Saudi residents report alcohol ban eased for select foreigners

Diplomats and premium visa-holders in Saudi Arabia have said that the conservative kingdom has quietly eased restrictions on purchasing alcohol for select foreign residents, according to several media reports.

 While the government has not made any statements regarding the sale of alcohol in recent days, the sources said non-Muslim individuals with so-called premium resident status are now able to buy booze at the country's sole alcohol shop in Riyadh, which was previously reserved for diplomats.

AFP spoke with four people who said the rules had changed, including two diplomatic sources and two residents with premium visa status.

"I heard about it from friends who tried it. I went there two days ago and it actually worked," one premium visa-holder told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It saved me a lot of money rather than buying from the black market. Prices are reasonable and we finally can buy alcohol."

Started in 2019, premium resident status in Saudi Arabia is available to a select group of foreigners who meet a variety of requirements, including making a one-time payment of 800,000 riyals ($213,000).

The visa allows people to live, work and invest freely in Saudi Arabia without a local "sponsor" -- a kind of guarantor required for other non-nationals to live in the kingdom.

A premium residency-holder told AFP that he went to the shop and saw a man with the same status purchase alcohol before buying bottles himself.

"It actually worked for me, it's so easy," he said.

An AFP correspondent passed by the gated entrance to the shop on Nov. 24, which was guarded by security, and saw cars going in at frequent intervals.

A Western diplomat told AFP that acquaintances of his with premium residency had managed to buy alcohol in the past few days.

A diplomat told AFP that "the [alcohol] store was packed" on Saturday, when she saw "people walking out with 30 bottles.”

The apparent loosening of the liquor regulations comes nearly two years after the kingdom opened its first and only liquor store in January 2024 in the capital's diplomatic quarter, catering exclusively to non-Muslim foreign envoys.