Job Discussion Forums

italihurr · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

Here�s our situation. Can anyone advise, please?

I�m teaching here and my wife is with me on a spouse visa. My visa runs out 2nd September this year and hers a couple of weeks later.

We have another (new) sponsor: my wife is going to work (not as a teacher) and I�m going to be on a spouse visa.

My questions are these:

1. The new sponsors can apply for my wife�s working visa anytime, I believe (either now or later in the summer). How long is the application process likely to take?

2. Bearing in mind the length of time needed for this, how soon should we get her application process moving?

3. She is planning to leave the country mid-July, returning early September. Can she/ should she (if possible) arrange her working visa before she leaves or should she come back on her present spouse visa and effect her change of status in September?

4. Do I need to leave the country and re-enter on a tourist visa, or can I change my status from worker to spouse without leaving?

5. Should I be asking any other pertinent questions?

Help/advice on this much appreciated. The company sponsoring my wife has no experience with this kind of situation and so we're all a bit at sea.

camelman · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 38 Location: Oman

You should check this out with the immigration office as the last I heard a wife could not sponsor her husband. The company could sponsor him but this would not allow him to work only live here and some sponsors do not like doing this as they loose one of their visas to a person who in turn will not be working for them.

I would contact the Oman embassy nearest you and check it out for yourself, if the sponsor does not know for sure he could just fob you off with some cock and bull just to get you here and then you are up the creak without a paddle once you are here.

Borealis · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 26

Camelman said "...if the sponsor does not know for sure he could just fob you off with some cock and bull story just to get you here and then you are up the creek without a paddle."

Exactly! That is what happened to a teacher at Hawthorn. Abdul Majali said he would arrange her husband's visa once they got to Oman. As time went by with no visa appearing he then said if the worst came to the worst and they could not get a visa Hawthorn would pay for the husband to go to Dubai whenever neccessary to fly back in on a tourist visa. The news eventually came that "man can sponsor wife, woman can not sponsor husband". And, surprise surprise, Majali denied ever having said the company would pay for the husband to go to Dubai, even though the DOS had also heard him say it. This news came on the very day the first tourist visa ran out so there was a mad panic to book a ticket to fly up to Dubai. Fortunately the husband managed to get some work teaching a Master's course at SQU and SQU arranged a temporary visa completely trouble free.

B

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

I can't speak for the MoHE or their 'lovely' recruiters, but there is no illegality to wives sponsoring husbands. It can be done and has been done. That said, it may have been an employer smoothing the way... and if they won't help, you may be out of luck.

VS

italihurr · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

Thanks very much for your comments.

We are in Oman already. I am working; my wife is not.

The new employers have said they will get a spouse visa for me while employing my wife, and we have every reason to believe that this is what they intend to do.

Any answers to my qtns 1-4, please, or further suggestions?

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

I would check whether wives can sponsor husbands - one friend of mine had to move to the Emirates so she could sponsor her husband (he was disabled after an accident), another person had to go through hoops and obtain medical certification that the husband was 100% disabled.

Anyone else I knew when I was in Oman who 'sponsored' their hsbands actually did not - their companies allocated a visa to the husband and on several occasions the visa was required later.

So - I would check very carefully if I were you.

Hope it goes well.

camelman · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 38 Location: Oman

Thanks very much sleepwalker. The only reason I said it was because I worked with a woman who could not sponsor her husband and in the end the immigration department explained that women can not sponsor men. In Islam men should be responsible for their wives and not the other way round. They went on to explain that if children were involved it would be more difficult. The only way a woman can sponsor her children here is if she is divorced and can prove she has custody or if married the husbands signs on the dotted line that he hands the child�s wellbeing over to his wife.

If the sponsor/agent has agreed to do it for you then I would get it in writing as later on down the line he is going to need that visa for another teacher. Let�s just say that the sponsor/agent has to give five English teachers to Salalah and by sponsoring you and your wife he has already lost two of his five which means he is not filling his quota and the Ministry are paying for the visa in the fees that they give the sponsor/agent. Don�t fall for the �Oh we can sort that out for you once you get here� as once you are in you are stuck! If you are in Oman why not pop down to the Immigration Department and ask for yourself.

windstar · Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

I will have to agree with camelman. Women can only sponsor their children under special circumstances and cannot sponsor their husbands. But husband can come to oman on tourist visa and so are the children. If he can get a job he can easily sponsor their children.

desertrat · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 25