Job Discussion Forums

[rosalind]

currentaffairs, do you mean teachers at PMU? Or elsewhere? If so, where are they describing?

[currentaffairs]

I am talking generally - the internet service in many parts of the country is not so great. Maybe you will be in a spot with good internet but I wouldn't bank on it.

[scot47]

Internet should be fine at PMU Campus and in the compound provided for faculty housing.

[rosalind]

Hello, all!

Well, I really hoped my decision-making needs with regard to PMU had been resolved. But it looks as if that's not quite the case, yet. (I should be so lucky, I guess. )

My issues have now transmogrified into visa ones (perhaps?) -- I'm continuing in this thread, as it is still concerning PMU, but if anyone thinks it should be a different thread/ subject header, please let me know and I will gladly comply.

Here's what happened over the last week or so:

I accepted PMU's offer, by their deadline, and sent them scans of the signed sheets they'd asked for. I received a quick response from both PMU HR, and the recruiter I'd been working with, with the usual glad-to-have-you-on-board, and also requests for further documentation/ paperwork.

The documentation list they sent me was long and complex, as I had known it would be; I do understand that the Saudi work visa process is complex. They also connected me with a professional visa processing agent based in the U.S., with whom I began communicating in order to try to determine, among other things, when I should return to the U.S. to finish the medical and police paperwork by their deadline.

However, four or five days later, I heard from the American visa agent (after some pressing as to when I would need to return) that there was no hurry, because, he said, "We will be holding on your visa process for the moment ... As there is an issue with Saudi."

I asked him if this was related specifically to my application, and he said, "No, all the visas... visas are expired ... Pmu will be emailing on Sunday." [That Sunday would have been May 22d, so, six days ago.] He also said that I should be hearing "quite soon" from the recruiting agent.

I hadn't heard anything from anyone by end-of-day Sunday (KSA time). Nor by end-of-day Monday. At that point, I emailed the recruiter to ask if she could clarify for me what was going on. (To be fair: Sunday would have been a weekend for the recruiter, though not for PMU.)

The recruiter wrote back:
"We have been introduced with some visa constraints with PMU as even though if you flew back to the USA it would not be possible to have all paperwork done in time and hence the delay. Since it is a governmental issue, we will need to for PMU to sort it out and comeback to us... I am hoping in a week's time things would be more clear on our course of action... Please bear with me I shall keep you in the loop!"

That was on Tuesday. (It's Saturday now.)

I replied to the recruiter, thanking her for her reply, and also asking for clarification on a few of these points: what exactly the paperwork issue was (I'm frankly baffled about the explanation the visa agent gave me); when, exactly, she thought I should be able to expect to have clarity on this; and whether this had happened in years past, and if so, how it worked out. I haven't had a response.

Here's what I am interested in asking the more Saudi-experienced people here:

Is this kind of experience "normal"? What I mean is: Should I look at this as a giant red flag -- as would be my impulse if it were happening in any of the countries I've worked in previously -- and as a sign that I probably shouldn't count on this job, after all, and should head back to the job-hunt drawing board?

Or is this, on the other hand, actually something that happens in Saudi even with "legit" jobs, and after which people do in fact wind up where they're supposed to be and more or less on time?

Since I lack experience and hence perspective in the Gulf context, I'm really not sure how to approach this. Your thoughts, perspective and advice would be much welcomed.

Thanks.

[I-forgot]

Normal? Well, I would say it is not unusual to experience these sorts of delays.

As a guess, based on the information you have been given, I think that PMU don't have a current visa allocation.

In Saudi, visas are linked to a sponsor/kafeel. The sponsor must have approval from the government (and there are various restrictions on this) in order to sponsor a visa. The future employee must also meet certain requirement before being issued with a visa.

Companies and universities must apply to the appropriate Saudi Ministry (not sure which ministry) for the visa batch number. Their jump through various hoops to prove that the job can't be done by a Saudi and that they do employ certain number of Saudis in other roles. Then, the company or university is given a visa batch number which says you can hire x Americans, y Brits and z Canadians for these jobs. The university passes the visa batch number to the visa agent along with whatever other paperwork is needed and you start your side if the process.

Hang tight, I'm sure it will come through. PMU is a big enough and important enough institution to be able to get the visa allocation numbers but Saudi bureaucracy works at a snail's pace. Also, Ramadan is coming up which means office hours will be shorter, nobody sleeps at night and no real work gets done. Things will move but very, very slowly.

[nomad soul]