S irfan

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me with this, my husband recently received a job offer in a big company, nice pay and everything.... He is a Qualified Accountant, in fact he is an FCCA now after gaining required experience....according to UK law completing your ACCA is EQUIVALENT TO masters degree....so it's basically the same thing.

The SACB ( Saudi attaché cultural bureau) has attested his ACCA certificates in agreement that they are equal to a masters degree.... The job title that his employers chose for him to be put in the Visa is Cost Accountant even though his actual job will be that of a manager.... They are saying that because he doesn't have a masters degree he won't be able to apply family visa once he is there... The minimum requirement for family visa apparently being a bachelors degree.... What he has is equivalent to masters but apparently that doesn't count in that part of the world.

Has anyone been in a similar situation....anyone who only had professional qualification but was able to apply for family visa....any advice in regards to this would be highly helpful..... My husband even acquired a letter from ACCA UK themselves which states that it is equivalent to a masters degree and is recognised as such.

Please share your experiences.

sicklyman

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Your message is ambiguous in that you say "they are saying" and I'm not sure who you are referring to. If it's the employer then you are probably stuck. If not, what is the employer doing to help you with this?

S irfan

sorry about that, by they i mean my husbands HR who are saying that this is what the istiqdam is saying.

scot47

You can only go by what the HR people say. If they are not prepared to use their "wasta" then, that is it..........

S irfan

hi could you please clarify what you mean by 'wasta'

mikewot

Influence. For example if the president of the companies brother is the head of planning for the government then he will be able to use that influence to sidestep/shortcut things. This is normal in the ME.

sicklyman

I'd agree with scot47. This is basically your first sign of what the company, despite being "big" and having "nice pay" etc, really thinks about you. It's unlikely that they will do anything once your husband arrives and without their support, I don't think he'll be able to apply for a family visa as I understand it.

S irfan

so let me get this straight, his qualification and job title 'Accountant' is good enough for a family visa, its the HR thats being 'incompetent'.

scot47

They may wish to avoid the expenditure associated with offering accompanied status.

mission

Over here in Dubai most married folks, that I know of, where the husband is the one with the job, regardless of his education/position status, either his company has paid for his family's visa or his has paid for it himself.

If the husband has a visa and his company is unwilling to obtain his family's visas, surely he can pay for it himself?

S irfan

we dont mind paying for the visa, as long as its possible to get one, at the moment they are making it out tht getting a family visa would be impossible for him cuz he doesnt have degree.

S irfan

my husbands hiring manager is saying its manageable and they will do something abt it, and the HR is saying its not possible, dont know wht to do, my husband cannot go there unless he is sure we will get a family visa later....your comments are highly appreciated everyone.

mission

yeah that sounds weird - over here in Dubai, if one holds a visa then there should be no reason why the family can't come over on the same visa.

KSA is f**ked up, to say the least

sicklyman

yeah... despite bordering each other, UAE is NOT KSA so what applies in the former is not to be expected in the latter.

S irfan, the bottom line is this, when you as a husband attempt to apply for your family visa to bring dependents over to KSA, one of the bits of paperwork you need is a letter from your company basically saying that they don't have an issue with it.

Now, it may be that your hubbie will have to do all the legwork himself i.e. get all the relevant paperwork together and apply (online now I believe) and then send you documentation to do the legwork at your end before you come and then do all the running around to get the medical in Saudi for the iqama and so on and so on.

But that's all doable IF, and at the moment this is a crucial if, the company will issue the no objection letter stating that he can go ahead and pursue the process. I know it's doable because I did it myself (as did several colleagues). If they won't issue this letter, then there is nothing at all you can do.

Part of the process though is getting your qualifications notarised and that's where the degree cert comes in. Either a BA or an MA cert will do. If he doesn't have one of those, then maybe the company is unwilling to pursue it because it's an unorthodox situation with unorthodox quals. It's not that they don't think outside the box in Saudi. It's more like there isn't a box to think outside of.

Asking his manager if he can get this no objection letter issued once he gets there is a possibility. But, be warned: what a manager says to get you over there may differ entirely from what he might say once he has got you over there.

Sorry not to be more encouraging, but that's the reality.

S irfan

thanx for such detailed reply sicklyman, he spoke to his HR, they are saying we should translate our ACCA certificates into arabic and the letter from ACCA that states tht ACCA qualification is equals to a master degree and treated as such and get that translated to arabic as well and attest both of these and then the HR thenselves will write a letter to istiqdam telling them tht they need my hubby for tht particular role and tht his qualifications are relevant and sufficient to the role and submit all this to the istiqdam again, hopefully this will work, he has absolutely no degree just professional qualification of ACCA, infact he is a fellow of ACCA ( FCCA) now.

he did get his ACCA certificates attested from saudi cultural attache and saudi embassy but i guess thts not enough so we r translating it into arabic now and attesting those copies, hope it works.