Thursday 14 / November / 2024
With Royal Oman Police clarifying the rules on No Objection Certificate (NOC), it continued to dominate the news agenda this week in Oman.
1) Weeks of confusion over the fate of the No Objection Certificate (NOC) and what expat workers need to do to switch jobs has prompted the Royal Oman Police’s Director General of Passport and Residences to step in and issue much-needed guidance. Brigadier Hilal Al Busaidi, Director General of Passport and Residences, on Wednesday posted a long statement which specified that a business owner or an ‘authorised representative’ of the company must present themselves at the Directorate of Passport and Residences to confirm they have no objection to an expatriate returning to work in a different company in the Sultanate.
2) Our Senior Reporter Rejimon K’s detailed analysis on 'job cuts' in Oman in the wake of oil crisis was the second best read story on timesofoman.com. Companies have begun repatriating expatriates from highly-paid positions and tightening their spend on nationals as oil-driven austerity starts to dig into staff budgets.
3) On Wednesday morning, free Whatsapp call that is otherwise blocked in Oman, unexpectedly started to work, according to users. Even though users in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were able to use free Whatsapp call, it was not possible to make calls in Oman. This story drove the third most traffic to our site this week.
4) Royal Oman Police (ROP) has stopped issuing visas for domestic workers from a number of African countries. Domestic workers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Guinea and Cameroon will not be able to get a visa for domestic jobs in Oman, a circular issued by the ROP on Sunday said. This was the fourth best-read story on our website.
5) Number five spot in most read stories this week was about the fatal Nizwa school bus crash that took lives of six people including a Class II student of Indian School Nizwa.
