Job Discussion Forums

arabian kitty · Joined: 19 Sep 2011 Posts: 15

my friend was offered an esl position with ICEAT in july this year. they interviewed her and she sent in all her documents to process her visa right away. a month later still no contract. schools about to start and they ask her to send her passport to some shady visa services company in canada to process her visa (WITHOUT a contract in hand). she was told she didnt need to do a medical. so she sends in her documents the next day. 2 weeks later they email her and ask her to retrieve her passport from the visa office because all the teachers will travel to abu dhabi to get their visa processed over a weekend. They call up the visa services company and ask them to send back the teachers passports. my friend being an avid traveller and knowing how to use the internet, confirms that canadians need a visa to go to abu dhabi. she lets iceat know this and iceat acknowledges it but doesnt apologize. they then ask her to re-submit her passport and documents for processing to shady visa agent here in canada again. school year has started and there is no visa in sight for weeks. she finally receives her contract via email though. a shitty one at that. the usual bullshit about being placed anywhere in the Kingdom, getting sum shitty accomodation, no sick leaves mentioned, working like a dog nonstop everyday even on thursdays (48hours). she finally blows up and rejects their employment offer. she turned down some other jobs over this 3 month visa and contract fiasco.

if the company is treating the teachers like this while they're still in the West...what will happen in Saudi...

just be wary applying with them. if they interview you in septmeber u wont be seeing a contract until november/december. and boy what a shitty contract it is. ur visa process will take twice as long as normal saudi visa processing times.

Deeman15 · Joined: 30 Apr 2011 Posts: 50

ICEAT is simply an incompetent company. They don't know what they're doing. As bad as EdEx's reputation is, ICEAT is worse than them.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

You are apparently not aware that normal processing time for a legal work visa in Saudi is from 2-3 months to infinity. But since they didn't require the medical, it was apparently not what they were getting for her in the first place.

VS

Redcar24 · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:42 am Post subject:

Because they are sending teachers 90 day visas out of the USA in Texas and promising Icoma's in Bahrain without police or medical checks..

Buyer beware contract!

Deeman15 · Joined: 30 Apr 2011 Posts: 50

Actually from what I understand they've already asked teachers to submit police reports earlier, and the medical will take place in Bahrain later on.... Which is somewhat unsettling.. Anybody know if Bahrain has safe and acceptable hospitals and doctors?

arabian kitty · Joined: 19 Sep 2011 Posts: 15

hahahah. they told us we were going to bahrain...then abu dhabi...then God knows where. glad i didnt sign with them!

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

From what I hear, the teachers have already not been paid on time (but apparently only by a day).

The iqamas are slow, with no organisation as well. They did, however make sure that everyone was well off with an advance payment when they got to Saudi. And they were taken care of quite well when you compare it to some horror stories on this forum!

Personally, I've expected more of a new company.. who has taken over Bell... but maybe they're just struggling, as it's just the beginning... we'll see.. only time will tell Smile

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

And Deeman, you are right. Teachers were asked to submit a police report. Not sure how many did though, as I'm not sure if this was a strong requirement or not.

Some teachers got told that they would get their iqamas in bahrain. And others got told they would get them in abu dhabi. None have happened yet.

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

From what I've been told teachers got paid today (rather than yesterday), which isn't too bad.

The iqama's are still on hold. That seems to be the only downfall at the moment regarding this job.

Arabian kitty, I'm very sorry that your friend had to experience what she did. I fear that it was due to the company being new and making innocent mistakes. At least I hope it was for that reason, as so far, not a lot of bad has been said about them (other than the iqama issue, which I know is a big issue, anyway).