Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Hi all,

I am in the process of moving to Abu Dhabi. I have read as much information as I could on this board (thank you for the spreadsheet it was very helpful) but I still have some questions.

By the look of it, the security clearance is going to take at least one more month :fingerscrossed: and then I can move to Abu Dhabi. I am of 2 minds either:

I move to AD sometime in May directly with my wife and kid (2 years old) apply for residence visa and stay at the hotel until I can find a place to live, which means moving in end of June/ early July with the start of Ramadan. (Someone told me I cannot rent a place until I have the residence visa is that true? If so how long does it take?)

Or I wait until September and move in once the madness of heat + Ramadan is over.

What would you do?

Other questions I have:
- British degree certification: I got told by HR in AD not to bother with it, but I am not sure if I can really trust them on this. Do you need it for any visa application or is it just to apply for a job?
- My son has a British Passport but was born in Germany, do I need to get his birth certificate certified?
- My wife does not have the same family name as me or my son. Can she travel to AD on her own with my son with his passport and a copy of his birth certificate attached to it or do we need more papers?
- I read multiple times that HSBC in AD was bad, is it really that bad? Knowing that I only use internet banking and cannot remember last time I walked into a bank.
- I have heard that the rents are going up in AD, is 225000 AED/year still ok for a flat/house on the corniche?

Thank you for your help.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

I would just move in May and get it over with. At least that way you'll get to experience the summer/Ramadan combo for yourself, and won't have to spend your first year here being bored senseless by other people telling you about how awful summer and Ramadan are.

That said, I would definitely consider coming out by yourself first so you can get settled before bringing your family over.

You are correct that you won't be able to rent a place until you have a visa, but that shouldn't take more than a week once you're on the ground.

I'm amazed that you were told not to get your degree attested. I would ignore HR and get it done anyway, in case you decide to change jobs while you're out here. In any case, a good rule of thumb is never to trust an HR person here. Even if they are competent (which is unlikely) they will not have your interests at heart.

I can't help you with the son's birth cert and wife's situation, but you will almost certainly need to have an attested marriage certificate.

HSBC in AD is laughable in many respects, but from what I understand no worse than most of the other options. Their online service works pretty well so you'll rarely have to deal with them (though you will probably find that you have to visit the branch more than you would in the UK).

Rents are going up, but 225000 AED/year will get you something very nice for the three of you. If you want the Corniche, that will be a flat rather than a villa, but go further out of town and you could get a very nice villa for that money.

What are you going to be doing out here?

Good luck with the move!

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Your wife should be fine travelling with your son with different names. Local women here do not take on their husbands name. Make sure every certificate (marriage, birth and degree) are all attested before you arrive here, and then be prepared to have them all translated into Arabic. If your son has a German birth certificate, you will have to get this attested at the German consulate and then the foreign office in London. Sounds scary and hard work, but it isn't really.
If you come out just before Ramadan, be aware that processes will be a lot slower. Working hours are reduced for the locals and departments will not be open as they usually are when outside of Ramadan. And don't forget Eid!
I never really found the heat to be too bad, I moved from London to Abu Dhabi in November (from cold to warm), but the summer months aren't too bad in my opinion. Plus everything is air conditioned to make it better.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Thank you all for the replies, the job is for ADCO.

GolfGardener you are right about not trusting HR, they are so unprofessional it is unbelievable. They contacted my current employer to check that I was really working for them without asking me first. I had an awkward conversation with my boss afterward. :getcoat:

Regarding marriage certificate attestation, I already have an apostille, do I need to get it stamp by the UAE embassy as well?

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

I think most of the comments are correct. A few others to think of:

- check whether ADCO allow you to bring our your family in the first 3 months (ie your probation period). My company does, but they won't pay for family flights, insurance etc until you are out of probation.
- I found it very useful to have a period on my own here to get settled before the family arrived. Allowed me time to find my way about, work out where we wanted to live, buy a car, sort schools etc without any pressure. But we had a house in the UK to leave the family in, you might not.
- One of my sons was also born in Germany, but we have birth certificates from both the UK and Germany. I think, but am not certain, we just used the British one - if you have both you might want to check this option.
- Yes, I'm pretty sure you need a UAE embassy stamp on your marriage certificate, but as the rules change all the time you ought to check with the embassy and not accept anyone's opinion on this forum as gospel-truth.
- I don't know how efficient ADCO are when it comes to sorting resident visas (and our HR normally get it sorted within a week or so), but I know of people here whose companies have taken 6 months or longer to get them done. That's not how it should be (and they have ended up having to do border runs), but it is another reason for coming ahead of the family.
- A lot of people finish contracts and move home over the summer, which results in more property coming available around late Jun - early Sep time. Might give you more options, maybe at a better price, than needing to take something earlier. When I took my villa, the asking price dropped from 250k in May to 200k in late Jul - but that was 2 1/2 years ago, and rents were dropping generally also, so that price drop was not just due to summer.
- I bank with HSBC (Premier, if that makes a difference) and have had no problems, and other than a few visits to the branch to get the accounts opened have never needed to go back. Some people have horror stories, but then (as someone else said) I don't think there is any bank which doesn't cause horror stories to be told - they all seem equally useless.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Just one think to take into consideration, if you are looking for somewhere to rent try to get it done before Ramadan starts as it is an absolute nightmare trying to arrange viewings during Ramadan (voice of experience here) let alone getting all the paperwork etc sorted.

