Job Discussion Forums

[Atassi]

Hi all. If anyone knows, can any Qatari embassy issue a work visa to a US citizen? Or must an American get it from the embassy in DC? Just wondering what it requires.

Thanks.

[QatarChic]

As far as I know you can also get it upon arrival at the airport-I could be wrong though. Any fellow dohalites care to clarify this?

[dmb]

You can get a work visa at the airport? Doesn't your sponsor have to organise the paperwork?

[QatarChic]

Oops misread this- thought the OP was asking about a normal visa

[veiledsentiments]

The answer is that no embassy can provide a work visa (for any country as far as I know). Your employer will have to do that after you enter the country. It is best to also check with your future employer to find out what kind of visa you should use to enter.

VS

[Atassi]

[MIKEBUCHAN]

If you expect to get a visa at the airport - then it will be a tourist visa. When I got my visa to enter Qatar, it was emailed to me from the sponsor GSSG and I just printed it out and that was that.
That was the beginning of the troubles and problems! I'll stay through ten dozen Russian winters (-45 C) before I would even consider going back to Qatar.
Very good luck, bud!

[ghost]

[MIKEBUCHAN]

Ghost, I wrote the 'work for gssg?' page in this section of Dave's blog and that article and the 31 answers best describe my six months in Qatar. I have seen your writing everywhere and you seem knowledgeable about many countries, so I am surprised that you would even consider Qatar with all the negative articles here.
I have about the same education (BA - English and MSc - ESL Instruction) and have traveled to many different countries to work. I have never been treated so badly as I was by that sponsor company - GSSG. And never have I been lied to as boldly as the recruiter did - Griffith University.
You can expect somewhat OK students, I worked with the QP trainees in Maeseed at the bakery, but overbearing and not too bright Indian overlords on site and the mafias everywhere else make the job as bad as the sponsor.

I would say --- look anywhere to teach, anywhere, but Qatar. Besides, after you ride a wave runner and a quad runner a dozen or so times, see the zoo, visit all 5 or so malls often, walk the Cornish every day, eat in all the foriegn restaurants, visit al Wakra and Ras Lafan and a few other 'tourist' sites - there is nothing left to do or see and all of the above can be done in two or three weeks.

Contact me directly and I will give you names, addresses and telephone numbers of who to avoid, and avoid at all costs! As I wrote in my article, only one man in a 'management' position (without any power) was worth knowing.

Good luck bud if you go there.

Besides, just before I left, the Gulf Times newspaper had an article that salaries must be raised by 35% just ot keep even with the cost of living there. My salary was $3025 USD and if we did not go out to eat to often or buy expensive luxury items at the supermarket, we could save a very little money.

[ghost]

[MIKEBUCHAN]

I really hope your friend read about U of Q!!! Housing and the location of that housing, transportation, admin and their antics, etal.

I worked in Saudi in the mid 90's and it was great! Money flowed like a river there. Salarys were over $50,000 and real bonuses around $12,000, vacation pay - take a month in conjunction with Ramadan - two months with pay, no docked salary for sick days - doctor note or no. PARTIES and more PARTIES!!!!!!!

Ghost, what is baffling? Even the newspapers in Qatar report that salaries MUST be increased by 35% just to meet the cost of living! I had one of the worst new apartments in a newer building. Everything needed repair - living room lights blew up twice, no lights in the bath, kitchen flooded if I ran the water in the sink - I could go on and on........

When I went to the supermarket, I would spend almost 3 1/2 times what I would normally spend in Russia -- same food! The only thing that I bought there that I could not get in Russia -- ocean fish and peanut butter! I live in the Ural Mountain area and the ocean is just too far away to get fresh fish.

In the six months that I was in Qatar, my wife and I bought some gold jewelery, and went to a restaurant 2 or 3 times a month ------- we saved just about 3000 euros! What is this - less than $4000 USD? For a salary of $18,150 this is deplorable!

As for Russia, I have been here since 2000 with only a short time back in the states and that Qatar disaster. I have enjoyed my over-all experience here. There are some ups and downs just like everywhere else. If you get an decent apartment and $500 to $700 - you be livin' large! Most of the students here know English grammar better than any other living human being on the face of the planet! They are hammered with it from elementary school through high school and then some what through university too. Getting them to talk is quite another story!!!!!! The elementary teachers have a grand habit of screaming at the youngsters for making a small mistake when talking and this carrys over into their adult lives. Almost all of the Russian English teachers that I have met can not speak English very well or at all! One older woman is an English teacher and the only thing she can say is, "I afraid you." and this is without any feelings or emotion. She simply is now caught teaching something she can not do herself. There are scores of teachers like this. The methodology of teaching a foreign language here has not been used for 80 to 100 years!

One thing that remains true through out the known world --- contracts with foreign teachers are not honored! At every school, university or college my salary has somehow disappeared just before they think they can make do without you. The BIG thing that they tell you is that you have NO WORK VISA --- teachers don't need a work visa only a business visa, but it is a great lie to make you think that they can deport you and not pay. The only real thing that happens is -- they don't pay! At Language Link - I worked double the contract hours and was promised 1 1/2 pay for that time, it never came. At the pedagogical university - my hours went to 4 hours a month. At the college - my new visa was promised and never came, so I was arrested and paid $4500 USD (that was the loss of air fare out, hotel reservations, new visa costs, and buying the police and other 'officials'). So you are safe no where in the world. And I am trying a second time to get a residence permit (no school will ever do this) last year I lost $1004 UDS trying!

[Stephen Jones]

Working for a contractor at QP is one of the worse gigs in the Gulf; it was bad when QAC under Malachy ran it, so you can imagine what it is like when it goes from honest efficient contractors to an unknown crowd. Most people used to take the job for four or five months (often the short period was not their choice).

That should not apply to other jobs in Qatar, though the fact that the place was voted the most boring place in the world by foreign diplomats doesn't change. The other gigs in Qatar seem debateable - some say good, some bad - so you takes your choice.

I am surprised about complaints regarding the cost of living. Apart from housing, which varies greatly by location, cost of living is cheap in the Gulf.

[ghost]

I

[MIKEBUCHAN]

Ghost, I am thinking of going to Korea. Tell me about the good, bad and ugly. I have heard more stories about Korea than Qatar.
Do you know anything about ESL Planet Korea? And the director named Rowan? What about Busan and the surrounding area?

[Bindair Dundat]