Job Discussion Forums

[Madman]

I came to KSA on a 3 month work visa - and for me this involved an overnight travel to London and a hell of a runaround at the Foreign Office to get my qualifications certified - which also involved going to a local solicitor's office.

Thankfully, at the KSA Consulate I got my visa.

When I arrived in KSA I was told by the RC that my qualifications need to be certified by the KSA embassy in London. That means sending my original certificates to London when they have already seen them and have (presumably) the certified photocopy I went to all that trouble to obtain.

I really don't want to send these by courier to London - if they get lost they will be very difficult to replace and I simply just do not rate my chances of getting them back in one piece.

I feel RC made a mistake in not telling me before I came here that they need the embassy stamp on the original/or legalised copy. I also feel I have done what the embassy required me to do in order to get the visa - it seems as though I am having to do this twice over at my expense and risk.

Has anyone else been through this? Is the RC being reasonable - or not?
I have 3 months to comply (according to their letter) or I could be fired!

Thanks in advance -
Mm

[scot47]

It is also possible to have this done inside KSA by the British Embassy/Consulate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

By the way who or what is RC ?

[Madman]

Can't answer your first point, but RC is the Royal Commission (of Hubail & Yanbu). I really need to find out my best position to deal with this!

[scot47]

My point is that it would be easier and cheaper if it has to be done to get it done in Riyadh.

[Arab Strap]

Bit odd the way you've been dealt with.

Back in 2005 I was flown into Bahrain and I did all the paperwork there.

I arrived on a Wednesday evening, the chap from the RC was at the hotel 7am sharp the next day, medical, embassy, stamps etc all done in a morning and I was in Jubail for 5pm................iqamma after 3 weeks.

HOWEVER, when it came to bringing the wife and weans over it was a different story, I had to jump through the same hoops as you'll have to.

In the end I DHL'ed the certs to an agent in London who did the whole running around for me. Took about 2 weeks to get it sorted and cost me over 200 Knicker.

As for getting the whole thing done in Riyadh, I wasn't aware of that option....................don't see how though since the required stamp should be from the KSA embassy in your country of origin.

Show DHL or UPS your RC ID and you'll get about a 40% discount...........actually if you bandy your ID about in a few places it will open a lot of doors for you and you'll be surprised the discounts you'll get.

The RC is not treating you any differently from anyone else, it's a paper factory, there's no point in shouting the odds or getting angry, it'll just cause whomever you'll dealing with to shut up shop.

I often found telling them that I had two sons (one of whom was born in KSA..........who would one day play football for the Magic Kingdom) helped speed things up............good idea to play the 'my family' card as often as possible

Patience is the key with the RC and with KSA in general............

Any purges on the horizon at JUC or JIC? The soothsayers have been very quiet of late.

[scot47]

Outside KSA the method is
Minsitry of Foreign Affairs in that country + KSA Embassy

Within KSA it is
Embassy of the country involved + Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Easy !

I did it in Jeddah before coming to my present job.

[Stephen Jones]

What you will need if you are going to be employed by the RC is for your qualifications to be authenticated by the Saudi Cultural Mission in London. Are you sure this is not what they are asking?

It is quite reasonable, as the Saudi Cultural Mission is the only institution that actually checks with the issuing authority that your degree is genuine. What is much less reasonable is that they forget to tell you that before you come, as they did in loads of cases in the six years I was involved in recruiting.

Arab strap is referring to the different procedure involving getting the wife over.

I suggest you PM me.

[se_bocere]

You have to get the certificates authenticated first by the cultural mission then the embassy. I just checked this morning.

[Madman]

Many thanks - can you please PM me with the addresses?
Many thanks again