Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Hi everyone,

I'm moving to the Emirates early next year with wife+2 kids. I have a few questions for which I would be grateful for any answers.

1. My employer is willing to sponsor a work-permit for myself and a residence permit for my family. Will my wife need an independent work-permit to accept employment in Dubai? Or can she work under the terms of her dependent visa?

2. As we're both intending to work, how possible is it to find hired help in Dubai (either as a live-in maid or at least someone who could at least come in for 2-3 hours a day)? How much can this be expected to cost?

3. As I intend to reside in the Emirates for a while, I'm thinking of purchasing a house outright there (I hear this is possible now with the new freehold laws?). I'm interested in a few properties in a neighbouring Emirate, Ajman, which appear cheaper. How feasible is it to live in Ajman and commute to downtown Dubai everyday? What kind of daily commute can one expect?

4. Lastly, I understand schools are not free. How much can I expect to fork out in tuition for a couple of pre-schoolers?

Thanks in advance. :)

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Three words of advice

DONT DO IT!!!

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Playschool / nursery fees alone will take up alot of your salary, it can cost up to 5'000 AED a term thats 700 GBP . We paid this much for our son to attend playschool four mornings a week 8.30 to 12 noon.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

It's perfectly feasible - many people do it every day. And because many people do it every day, you could easily be facing 90 minutes to 2 hours' commuting time in each direction.

Insist that your package includes school fees.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Some companys will only cover school fees from the age of 5.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

1. My employer is willing to sponsor a work-permit for myself and a residence permit for my family. Will my wife need an independent work-permit to accept employment in Dubai? Or can she work under the terms of her dependent visa?

Yes, she can work as a dependent - would also be a better idea even if she were offered sponsorship, because she can then change jobs without worrying about a ban.


2. As we're both intending to work, how possible is it to find hired help in Dubai (either as a live-in maid or at least someone who could at least come in for 2-3 hours a day)? How much can this be expected to cost?


Part-time help - they're a number of agencies providing this service. Expect to pay about Aed 20-25 per hour. If you advertise in the local papers, you can also find a number of maids on visit visas (whom you can then sponsor) looking for employment. Or look for a maid who is on her husband's sponsorship.


3. As I intend to reside in the Emirates for a while, I'm thinking of purchasing a house outright there (I hear this is possible now with the new freehold laws?). I'm interested in a few properties in a neighbouring Emirate, Ajman, which appear cheaper. How feasible is it to live in Ajman and commute to downtown Dubai everyday? What kind of daily commute can one expect?

I would strongly advise against it. Apart from the horrendous travel time (upto 2 hours each way), I wouldn't trust the laws in Ajman! Morevoer the infrastructure is sadly lacking - water, power shortages in Ajman.

4. Lastly, I understand schools are not free. How much can I expect to fork out in tuition for a couple of pre-schoolers?

About 18k per annum. I hope your company is paying.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Thank you for your responses. They really help.

What is the work culture like in Dubai? What kind of hours do people work? How many days a week? What about weekends?

Is the situation any different in Abu Dhabi?

Thanks.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Depends on your line of work. If you're involved in the construction industry you can expect to work fairly long hours. I work 8am till 6pm, 5 days a week. Most companies are now on the 5-day week, with Friday and Saturday being the weekend.

Dunno about AD. Probably not much of a difference, I expect.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Office working is a 45 hour week I think?

But if you are anywhere near management, you will be expected to put in far more than that.

Personally I'd say Dubai was a shitty place to come if you had a family, it's a real relationship breaker.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Hi,
Nice to hear you intend to come to dubai for work. It is a very nice place to live and work. (my personal view)
Dubai is a place of mixed cultures. You can find dance clubs and bars as well as a few churches and mosques. It depends basically what u r looking for..... It is secure, and u can say it is the newyourk of middle east.

