To drive a vehicle in Saudi Arabia one needs to have a valid “Motor Vehicle Periodic Inspection (MVPI)” certificate, commonly known as Fahas. Fahas is only valid for 1 year and needs to be renewed every year. I have been driving car for a couple of years and no one has ever asked for the Fahas. Normally people only do Fahas when they need to renew Istamara (Vehicle Registration) or sell the car or change the ownership of car (in case of transfer of leased car from bank).

Fahas – Vehicle Queue before cash counter

Fahas – Vehicle Queue before cash counter

Fahas – Cash Counter

Documents required to perform Fahas

• Iqama
• Vehicle Registration (Istamara)

Timing to perform Fahas in Riyadh

• Sunday to Thursday – 07:00 to 16:15
• Friday – OFF
• Saturday – 07:00 to 14:15

Procedure to Perform Fahas in Riyadh

1. Locate the “Motor Vehicle Periodic Inspection (MVPI)” center in your city. For Riyadh the location is mentioned in the end of the article.
2. It is advisable to go after Duhr prayer, as it is less crowded then.
3. I went to perform Fahas at 10:15 AM on Tuesday and had to wait for 40 minutes to pay the fees. It was a very long queue. In fact there were 10 queues, 4 for HTV and 6 for LTV.
4. At the cash counter you will need to present the Iqama, Istamara and 73 SAR fee for car inspection. The teller will return you a cash receipt, Iqama & Istamara.
   

   Fahas – Cash Counter

   

   Fahas – Cash Receipt

5. After payment you will head to the inspection shed.
   

   Fahas – Queue to perform Inspection for LTV

   

   Fahas – Queue to perform Inspection for HTV

6. Once you reach the inspection shed, you will be asked to come out of the vehicle and give the slip to the vehicle inspector.
   

   Fahas – Quality Policy

7. You will need to leave the lane and travel on foot on the area dedicated for pedestrian passing.
   

   Fahas – Warning for Pedestrians

   

   Fahas – Inspection Shed

   

   Fahas – Inspection Shed
8. The car will go through 4 inspection points. It will hardly take 10 minutes.
   • In the first inspection all the lights (head lights, tail lights & hazard lights) and brakes (Normal brake & Hand brake) will be checked. Before going to perform Fahas make sure that all lights are working properly.
     

     Fahas – Inspection Shed – First Inspection

   • In the second inspection all Tyres will be checked. If your tyres have not gone really bad then the inspection will be successful.
     

     Fahas – Inspection Shed – Second Inspection

   • In the third inspection the carbon emission from the exhaust pipe will be checked. If you are maintaining your car properly then there will be no problem in clearing this inspection.
     

     Fahas – Inspection Shed – Third Inspection

   • In the last inspection the car will be checked from the bottom. If the lower body of car is fine and there are on oil dripping marks then there will be no issue.
9. Once all the inspections are done you will be given a paper specifying if the test is clear or not. In case if there is any problem you will have 2 weeks to fix the issue and come again to perform Fahas and will only have to pay 24 SAR for re-inspection.
   

   Fahas – Inspection Shed – Final Counter

   

   Fahas – Inspection Result

10. If there is any minor problem such as some bulb is fuse or there is some problem with the brake, then just outside the Fahas facility there are a number of mechanics available to fix the issue.

All in all, it was a smooth experience. It took 1 hour to get Fahas done. The staff was very cooperative and can understand English.