Who pays, the sequence, and whether you still need an NOC
FreeIn March 2021 Saudi Arabia took the exit permit and the no objection certificate out of an expatriate worker's life, and the law already said the employer pays for the whole recruitment. Both facts are true, both are widely disbelieved, and both are worth more to you in a negotiation than anything else in this guide.
The no objection certificate question, answered properly
You do not need your employer's permission to change jobs once your contract has run its term and you have served notice. The Ministry's own announcement of the Labour Reform Initiative puts it in one sentence: "Employee mobility will allow expatriate workers to transfer between employers upon the expiry of the binding work contract without the employer's consent." The same reform did the same thing to travel: "The Exit and Re-Entry Visa reforms allow expatriate workers to travel outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia without the employer's approval after submitting a request," and the final exit "allow the expatriate worker to leave the Kingdom after the end of the employment contract without the employer's consent."
What did not change: leaving mid contract. Transferring while the contract is still running needs either the current employer's agreement or one of the specific legal grounds listed below, and the Ministry is explicit that a worker who breaks the contract early bears "all consequences (financial or otherwise) relating to breaking the employment contract". So the honest answer is: the no objection certificate is gone as a routine gatekeeping device, and survives only as the ordinary consequence of walking out of a contract early.
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, "Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development Launches Labor Reforms for Private Sector Workers", reforms effective 14 March 2021, checked 20 September 2026.
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The contract, the money, and getting out
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