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If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Old May 1st 2014, 1:26 am
  #91  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Originally Posted by imi7
.... I am happy to help.

I have been working in this region for over 8 years, and lived here for almost 6 years. I have a good understanding of local laws/customs etc.

As a Brit expat, I am happy to help anyone searching for advice. As part of my job I regularly recruit from the UK to Saudi Arabia so am aware of all visa issues/work laws/general niggles.

Just throwing it out there

PS I don't charge - just doing my bit for the expats
Hi Imi7 - I'm strongly considering a move to Saudi (Aramco), I'm early 30's single male, my biggest concern is will I be able to have a decent social life, and are there any single gals in the compounds? Any advice for a newbie who doesn't know the expat life?

Thanks,
Biz
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Old May 1st 2014, 6:29 pm
  #92  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Thanks for the offer of advice. I am looking into finding a position as a nurse specialist which would hopefully allow me a family visa for my husband and 2 children. Do you have any knowledge in this area, how many opportunities there are for nurses and the likely salary scale as I seem to have read a lot of conflicting information. Ideally I would like a package to include family visa, accommodation, schooling and a salary that we would be able to save a large proportion of but I don't know if this is realistic or not, thank you
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Old May 6th 2014, 9:23 pm
  #93  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi Imi,

I am a Mechanical Engineer with Masters degree, 8 years of experience and currenlty working for a Multi National good design consultancy in the U.K

British National, Planning to relocate to Saudi Arabia for religious and financial i.e, tax free package deals etc.

While negotiating with the employer , what are things we need to consider.i.e , salary, accomodation, flights etc ?

Thanks
BritEngineer
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Old Aug 18th 2014, 6:15 am
  #94  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Originally Posted by imi7
.... I am happy to help.

I have been working in this region for over 8 years, and lived here for almost 6 years. I have a good understanding of local laws/customs etc.

As a Brit expat, I am happy to help anyone searching for advice. As part of my job I regularly recruit from the UK to Saudi Arabia so am aware of all visa issues/work laws/general niggles.

Just throwing it out there

PS I don't charge - just doing my bit for the expats
Hi Imi7

Thanks for offering your help.

We are family of 4 looking to relocate from Australia. We have lived in the Gulf as expats previously but not in KSA. Finding it difficult to find reliable information on villa prices and availability (although re availability have recently seen some info about new compounds in Riyadh).

Just wanted to get some up to date info on compound accom in Riyadh. Is $50K-$60K per annum OK budget for a 3 bed villa in a good modern (doesn't need to be top of the range!) western style compound with decent facilities.

We have one child of school age and I hear Brit School is the one to go for (work will pay a decent amount for school fees) so any recommendations on compounds close to Brit School would be appreciated as well.


Cheers
mtha
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Old Oct 2nd 2014, 3:08 pm
  #95  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

I am also an UK expat and have recently been offered a consultancy of 3 to 6 months as a precursor to a permanent role based in Al Khobar, Eastern Province. I have lived in the Gulf since 2008 but never in KSA so am aware of the cultural and social norms. Can you pls give me any advice on the process and procedures to obtain an appropriate residence visa either through the business or personally? I have had residence visas in UAE and Qatar so am aware of procedure there which is relatively straight forward. Assuming I can sort this out relatively quickly, what online resources would you recommend to source shared furnished accommodation and also to find expat clubs in the area. Are there Exit Visa rules that I should be aware of? Is it really feasible for someone to live in Bahrain (even if only at the weekend) and commute to / from Al Khobar? Do you have any other advice on living in the Eastern Province (other than ...Don't)? Any advice would be appreciated. best
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Old Nov 11th 2014, 10:51 pm
  #96  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi Folks,

A great forum and lots of useful info. I'm going to be heading to Riyadh in Dec so wanted to say hi to the folks in the area.

Lots of questions to ask once I have done a bit more reading such as which compounds to avoid, which ones to offer the best balance.

I'm heading over with just one other person from my company and acting as the senior reps for our company and the program we are working on, so the local expat community is something I would like to hook into, otherwise its going to be a pretty lonely time :-)

I am being told we will be in the Alreem compound, but can't really find much about it online in the forums so if anyone has any good or bad comments please pass them on.

The contract I am working is long term, so I want to make the most of the adventure.

