Job Discussion Forums

[kong]

I really hope someone can help me - here's my situation:

I have already gone through the visa process and received my employment visa from the Saudi Embassy in my home country, and have attested my Masters Degree (MA English) and related transcripts.

I thought I was ready to roll, but now my employer is asking me to attest my records of previous work experience. I have original official stamped / signed certificates of employment / reference letters from various past employers in several cities throughout Asia that clearly state my specific work experience as an English teacher. (I submitted photos of all with my application).

I'd be happy to go ahead and attest these documents, but after contacting the Saudi Embassies in the countries I've previously worked in, and after speaking to the approved visa agencies and Ministries of Foreign Affairs in each country, it appears that the only way to do this is to travel in person to each country (and in China at least, to each specific city) I've worked in to first get a local notary office to stamp them. Then I'd have to take them to get stamped by the MOFA in each country and then finally, the visa agencies would help me to submit them to the Saudi Embassies to get attested. Various offices of this process were quoting me $1000 USD per document, just for initial stages, not the full attestation. The whole process is rather dizzying.

I was under the impression that employment records only needed to be attested in cases where someone's academic degrees were in a different field or when work experience was used in lieu of academic records. My MA is in English, and all of my employment records are for teaching English.

I've searched on this and other boards for information, but haven't found anything useful. Does anyone here have experience in having to attest multiple original documents from previous employers based in several different countries? Is this a misunderstanding or a new requirement? WWYD?

Thanks for any tips!

[nomad soul]

Is this request from a direct-hire employer (i.e., Saudi university) or with a contracting company?

[kong]

direct hire - Saudi University

[nomad soul]

This may be a new requirement from last year. See the responses from Justcuz on Authenticated Work Experience Certificates and balqis, Visa process for gov uni. If many others have had to provide notarized/attested letters or certificates, they haven't been speaking up about it.

[kong]

Thanks - guess I'm not alone in facing this kind of request. What I'd like to know is whether or not anyone has actually successfully attested all of their letters of reference/experience - or has everyone in this situation just given up?

As much as I love to travel, I'm not exactly thrilled about the prospect of returning to all the places I've worked in the past in order to process the attesting of my former work experience.

The language barrier is somewhat daunting too - I called the MOFA in China:

Me: "Good morning, I was wondering..."
MOFA: *click*


The MOFA in Korea was better - their English help desk guy was like: "dude...woah... I dunno... geez...hmmm...uh... well...good luck!!!"

[nomad soul]

[kong]

Thanks for the info and advice everyone - I'm going to continue working on this, and see if my employer, the Embassies, agencies, lawyers, officials and even former employers can help me to find a manageable solution before my entry visa expires. If anyone else has suggestions, please send 'em on in.

[currentaffairs]

I haven't heard about any of this. What is your nationality?

[kong]

I'm Canadian, but all of my relevant work experience is in various universities scattered throughout Asia. Getting the actual Saudi Work Visa from the Saudi Embassy in Ottawa was relatively straightforward, but this process of attesting references and work experience seems like a challenge by comparison.

I looked into the notarization in China, for example, and each notary office (the first step of the process) can only notarize documents from that specific city, so seems I would have to travel around in person to every city in China that I previously worked in. Once I have the local notarization stamp, it seems there's an agency that can handle submitting my notarized documents to the MOFA in China and then pass the documents along to the Saudi Embassy in Beijing for them to do the final attestation(?) - not sure of the exact fees just yet, but I expect steep.

[bigdurianthesecond]

Seeing how this is from the employer and not the Saudi government, I would try to reason with the employer. This is way over the top, a total backache, that sounds like it will cost a fortune, and take a lot of time.

Quite frankly, letters of reference should be fine, and if the employer is bothered enough they can contact your previous places of employment themself.

Depending on how much you need this job, and your ability to do all of this, I would just refuse, explaining the reasons why. I mean do they really expect you to spend weeks travelling around China sorting this out!! WTF

What planet are they living on!

[plumpy nut]

It doesn't surprise me that they would come up with this crap. After spending perhaps 1000's of dollars on a visa along with most likely waiting maybe a couple of months at the least, they now have one more weird requirement that no other employer in a normal country would think of dishing out.

Prospective job seekers in Saudi Arabia, take heed of this thread!!!!!!!!

[rollingk]

Employers hereabouts are often lacking ethics. They could just be stalling for a number of reasons. Whatever the cause, don't expect to discover the truth of it. Just be patient. I know it's exasperating, but when you make it here you'll find that most situations will try your patience . . .

[plumpy nut]

It wouldn't be past the Saudis to have discovered somebody else they like for the job, therefore to cover it up make it sound like they have really high standards and perhaps you just don't match up to them. They can lie and generally don't have the same ethics that you get in the West.
Can you believe The Transparency Organization ranked Qatar 6 points below the US in thier transparency ratings? I wonder what was going on there?

[nomad soul]

[gregory999]