SABER DESKSaber Desk · Quick answers
What does customs clearance in Saudi Arabia require?
A few rules changed in 2025 that trip up importers working from older guides. Since January 2025 both the PCoC and SCoC must exist before the goods arrive — Letters of Undertaking are gone. Since October 2025 a Shipment Certificate (SCoC) is required on every import, including non-regulated goods. Then the documents have to line up exactly: a valid SCoC, an invoice that mirrors the SABER registration, a B/L Consignee that matches the Commercial Registration, a current HS code, and compliant labeling.
The two rule changes
Timing. Since January 2025, both the PCoC and SCoC must exist before the goods arrive. Letters of Undertaking — the old way to defer certification — are no longer accepted, and certifying after arrival is a violation with re-export among the outcomes.
Scope. Since October 2025, a Shipment Certificate (SCoC) is required on every import, including non-regulated goods (those go through importer self-declaration). No SCoC, no clearance.
The documents that have to line up
- A valid SCoC for the shipment (and, for regulated products, a PCoC that is still valid at the moment the SCoC is issued). The SCoC is valid 90 days (extended from 60 in September 2026) — time it against the sailing.
- The commercial invoice must mirror the SABER registration — product names, model numbers, quantities. A mismatch here is the single most-cited cause of delay.
- The B/L Consignee must match the Commercial Registration behind the SABER account. The Notify Party is often just the forwarder; the Consignee is the binding field.
- The HS code must be currently valid — codes were replaced in waves in 2025 and 2026 — and consistent across invoice, SABER and the customs declaration.
- Labeling must follow the product's applicable SASO/IEC standard, including Arabic requirements.
How clearance flows
Once the SCoC is valid it reaches customs automatically through FASAH; clearance is typically 3–5 working days. A Ministry of Industry declaration is also required at the SCoC stage for HS codes on its appendix list, mostly industrial and building materials — typical consumer-electronics codes are not on it so far, but check your code against the current appendix. The document-mismatch traps, with the pre-departure check for each, are in the customs-traps article.
Check three facts in the free sample
The free sample is one English PDF and one Arabic PDF: the prerequisite stack, PCoC basics and 3 of the 7 customs traps — enough to verify this page against saber.sa yourself.
Saber Desk is an independent reference — not a certification body, and not affiliated with SASO. We do not issue certificates. Fees and processing times are the official figures published on saber.sa unless marked as observed practice; confirm HS codes and required standards for a specific shipment with your Certification Body. Edition: October 2026.