Job Discussion Forums

[plumpy nut]

Now, they are asking for :
"I’ve received your notarized Teaching certificate. Thank you for providing that.I just wanted to confirm if you’ve had Cambridge send an e0mail(sic) directly to the Saudi Cultural Bureau, at this e-mail____"

What you said above is the crux of the issue with the Saudis. You're visa may not go through due to a whole host of pettiness on the part of the Saudis. It took me 3 months for the visa to come through. I actually gave up and was surprised when it arrived, after dealing the SACM's pettiness over online course issues and their demand for documents that even picky Western companies wouldn't be haughty enough to insist on. Many people after coming back to the US to spend the money for a Saudi visa thinking that they have everything, degrees, transcripts, all sorts of verification, all of a sudden find themselves dealing with this stuff.

Another thing prospective employees like you might consider, I have a no nonsense educator friend that is no longer communicating with me, seemingly gone, after I received a weird email from his yahoo account from a non-native speaker. The message asked for a 2000 US "loan" that "of course" would be paid back. This educator had a PhD and was heading a program in some obscure Saudi town and I haven't heard from him since the weird non-native email.

[nomad soul]

Plumpy nut:

The OP is Canadian not American. Besides, not every American has a lousy visa experience like the one you claim --- mainly your festering indignation over the Saudi government not recognizing your online MA. Anyway, in the OP's situation, his Canadian visa agent should have provided a list of every required document and whether said documents had to be attested and by what entity. If they didn't, he should have asked the agent as well as others on this forum.

[spiral78]

[plumpy nut]

[brnrd]

Things haven't changed since I left 7-8 years ago....

Anyway, back to the OPs topic.
Today's email from the visa expert :

"Unfortunately, since your Teaching Certificate is from Cambridge University, it would need to be attested at the Saudi Cultural Bureau in the UK. The Saudi cultural bureau cannot attest it here unless you have a Canadian Equivalency… can you please contact me to discuss this further?"

Have they no knowledge of Cambridge's diploma mill for teaching English AKA CELTA ? They must have assumed I had the - Canadian English Language Teaching Ahh? certificate.

So 3-4 months is par the course... Shouldn't they hire anyone and everyone? I mean over those months of visa application the attrition alone would whittle candidates down to the stoic & altruistic carrier of knowledge.

Frankly I think it's farcical

[nomad soul]