Job Discussion Forums

[shebab]

1) How easy is it to get the complete medical exam required by the Saudi Embassy, considering how complicated it is to get any medical treatment done in the States ("What? You don't have insurance?" "How much does what cost? We don't know-we don't deal with prices!"). Does anyone have any suggestions of doctors/medical centers to go to in either New York or Florida or environs that have experience with this matter and won't look at you as if you have two heads?

2) What exactly is the "police clearance report" required by the Embassy? Will a local rap sheet print out from my local precinct suffice, or do I have to go through the FBI? How long does either option take and does it need to be done in person?

Thanks in advance for the info!

[johnslat]

Dear shebeb,
From my own experience, the medical exam can be easily done. One time I had the doctor at a blood-donation bank in Florida do it - for free. All I had to do was give blood (and I got paid for that). Another time, in Colorado, I had it done (again for free) at the County Health Office. Why pay to have it done if it can be done gratis?
The police "background checks", at least when I had them done, were also quite easy. I just went down to the local stations/sheriff's office and had them completed the same day.
I can't guarantee all this'll work as well for you - my experience with these was all before 9/11. Maybe the circumstances have changed since them, but maybe not.
Regards,
John

[Stephen Jones]

The medical certificate can take time because they have got to do every test and then every test paper has got to be signed by the doctor and attested by the county health authority. My advice is to ask the consolate in New York if they can recommend a doctor. We had somebody from New York who got it done in four or five days so it can be done quickly if the doctor has experience of dealing with these things.

There are conflicting reports on the police clearance. I think it depends on the state. Find out from the Cultural Mission or the Consolate exactly what is required and then go along in person to the appropriate police station and make a nuisance of yourself until you get it.

[GlobalDawg]

I just went through the process last summer. The police clearence was easy. I went to the local city police department and the clerk completed it within 10 minutes. The cost was $15.00, I believe. In my city the police department has a specific form that is to be completed. All you do is give them your name and ID or social security number and the computer does the rest. The medical exam took a bit more time because the exam required by the Saudi Embassy is extensive. My doctor said that some of the tests that are required are not even done in the US any longer. That was the same response I got from a doctor in Korea several years ago. Yet, all the results were completed in about 5 days, in both cases.

The holdup was having the necessary verifications completed by the Cultural Mission (degree verification) and the Consulate (seal of the health department for the medical exam). What happens is that every time something is not exactly as it should be, they reject the entire application. Instead of laying out all the paperwork and concluding what is not in order at once, the Consulate takes one document at a time. This might be because the documents go to different places. Yet, if one is not in order, the entire application is rejected. Although I used Travisa visa processing agency, I still had to navigate the situation. The problem with Travisa is that they don't get involve with the process until they are notified by the Consulate. If there is a problem, they don't pick the application up until the end of the day. So, if something comes up in the morning, you won't know about it until the next day when you get a call from Travisa. Save yourself time and anxiety by getting a contact person at the Cultural Mission and the Consulate. The Consulate representative is the key, he's your go to guy. Be nice to him and just explaine that you are under time constraints and need to get the application endorsed as quickly as possible. However, it is still a good idea to let Travisa do the footwork in Washington D.C. Their charge is about $90.00. If you don't have someone in D.C. handling your application, there is a chance that you might get it back in the mail a week or more later with an indication that it was rejected because there was a problem.

In my state there is no such thing as the seal from the health department. So, make sure you provide the Consulate with doctor's state licence number which you can get from the state medical board; your doctor should have that information, himself. Just write it on the medical form by the doctor's signature. In my case, we weren't sure what was needed and by the time I found out (after having my application rejected) my doctor was on vacation. So, I frantically called around and finally secured his medical licence number from the state medical board; the hospital was reluctant to provide me with that information. In the end that satisfied the requirement at the Consulate. The irony is that once you get here, no one looks at the medical results and you will take another physical exam in order to secure your iqama. Make sure you get receipts. WOW!!! I just remembered that I forgot to submit mine to the RC for reimbursment. Well, it's never too late when money is involved.

Have a comfortable flight, see you when you get here.

[scot47]

I have often thought it peculiar that this is a requirement for teachers from the USA but from the UK there is no such rquirement.

Are the ranks of UK EFL teachers in KSA full of criminals ?

[GlobalDawg]

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaah . . . . It's probably because the Brits are enlightened souls.

[Paul in Saudi]

I got my paperwork done in a day or so, but that was remarkably fast.

I went down to Baltimore to do the police background check. That was, odd. Still they got it done overnight.

I would remark the Saudis were shocked, shocked to be fingerprinted to come to the US. I can point out I had to be printed to come here. Life's Great Circle is complete.

[Stephen Jones]

I don't know but the English police refuse to give clearance if you haven't lived in the UK for the last three years.

I know because I couldn't get a supply job in the UK until I had produced police clearance from Spain (they seemed to accept all four extremities still being on the end of your limbs as a form of Saudi police clearance). The fun was that the Spanish government, finding that instead of getting half-a-dozen requests a year were now getting half-a-dozen a day, had decided that there must be some massive scam going on, and had instructed the embassy to refuse to process any more, and tell people to return to Spain to apply at the Ministry of Justice in Madrid. The woman at the embassy, accepted the application anyway (muttering all the while she didn't see why the Spanish government should suffer because the British government was suffering an attack of hysteria), and I got the form three months later, well after I had given up the idea of trying to teach in the UK again.

The situation got worse last year when they centralized the process. The company that got the contract outsourced all the data processing to Delhi and when September came tens of thousands of kids got sent home because their teachers' police clearance was somewhere on the Deccan plateau.