I agree with GolfGardener- come on your own, leave the missus at home- get all the horrible, frustrating brain numbing stuff done so she can come out and enjoy it rather than coming out and wanting to get on the next plane home. Besides the summer is very hot for a 2 year old that isn't used to it so get yourself settled, and bring them out September time. Also then if you hate it you haven't turned your entire life upside down.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Just thinking back to when I moved over, I had all my certificates attested at the Australian Consulate, followed by the Foreign Office and then the UAE Embassy in London (was living in London at the time). Back home in Australia when I needed to send some paperwork to UAE, I had to have it Notarised, followed by attesting at the UAE Consulate in Canberra.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

My husband at the time arrived in Abu Dhabi a fortnight before I did with the kids. By the time I arrived, he had sorted out our accommodation and had also made arrangements for the kids to sit entrance exams. The kids started school the following day and I had someone who knew their way around a little bit. There are fantastic networks for your wife as an expat once she arrives in Abu Dhabi.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Completely agree with Kittycat here - don't try to get anything done in Ramadan, it's hopeless, a complete waste of a month where next to nothing gets done.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

yes you do need to have all your degree certs attested etc... best to do before you leave uk as they need to be done at milton keynes etc.

you will find it more difficult finding anything in ramadan as things go even slower... but 1 month to get security clearance, i know some people who have taken upto a year etc. unless adco are providing accommodation which i think they just give you a list of options then it will take time.
yes hsbc is bad, choose nbad or adcb
visas can take a day or can take months to get.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

When I moved to Abu Dhabi from London, I had been banking with HSBC, however in Abu Dhabi, decided against banking with them and banked with both ADCB and NBAD.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Thank you all for your advice.

-I contacted my old university and for a small fee they are taking care of all the certification (FO + UAE embassy) which is good.
- Archie you have a good point I m not sure ADCO would pay for the plane ticket of my wife and son right from the start, I will need to ask clarification on this point.
- Regarding the british birth certificate do you mean an international birth certificate (which I have) or a real british one? (which I don t have).

- For the wedding certificate I have the apostil from the Hague, do I just need a stamp from the UAE embassy?

Going on my own, leaving wife and kid at home is going to be hard, as we don t have a home per say, the rent is paid by the company I am working for at the moment.

I will see how long it will take to get the security clearance, if it means moving in AD in June I will postpone everything until September.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

HSBC are crappy at communicating with their other branches, tried to get their British end to sort accounts out before move and they were hapless, at the British end I might add.Gave up in the end
ADCB have been pretty good so far and the Etihad guest miles deals are generous

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

Zorg, I am not sure what you mean about an International Birth Certificate... our son, born like yours in Germany, got a German one, which was multilingual, and a British one, which was not. Whichever certificate you use, it'll need to be certified. But as I said before, the exact rules change all the time, so I always advise people to get up to date guidance from the relevant authorities (eg embassy - when we came across, we phoned the UAE embassy in London to seek guidance on a few issues, and spoke to someone who was pretty helpful). What we did 3 1/2 years ago might well be wrong these days.

HSBC... plenty of people seem to enjoy slamming them here (including people who, from their own comments, don't even bank with them). All I can say is that I have had no problems with them. They definitely are not great, but I have many colleagues (westerners, earning good salaries) who have had far, far more problems with ADCB and NBAD than I have ever had with HSBC. At no point have I felt the need to change banks, whereas at least 5 people (Americans) in my firm have moved away from ADCB in the past year as they found it so awful. I use ADCB for a credit card, to get Etihad guest miles, but that is all - and ADCB have certainly managed to mess up credit card issues several times. I also had no problems getting HSBC to open up accounts for me in 2 different countries once I had opened up the first account. I have a premier account with them, and maybe that helps. Don't get me wrong - I am not praising them, but I don't think (from my experience and that of pretty much everyone else I know - several hundred reasonably high earners) that they are much different from ADCB etc.

Re: Another move to Abu Dhabi
 

this is because everything here is only a franchise so they are not all run by the same "big" company