In Saudi Arabia there is exactly one front door to employing a domestic worker legally, and it is Musaned, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development's platform. The visa, the contract, the salary payments, a transfer to a new employer, even a complaint about a recruitment office: each of those tasks is a screen inside the same system. Employers who understand the platform get things done in minutes; employers who don't end up paying twice or waiting on requests that were never going to be approved.
One clarification before anything else, because two guides serve two different moments. If you are hiring for the first time and want the journey, eligibility, routes, costs and timelines, start with our complete Musaned hiring guide. This article is the other guide: a task-by-task reference for operating the platform once you are in it, whether you are three screens into your first visa request or three years into managing a worker's file.
Logging in and checking your eligibility
You sign in to Musaned with your Absher credentials, using your National ID or Iqama number, so an active Absher account with current contact details is the real prerequisite. The first task worth doing is also the least known: the eligibility check. Run it before you pay anything. It measures you against the platform's financial-capacity rules, which scale with each additional visa:
| Visa number | Saudi citizens | Residents |
|---|---|---|
| First visa | Declare salary; bank balance around SAR 40,000 | Salary from about SAR 10,000; bank document from around SAR 100,000 |
| Second visa | Salary from about SAR 7,000; balance around SAR 60,000 | Minimum salary roughly doubles, to about SAR 20,000 |
| Third visa and beyond | Salary from about SAR 25,000; balance around SAR 200,000, scaling upward | Residents are limited to one worker per occupation |
These thresholds have changed before, and when you log in Musaned shows the exact requirement for your category and visa number. Treat the table as a planning guide and verify yours on the day you apply. Outstanding fines, including traffic violations, can block a request, so settle them first.
Issuing a visa: routes and what it costs
The government visa-issuance fee is SAR 2,000, paid through SADAD or card on submission, and a separate Musaned e-service fee of SAR 172.5 (including VAT) applies for issuing the visa online; completing that step in person at a Ministry office avoids this specific fee. From there, the platform shows only the routes available for your chosen occupation and nationality: recruitment through a licensed office (fees capped per nationality, the Philippines cap sits around SAR 14,700), the Maaroufah self-service route for a worker you already know (currently limited to nationalities including the Philippines, Kenya and Sri Lanka), or taking over a worker already in the Kingdom. The full comparison of those routes, with costs and timelines, lives in the hiring guide; before choosing an office, check its rating history in Musaned and cross-reference our recruitment office directory.
The contract: issued, insured, authenticated
Musaned generates the official unified employment contract automatically once a match is confirmed. You review the terms, agree to the mandatory contractual insurance (required since early 2024, covering the first two years), and authenticate digitally; the worker's side approves through the platform's channels in her country or in the Kingdom. Two details trip employers up. The salary you enter must match your supporting documents, or the request can be rejected after you have queued. And the probation period is capped at 90 days; anything a side agreement says beyond the authenticated contract has no legal weight. To think through clauses before you are staring at the authentication screen, draft with our contract generator first.
Paying salaries: the e-salary mandate is now universal
The Wage Protection System for domestic workers arrived in phases, and the final phase is the one every employer now lives with: since 1 January 2026, all employers must pay domestic-worker salaries through Musaned-approved channels, banks or licensed digital wallets, regardless of how many workers they sponsor. Cash-only payment is no longer lawful:
| From | Who it covered |
|---|---|
| July 2024 | New contracts and newly arriving workers |
| January 2025 | Employers with 4 or more workers |
| July 2025 | Employers with 3 or more |
| October 2025 | Employers with 2 or more |
| 1 January 2026 | All employers, all domestic workers |
Inside the platform you link the worker's account or wallet and execute the monthly payment; the record it creates protects both sides in any later dispute. Setup steps, wallet options and the common failure points are in our e-salary guide, and if you are benchmarking the salary itself, the Salary Index shows live market bands.
