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Whatever happened to the Canadian recruits for PNU?

 
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juno87



Joined: 27 Jun 2011
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 1:59 am    Post subject: Whatever happened to the Canadian recruits for PNU? Reply with quote

Have you all given up and moved on or are you still waiting for the visas?
If you're still waiting, what's the latest?

-Thanks
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cairanya



Joined: 02 Jun 2012
Posts: 62

PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know that the Americans were told to take a $10,000 pay cut. Since $38k is far too low for Saudi, we moved on to something else.

I assumed the same was true for our Canadian sisters...
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go_grrrl



Joined: 27 Jun 2011
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 11:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am Canadian and have since requested all of my documents back from my visa agent in Toronto. Now he was a polite and professional Saudi Arabian. I was fortunate because he refunded about 45% of the total cost of $513 CDN. that was initially charged for his firm to take care of everything from notarization, authentication, courier, etc...I can't say the same about professionalism regarding PNU admin and now, also Uniservices (as nice as Robyn is). I seriously think they all knew about the new law in July ("degree in English major in order to teach English"), but they wanted to get as many Westerners over as possible..so they're thinking: let's offer contracts to many FTs and see who could pass under the radar of the new regulation. Hence, all FTs had to bare the brunt of expatriation costs. Even if PNU and Uniservices manage to wrangle an exemption for Canadian instructors (whatever their degrees), they wouldn't fly us over until the start of the new semester. IMO, it's past the middle of the first semester, so it wouldn't make sense for the students to suddenly have an English instructor in the classroom when they've been doing self-study since September. In the latest ad for PNU program leaders, it is "expected that successful applicants will ideally be available to relocate to the Middle East by late December 2012/early January 2013..." I had a good laugh at this one: Yeah, right! If you're British or American, maybe. Am I bitter? Yes, a little. I didn't like the job I had in Korea, so it was right to quit anyway and fly back to Ontario on my own dime, but I really felt let down when my visa agent repeated information that embassy staff told him when my application was up for processing: that there was never any PNU blanket exemption request made for Canadian FTs. I'm so ready to move on from this PNU fiasco!
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cairanya



Joined: 02 Jun 2012
Posts: 62

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

go_grrrl wrote:
I can't say the same about professionalism regarding PNU admin and now, also Uniservices (as nice as Robyn is). I seriously think they all knew about the new law in July ("degree in English major in order to teach English"), but they wanted to get as many Westerners over as possible..so they're thinking: let's offer contracts to many FTs and see who could pass under the radar of the new regulation.


Wait, what?
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go_grrrl



Joined: 27 Jun 2011
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

cairanya wrote:
go_grrrl wrote:
I can't say the same about professionalism regarding PNU admin and now, also Uniservices (as nice as Robyn is). I seriously think they all knew about the new law in July ("degree in English major in order to teach English"), but they wanted to get as many Westerners over as possible..so they're thinking: let's offer contracts to many FTs and see who could pass under the radar of the new regulation.


Wait, what?


Nothing. Just my opinion. It appears the political tiff with Canada combined with the general tightening is preventing most Canadians from getting a visa.
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Jessiemiles



Joined: 07 Jun 2012
Posts: 49
Location: Home

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 8:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I applied to PNU just before some posters on this forum were told to take a pay cut. I'm now waiting for an offer. I've submitted letters from my previous employers and expect that the offer will be higher than 38K. That wouldn't be enough for me to move to KSA for, but I have more than two years experience and a Masters in Education (my BA is in a related field, so I should make it through the visa process). I'm not sure how much each year of experience after two years is worth to PNU, but I believe the cap is 48K. Anyone else waiting for an offer for January?
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