Job Discussion Forums

[willb94]

SPSP has emailed me today asking if im still interested in working in Al Khafji, I was working in Riyadh until fairly recently and had the kind of deal your getting with SPSP, fancy sending me a PM so I can get some more info?

[Desert Dueller]

OP is quite correct in using the term "immigration" when discussing the transition or transfer from one visa status to another. As we all know, everyone deboarding a plane and wishing to enter the country of arrival (as opposed to merely transiting) will follow the "immigration" signs and queue up at "immigration" - even if only arriving as a tourist. By transitioning or transferring his visa status, the OP was implying a change of status involving whatever steps are involved - exiting the country and obtaining a different visa in his home country, or whatever.
The OP is also strongly advised to ignore the negative nonsense disseminated here by others re housing, company assistance, meet and greet at the airport etc etc. He will most likely find that SPSP and his future colleagues will be very supportive of his efforts in setting himself up at his new place of work.

[nomad soul]

[hash]

[Motorcycleman]

[sicklyman]

you're more gracious than I had planned to be with what hash wrote about finding accommodation in the Dammam/Khobar area.

I wonder if he's tried?

Plenty of furnished apartments which require no deposit at all and which make for a good base to start exploring for something more permanent.

Lots of unfurnished stuff that is reasonable (from SAR 2,000 a month so raising even six months in advance isn't a deal breaker) and with IKEA in Dhahran you can furnish your place to a standard you'd expect back home.

In the TEFL world, I can think of much harder places to get off the plane and find affordable accommodation (London, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul) Just because hash needs his hand held once he gets off the plane, it doesn't mean we all do.

BTW, SPSP Dammam is a reputable employer with a good academic record. You could do very much worse.

[Desert Dueller]

I second sicklyman's comments. It's very easy to pick up good furnished accommodation on a month by month basis, with no bond or rental contract, at a reasonable rate. To be "stuck" at an airport because a pick up hasn't eventuated is something that, in 2016, every child can handle. There is an excellent and well-organized taxi service available at DMM airport. The initial albeit limited accommo provided by SPSP is of very good quality and is located right in the hub of other available accommodation options - so hardly any need for a company driver anyway.
As to "immigration, I can just about picture nomad soul at the airport immigration counter, getting out her Oxford English dictionary, discussing the definition of immigration with the official, explaining that she was not here to immigrate and take up residency, and where the counter for visitors and tourists was....lol. Good luck.

[hash]

My comments are generally directed towards the concerns of NEWBIES. If you have already been through all this previously, then of course, my comments must be irrelevant to your case.

The OP, after all, wrote: "I have arranged accommodation both for myself and colleagues in Dammam before.......I know the ropes sufficiently well....."

Had I known that from his first posting, I probably wouldn't have commented at all. I mean, even I have never "arranged accommodation" for myself in KSA, let alone for others. But as I implied, I assumed he was a newbie.

Teachers who have already gone through the mill as far as employment is concerned in KSA, quickly forget what it's like for a newbie. The shock and horror and usually, the blazing heat and --for USA citizens at least,-- the minimum 18 hour trip from door to door that is the lot of a newbie to KSA.

I still contend that for such a person, "finding his own place" is an unreasonable expectation - far too unreasonable. In fact, I would find it rather insulting to be expected to do such a thing in the hostile and alien environment that KSA has become.

To me, hoisting this "housing" problem onto a new employee is in reality an out and out abdication of an employer's responsibility. He doesn't want anything to do with it.....let the sucker do it himself.

Finally, given the OP's apparent wide experience in KSA as an employee, I wonder why he felt the need to post anything at all.

He knows all about delays, EID, who to contact, what to do should their be no meet and greet at the airport etc. Anything he might have learned from his posting, seems to me, would have been superfluous given his experience. (And.........I still think there are all kinds of red flags waving in the horizon as far as his new job goes). But I do wish him "Bi Tawfeek"

[nomad soul]

[Motorcycleman]

Flights confirmed on decent airline and decent times, with all outstanding queries also resolved very satisfactorily. All well that ends well. Or starts well. Or is the end of the start? Let's hope it's not the start of the end!

[bigdurian]

Strangely enough, when I arrived in KSA for my current employer, a very reputable American multinational, the guy who was supposed to meet me at the airport didn't show up for two hours because he couldn't get his head round the 24 hour clock.

Fortunately, after previous experience of KSA, I'd had the foresight to ask for this guy's number before leaving.

A friendly guy at the airport made a call for me and the guy eventually showed up.

This would have been very worrying for me if it was my first time in KSA, but as it was, I thought I'd get a hotel in an area I knew if the worst came to the worst, and go to the office the next day, seeing how I knew where they were, and had previously visited.

Which just goes to show, that even with the best employers in the wields things can go wrong.

On my first arrival in KSA, it took three hours to get through immigration because the fingerprint machines weren't working properly, and there was me worrying about someone being on the other side to collect me. Fortunately there was.

[Desert Dueller]

Nomad soul didn't get the point: I was referring to her generic interpretation of "immigration" and its irrelevance in everyday usage in the context of worldwide travel in 2016....... nobody was referring to, or was doubtful of, her wonderful experience of arriving with an employment visa and obtaining an iqama within ten days....which is pretty standard, btw.
I have used employment visas (with a subsequent iqama) as well as business/visit visas. On one occasion the business/visit visa was transferred / converted to an employment visa and iqama (5yr muqeem) in-country.....with only a single in-country medical and no return trips to my home country required at all......picture that!

[sicklyman]

oh she got it... MOD edit

Usually she's spot on... but not on this front.

KSA is a great place to arrive as a newbie. There are no overwhelming crowds. No one is going to rip you off, take advantage of you or steal your baggage. It hardly ever rains. Taxi drivers are friendly and helpful even if they drive like crazy and it's the Middle East so no one cares if you are late for anything and everyone knows that systems don't work perfectly so there's no expectation that anything will go to plan. There is always a huge range of accommodation so you can blow your credit card on the Intercontinental or find a doss house with ex-pats from nations closer to Saudi which will cost you almost nothing.

I try to imagine a 20-something Saudi arriving as a newbie at Heathrow in the same situation and have a hard time imagining them coming out of it anywhere near as well.

[hash]

[sicklyman]