Transfers: moving a worker to or from your sponsorship
A service transfer (naql al-khidma) is how a worker moves between employers without leaving the Kingdom, and the whole thing runs through Musaned. The sequence: you and the worker agree terms, the current employer approves the release through Absher or Musaned, and you register the new contract on the platform. The transfer fee is paid by you, the new employer, online; it rises with the number of times the worker has transferred before, plus a small application service fee of around SAR 100. The current sponsor cannot lawfully charge you anything, their only role is approving the release. Reported timelines run from about 10–15 business days up to 30–45 days, and one deadline matters: after a contract ends, the worker has a reported 60-day window to transfer or exit, so move promptly. The full walkthrough, including the no-consent cases, is in our transfer and cancellation guide.
Tracking arrival and managing the file
For overseas recruitment, Musaned shows the request's progress stage by stage: contract signing, medical, visa issuance, deployment and arrival, so the platform, not the office's WhatsApp, is where the truth lives. After arrival, two obligations move to Absher: issuing the worker's Iqama (generally within three months) and keeping it renewed, since an expired Iqama blocks every other service, including any future transfer. And a service worth knowing exists since February 2026: if a worker stops reporting for duty, Musaned's Work Interruption service lets you formally end the contract or regularise the situation, instead of the old informal limbo.
Raises, amendments and renewals
A raise agreed over dinner does not exist until the platform knows about it. Salary changes and other amendments go through a contract addendum on Musaned, which keeps the authenticated contract, the e-salary record and reality telling the same story; a mismatch between what you transfer monthly and what the contract says is exactly the kind of inconsistency that surfaces at renewal. Renewals themselves follow the contract cycle: the mandatory insurance covers the first two years and is renewed with the relationship, and the worker's Iqama runs on its own clock in Absher. Put both dates in your calendar; how and when to structure raises, and what they do to retention, is covered in our raises and retention guide.
A recruitment office's guarantee covers recruitment, not employment. Once the contract is authenticated, the salary, rest day, leave and e-payment obligations are yours as the employer, and Musaned tracks them against you, not the office.
Complaints, office ratings and the 19911 line
When an office underdelivers, late deployment, a replacement that never comes, fees that grew after signing, escalate inside the system, in this order. First, the office itself, in writing through the platform's communication channel, because the paper trail matters. Second, a formal complaint through Musaned's support channels, which feeds the office's public rating that future employers see. Third, the Ministry's 19911 line for labour matters that go beyond the office relationship. Ratings are the quiet power here: checking an office's score before contracting is free, and most expensive recruitment stories start with skipping that step.
The services map: what lives where
| Task | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility check | Confirms you meet financial-capacity rules before paying | Musaned, before any request |
| Visa request | Issues the recruitment visa (SAR 2,000 + e-service fee) | Musaned visa services |
| Contract authentication | Generates and authenticates the unified contract + insurance | Musaned |
| Salary payments | Mandatory e-salary through approved banks and wallets | Musaned wage service |
| Service transfer | Moves a worker between employers, with release approval | Musaned + Absher (release) |
| Arrival tracking | Stage-by-stage recruitment progress | Musaned request view |
| Work interruption | Formal path when a worker stops reporting (since Feb 2026) | Musaned |
| Complaints and ratings | Office complaints, ratings, escalation to 19911 | Musaned support + 19911 |
| Iqama issue and renewal | Residence permit after arrival, then ongoing | Absher |
Common mistakes to avoid
- Paying before checking eligibility. The check is free and instant; a rejected request after fees is neither.
- Picking an office on price alone. The rating history is public inside Musaned; a cheap office with poor delivery costs more in delays.
- A salary that does not match your documents. The mismatch rejects requests and resurfaces at renewal.
- Paying any part of the wage in cash "for convenience". Since 1 January 2026 the approved channels are the lawful route, and the record they create is your protection too.
- Letting the Iqama lapse. An expired Iqama silently blocks transfers, renewals and services until it is fixed.
The bottom line
Musaned rewards employers who treat it as the single source of truth: eligibility before payment, contract terms that match documents, salaries through the approved channels, transfers and endings done formally. Keep those four habits and the platform is genuinely quick. For the full first-time journey, start with the hiring guide; to see who is available before you open a visa request at all, browse verified candidates.