I would like to bring my kids (teens) over during my break periods, but most likely will head to Dubai, again any comments or words of advice, shout out.

Well that will do for now.

Cheers all

SM

Lots of things I would like to do while in Saudi and looking to make the most of my time.

Last edited by spannermonkey; Nov 11th 2014 at 11:01 pm.
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Old Jan 5th 2015, 11:04 pm
  #97  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi Imi7,

I read that your willing to help and I hope you still are . Since you mentioned that you are familiar to visa's for Saudi Arabia , I was wondering if you could give us any advise on our situation . We have accepted job offers end of September 2014 , I beleive our company might have applied for our visa's between October /November 2014 and ever since we have not received anything from them yet regarding this . When we asked them why is there such a long delay , they informed us that there are changes with labour laws at he ministry of labour in Saudi and hence why many people are delayed not just us. Can you confirm if this is true if you know anything about these changes . If you know how long it aprox. Takes before visa's are issued in Saudi arabia ?
Many thanks and hope you can help us, as we really want someone to give us any information On this .
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Old Jan 11th 2015, 9:16 pm
  #98  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Originally Posted by Tiakali
Hi Imi7,

I read that your willing to help and I hope you still are . Since you mentioned that you are familiar to visa's for Saudi Arabia , I was wondering if you could give us any advise on our situation . We have accepted job offers end of September 2014 , I beleive our company might have applied for our visa's between October /November 2014 and ever since we have not received anything from them yet regarding this . When we asked them why is there such a long delay , they informed us that there are changes with labour laws at he ministry of labour in Saudi and hence why many people are delayed not just us. Can you confirm if this is true if you know anything about these changes . If you know how long it aprox. Takes before visa's are issued in Saudi arabia ?
Many thanks and hope you can help us, as we really want someone to give us any information On this .
Hi,

Visas can take a while also as your employer needs to ensure its meeting it Saudi Nationals quota ie each organisation must employ a certain % of Saudis. This % as gone up recently so they may be looking to balance their books wrt to this quota.

Also, it can take 2-3 months generally to obtain work visas here for a number of reasons - all normal.
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Old Jan 12th 2015, 4:12 am
  #99  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Question:
1)Why the religious police arrest and punish poor sub-continent laborers if they have long hair or if they apply cream on their hair but don't do the same on bikini-women at Aramco beach?
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Old Jan 12th 2015, 7:40 am
  #100  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi, I have recently moved to to KSA from USA and and currently living in a hotel in Dammam. I will really appreciate all the info I can get on Compounds in Al Khobar or and non compound accomodation for US or European nationals. Thanks in advance.
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Old Feb 9th 2015, 6:46 am
  #101  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi IMI 7

Thanks so much for putting your offer of help out there

I do ahve a question
I am moving to Jeddha in Saudi shortly and I am wondering how safe it is in terms of travel and movement through Saudi, great to hear any feedback about this ..kind regards

John
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Old Feb 9th 2015, 11:00 am
  #102  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi Imi

Have you heard of Dur Al Mathaar compound? I cannot find any reviews on this place online.

I am moving from the UK to KSA (with my wife) and my Saudi employer has recommended this compound.

If you know this area, can you please hive an indication on what the current average rent should be/ per annum as I don't have a clue and don't want to pay more than what is the market rate..

Many thanks in advance.

Adam
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Old Feb 9th 2015, 12:04 pm
  #103  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

I live in Jeddah, had no real problems at all. Probably best leave the union jack shorts at home but otherwise nothing more than sensible precautions. As KSA goes, Jeddah is relatively laid back and travelling round the Kingdom again I have had no problems.

Come with an open mind, a view to making the best of it and never say no to an invite in the early days (if you don't get hooked into the western expat population, I would imagine it can pretty lonely).
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Old Feb 10th 2015, 1:17 am
  #104  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Thanks so much for that i appreciate your help, yes hooking into the jeddha expate thing may be a good idea. Thanks once again for your reply
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Old Feb 10th 2015, 12:09 pm
  #105  
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Default Re: If you need advice on moving to Saudi Arabia....

Hi all. I'm looking at a move to Dammam. Does anyone have recommendations for decent compounds in Khobar or similar please? Also, any info on likely waiting times for a space (bachelor status), and is a commute from Bahrain another realistic option? Ta.
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