Job Discussion Forums

jmsauer · Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 12:27 am Post subject: Embassy Humor

Here is the transcript of a conversation I had with the embassy staff today. The names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

X: Hello?
Me: Hello, this is Mr. Sauer again calling about the visa block number.
X: Ok, tell it to me.
Me: I don't have it actually. The school faxed it to your office, to the attention of Y.
X: Y is not here.
Me: Yes I know, they faxed it to her attention though.
X: I can't check her messages.
Me: Yes, well they faxed it actually.
X: But I don't have the code to her answering machine.
Me: They F A X E D the number to you.
X: Oh, well, there are many faxes, so Mr. Z sorts through them all. I will call you back after he sorts them.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Get the IPA to send you a copy of the block visa number as well.

For some reason the Saudi Embassy in the UK is not only a load more efficient than the Saudi Embassy in the US, it is generally considered to be efficient even by Western standards.

So blame your ancestors for having taken the boat :)

True Dreamer · Joined: 13 May 2005 Posts: 41 Location: Land of the Sand

I totally agree with that SJ.

jmsauer.... IPA should have sent you a confirmation e-mail detailing the VISA no. and/or confirmation of PTA (prepaid airline tickets).

The Saudi Embassy in London has its disadvantages, however, it is by far one of the most efficient embassies and easy to deal with.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Prepare yourself for dealing with Saudi bureaucracy by reading the classic work on the Central European Variety : The Castle by Franz Kafka.

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

That's the 2nd time this week I've heard The Castle referred to vis-a-vis Saudi bureaucracy.

jmsauer · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:24 pm Post subject:

cmp45 · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 1475 Location: KSA

jmsauer,
Don't worry! Once you get in the country, you will soon forget about all the hassles it took to get into KSA because you will be greeted with a host of new 'problems' to solve...LOL
WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Much depends on your employer, but if you are unlucky you will spend your life in KSA on an endless paper trail. Documents for Iqama, driving licence, exit visa, dependendants' visas, and all the rest.

All part of the rich tapestry of life here !

jmsauer · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:27 am Post subject:

Speaking of exit visas, I think I might get stuck not going anyway for the holiday after Ramadan given that I'll arrive just a couple of weeks before it. Sad

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Some peoiple get so many vacations that they can't afford to go on holiday every time ! Life IS hard at the cutting edge of TEFL !

Bebsi · Joined: 07 Feb 2005 Posts: 958

What I cannot understand is why they make you do a medical for the Iqama, having already made you do a medical to get a work-visa in your home country? You do a medical in Harley St. (or wherever), get your visa, arrive a few days later, and on arrival, you must do the whole medical thing all over again in order to get the Iqama.

To add to the Kafkaesque nature of it all, if you are a British passport holder, you are exempt from the second medical, but if you are, for example, Irish, but have gone through the exact same process (same embassy, same medical etc), you DO have to do the medical again. Is there something here I don't know? Is the UK passport made of some special paper which gives the holder immunity from diseases that can be picked up en route, that the Irish or other national documents lack????

Also, one of the main concerns of the authorities, by their own admission, is the HIV virus. However, once you have obtained your Iqama, you never have have to do the medical test again (unless you leave and later return on a different Iqama). So, if you spend 20 years in the same job, and go to Thailand or similar locations-of-leisure three times a year, you are still considered zero-risk!!!! Is the Iqama made of a similar type of special paper to the UK passport? Once you are a holder, are you given immunity from kinds of nasty illneses and diseases? Confused

The Saudis could make a fortune selling "Iqama Paper" to the WHO in bulk! Or the UK govt for that matter!

Only in KSA...............!!

Ace Teacher · Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 31 Location: Riyadh

Bebsi ... the frustration of repeating the medical test all over again was experienced painfully and I am sorry to disappoint you by correcting your idea on Her Majesty's (fortunate) passport holders!! I'm one of those (Majesty's passport holders) and unfortunately I didn't manage to slip through the Saudi vicious legal net and was not exempt from the superfluous, immaterial and in the same time farcical decision to repeat the medical test all over again !!!!

Sorry to dsiappoint you Bebsi, us Brits are not different than you guys in Ireland with regards to this matter.

But we are superior and far better than you in football!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I too am a subject of Her Britannic Majesty. I too had to do the medical again after arrival.

Allpart of the rich tapestry of life here. Just accept it. Once you start asking,'Why', you should leave.

Bebsi · Joined: 07 Feb 2005 Posts: 958

Why leave KSA? Why not ask WHY? Indeed, why do u even suggest, Scot, leaving if one feels the need to ask WHY? Why am I even asking this? Why am I here in ESLCafe? Why am I here in saudi? Why are any of us here...in KSA...or indeed on the planet generally? Why is anything?

Why is it that students always ask "Why Teechr", when you ask them to do something?

Anyway, AT, I stand corrected regarding the necessity for HM passport holders to do the medo!! Reason I thought it was the case is that when I arrived in Hafr Al Batin in 2002, I recalled some of my olleagues who had also arrived at the same time, and who held UK passports, saying something about not having to do the medical again. I was obviously mistaken...perhaps it was too much hot sun!! Still, I am now consoled that you guys have also got to go through the absurd process the same as we do Laughing

. There was I going around these last few years thinking "why are they exempt and we're not...what did the queen give to King Fahd to procure favours???? It's not fair that they don't have to s**te into a plastic phial while we Paddies do". I shall sleep easier tonight...or should that be "more easily"?

I also hate to admit that you Brits have better football teams than we do, but it is now sadly true. What happened to the great "Jack's Army" team who got to the World Cup in 1990...albeit without ever having won a single game at top level!!!! Remember Jackie "Keep 'em under presure" Charlton? And his nemesis, Eamonn Dunphy? Ahh, the stuff of memories Crying or Very sad

Cleopatra · Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 4:30 pm Post subject:

I had to have the medical re-done on my first stint in the Kingdom. The second time round, I just had to have it done at home, and was not asked to re-do it in Riyadh. And no, I don't hold one of her Britannic Majesty's passports either.