By the tiswa editorial team, from the official sources listed at the end of this guide. How we write our guides
Your new university wants a financial guarantee in your name. The guarantee comes from the cultural mission. The mission issues it through Safeer, and only after two other requests are approved. Most new scholars learn that chain in a hurry, in their first week, between finding a flat and a SIM card. Here it is in advance, from official pages: Umm Al-Qura University's Safeer page, the University of Jeddah's guidance for its own scholars, and the Ministry of Education's equivalency service.
What is the Safeer platform?
Umm Al-Qura University describes it as an e-service window that lets students get services without visiting the embassy, at safeer2.moe.gov.sa.1 The cultural mission in your host country receives and approves what you send. If a Saudi university sponsored you, it also enters its own decisions into Safeer and sends them to the attaché.3
How do Saudi scholarship students open a Safeer account?
Create an account in Safeer 2 and sign in with your National ID. Your scholarship administration opens your file once the scholarship decision is issued, so an empty account before then is normal.2 Then the sequence starts:
- Commencement of Study
This tells the attaché you have arrived.
- Study Plan
Opens after commencement is approved.
- Educational Financial Guarantee
Opens after the plan is approved. Once approved, a copy is emailed to you to forward to your university.
That file is what everything else hangs on: appointing your academic supervisor, the guarantee to your institution, your medical insurance card and your allowance.2
When do I have to arrive, and when does the allowance start?
Two articles of the scholarship regulations, as the University of Jeddah quotes them, set the clock.2 Article 8 cancels the decision if you do not arrive within 3 months of the date it specifies. Article 9 starts allowances on your arrival date, but never earlier than one month before official classes begin. Flying out two months early does not buy you an extra month of allowance.
What documents does the attaché want?
The University of Jeddah list, for its scholars:2 passports for you and any family with you, showing the entry stamp; the entry visa; your admission letter and scholarship decision; certificates and transcripts; National ID or family card copies for dependants; personal photos; and a voided cheque from a bank account in your host country, so the allowance can be paid directly. If a mahram travelling with a female scholar is a government employee, add his exceptional leave, retirement or scholarship decision from his employer.
The voided cheque is the item that catches people. It means the local bank account has to come first. The same page also asks you to register your passport, address and phone numbers with the Saudi consulate on arrival.
What can you request in Safeer?
| Group | Requests |
|---|---|
| General | Personal and study data changes, adding companions, travel tickets, contact details, request tracking, inquiries |
| Financial | Account statement, compensation, financial guarantee |
| Scholarship | Extension, upgrade, termination, postponement, continuing language study, change of university or major or both, leaving the country, scientific trip, general request |
That grouping is Umm Al-Qura's.1 Labels shift a little between sponsors, so go by what your own account shows.
How to get equivalency certificate in Saudi Arabia: is it in Safeer?
Not in Safeer 2. Equivalency of a foreign degree runs on a separate Ministry of Education system, eqs.moe.gov.sa. Its user guide happens to be called "Safeer Equivalencies", which is where the confusion comes from.4 The service is free and takes 5 working days. You pick the degree, accept the terms, enter the certificate and any transferred hours, attach the files and submit; a window shows your request number, and you follow it under "Track Requests". The beneficiary care centre is on 19996 if it stalls. The conditions themselves are in the certificate equivalency guide, and the first one is that your university and programme are on the recommended universities list.
Mistakes that stall requests
Usually small ones. A university name spelt differently from the admission letter. A blurred passport scan. A duplicate request filed because the first one went quiet for two days.
University-sponsored scholars make a bigger one. An extension request does not go straight to Safeer: at the University of Jeddah it starts in the Kafa'a system under Services Platform, then Scholarship Applications, and passes department, college and standing committee approvals before the university enters it in Safeer. That is why the university asks for it at least 4 months before your mission ends, so payments do not stop.3
When you do need to talk to a person, the Saudi cultural missions guide covers how to reach the right one.
Still looking for the scholarship itself? Start with scholarships for Saudi students.