Well I m working with Standard Charterd Bank, in portfolio managment unit for SME and for me my job is a fun....... sometimes I work long hours and sometimes i m quite relaxed.................... so it depends where and in which capacity r u working. If it is a multinational or a just a local company. similarly are the packages and facilities differ.

I would not suggest buying a home in ajman......... rather if i get a chance i would go for buying a home in or nearby probably qusais or on the other side in jumera...... depends what is your budget........... if have got 2 million dhs go for jumera and if u have just 500-800 thousand dhs go for qusais.

education is a bit expensive here..........

and at the end.......... If i were at your place...... i would definately think in a positive way. Go ahead, take challenge and see where u stand.

Hope to meet to in Dubai one day ")

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

I personally think Dubai is a good place for families to come to. Yes the hours can be long in certain jobs (my husband works around ten hours a day on average), however compared to the UK, I think the standard of living is slightly better in my view.

Rent is expensive here, but if you can buy a place outright here, I would recommend it, but if you are working in Dubai, I would try a live somewhere close to your office as the traffic is horrendous during rush-hour times. Also as a resident/expat you cannot buy anywhere, only certain developments (Emaar, Dubai Properties, Nakeel etc...etc...) are available to non-nationals to buy. If you're thinking of getting a mortgage here and need to borrow quite a large percentage, I definitely wouldn't recommend buying, however as stated in your post, I believe you wouldn't fall into this catagory. Just to add re rent, prices are expected to drop within the next year (mostly for apartments) due to the large amount going to be realeased next year - hopefully!!

Cars are cheaper to buy and petrol is cheap as chips compared to the UK. Grocery shopping can be more expensive if you prefer to buy imported goods, but doesn't need to be.

Lots of people have maids here, there are various agencies that can supply you with maids already on their own sponsorship, or you can advertise and sponsor your own maid. Live in maids usually charge about 1400dhs per month, or if you want a maid from a agency for only a few hours per day, you're looking at anything between 15 - 25dhs per hour.

As for your wife working, she can work on your sponsorship, however you may have to sign a form from your wife's employers giving your permission!! But this depends on the sort of work she does. If she is quite high up in management, she can transfer onto her own sponsorship should she wish.

School fees, don't know about this as we have no children of school age, but insist on getting the fees included in your package, as they can work out pretty expensive.

One of the major downsides to living here is how easy you can get into debt. Banks do literally throw money at you and it can be tempting, especially when starting up here. Try and live within your means and don't get carried away with the lifestyle and keep up with the Jones, so to speak. Interest rates are much higher here and the penaties for falling behind on your bills can be severe. This is one of the main traps some expats find themselves in, which then means they have to stay longer than they planned, and this isn't somewhere I'd want to stay for more than about five years.

We have made good friends and have a nice life here, so would recommend it for a few years.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

I am in senior management and do not put in more than 40-45 hours in office. I do tend to work from home sometimes - but that is out of my own choice. When I had staff reporting to me, I never encouraged my staff to stay beyond 4 / 4:40 p.m. I then had a new boss, who liked his people to stay late - I asked for a transfer (I got one within a month) otherwise I would have quit!

Unfortunately, it has become a sort of work culture here to spend long hours at work (and everwhere else in the world) and the belief that putting in long hours in office equates to hard work + efficiency in the eyes of the boss.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

Doesn't your post kind of prove my point? You don't work more hours in the office, but you do it at home instead. And from what I've seen, I don't think it is a great place to bring up a family.

Zannie - its just my opinion but I feel there isn't really a lot for kids to do. As for the grown up kids, the problem is that there is too much (or too many people) for them to do....

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

I said I bring it only sometimes! Agree, there is NOTHING for kids to do.

Re: Moving to Dubai early next year. Questions.
 

That's fair enough! ;) Kids of a friend of mine belong to loads of afterschool clubs and stuff, which keeps them busy, but again all depends on everybodies lifestyle and time!

As for grown-ups...Agreed!!