the cheapest insurance you have. A frank conversation in week two costs far less than a replacement in month six.
Step 6 — House rules and settling in
The paperwork is only half of onboarding. A worker who has just arrived, often in a new country, settles faster when the first days are clear and kind. This is not a soft extra: a settled worker is a safer and more reliable one.
- Give a proper welcome and a private space. Show her the home, where things are, and how the kitchen and appliances work.
- Agree house rules together in simple terms: working hours, the weekly rest day, phone use, food, and how you will communicate. Write them down, in her language where possible.
- Set up communication early. Agree how she reaches her family back home, and how you will raise anything that needs adjusting.
- Be patient through the first two weeks. Language, routines and expectations take time to align. Small corrections, kindly given, work far better than a long list on day one.
If safety ever feels uncertain, our safety guidance explains the signs to watch for and the official channels available to both employers and workers.
Your end-of-first-month checklist
By the end of the first 30 days, you should be able to tick every one of these:
- Iqama issued and saved, alongside the medical report and the signed contract.
- A bank account or wallet in the worker’s own name, linked in Musaned, with the first salary paid electronically on the agreed date.
- The compulsory two-year contract insurance confirmed, and a decision made on optional private health cover.
- Agreed hours, a fixed weekly rest day, and house rules the worker understands.
- A first honest probation check-in completed.
New to hiring and want the steps laid out interactively? Our hiring journey checklist walks you through every stage from decision to first month, with the official link for each step. And when you plan ahead for the end of service, the gratuity calculator estimates the award due, which is one month’s wage for every four years of service under Article 22.