DevonMaid

My children and I are due to join my husband in Riyadh early next year. Does anyone know of any Saudi law or regulation that restricts the entry of step-children? I have a 13 yr old son from my previous marriage, who has retained his father's surname.

nottmbantam

Yes, there is, and there is a lot you have to do. I have just gone through exactly the same situation.I will describe my experience and hope it helps you.

Firstly you will need a letter from a Notary Public ( a large solicitors will have a Notary Public ). This must state that your ex bears no objection to his son travelling to and residing in KSA with you and your husband. This letter will need accompanying documentation. Copies of passports for you, your husband,your ex and your son. Your sons birth certificate and your marriage certificate. All of these will need to be sealed by the Notary. The letter should be worded with to the effect that you have full custody of the boy and as mentioned above, your ex bears no objection.

We thought all of this would be enough, but it still proved to be very very difficult to get a Residency Visa issued.

My wife's 14 yr daughter ( my step daughter ) also bears the surname from her father, so its different to mine and her Mum ( my wife )

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we were told to get these documents counter stamped by the Saudi Embassy. However, the Saudi Embassy will not do so unless they are first stamped by the British Foreign Office.

So - in order here is what you have to do.

Step One:
Get the Notary Public letter ( copies of your passport, your husbands passport, your ex's passport, and your sons passport + original marriage certificate + original Birth certificate for the boy ). The Notary I used charged me £70 for the service. There are only three in Nottingham, so make sure you can find one!

Step Two:
After this,take these documents to the British Foreign office, get them stamped. The Notary letter itself, the Marriage Certificate, the Birth Certificate. These will cost £28 PER STAMP. If you get there early enough, you can get it done on the same day.

Step Three
Next, take the stamped documents to the Saudi Embassy. You will have to leave it there for two/three days. This is £6 per stamp.

Step Four:
Then, your husband must take all of these with him to KSA , to apply for Residency for you and the boy. You can use a courier to get it there - do not rely upon Royal Mail / Saudi Mail.

We were only told to bring the Notary letter and spent several weeks, frantic phone calls,lots of hair pulling, tears, arguments and stress to get to where we are now.

Step Five
Once your husband takes them to the Passport Office in KSA - he should be issued with a Cable Order Number ( a yellow sheet of A4, typed in Arabic ). This Cable Order is CRUCIAL.

Step Six:
In the meantime, you will need to have a full medical. You son will not need one due to his age. The medical must cover Chest X Ray,and blood tests for HIV . Syphillis, Hep B and Hep A. Harley Medical Services in London are very good and can get it done in a few days and will also do the visa application for you ( for a fee of course ) .

Step Seven:
The Medical tests must be 'legalised', which means submitting them to the British Foreign Office and leaving them there for 24 hours.

Step Eight:
The Cable Order must get back to the UK. ORIGINAL copy only. UPS can do it in two days.

Step Nine:
Then , you need to take the Cable Order Number AND the Medical to the Saudi Embassy in London where they will issue the visa in your passport and you can then travel to KSA.

We are almost there. My wife and step daughters visa's are currently with the Saudi Embassy in London just waiting for the visa to be stamped in the passport. We were hoping it would happen before the 16th August, as thats when I had booked the flights for, but the Saudi Embassy declared that no visa's would be issued last week due to a system update. I've had to fly back out on my own, and wife + daughter will have to follow hopefully on a week or two.

Please make sure you do the above, it will save you all the grief and trouble we have gone through.

Good luck.

Sounds like a lot, and it is. Give yourself plenty of time. We tried to rush it and it nearly worked, but for the last week.

Let me know how you get on, if you want,feel free to send me a PM.

lionheart

Hells Bells...is it really worth all the trouble, especially as the child will probably hate life in Riyadh...its so teenager-unfriendly.

nottmbantam

The thing is, I didn't know all this was needed. It was revealed one step at a time, which made it even more frustrating.

Was talking to another colleague today,who also brought this tep children out. All he needed was the letter of consent from the father of the children, which seemed to be enough for him.

I think that because my step daughter and me are different races, it complicated things in the eyes of the Saudi's. Probably helps if you are all the same colour

But we are going to Jeddah, so I'm sure she will find more to do there than in Riyadh. In one of the recent Jeddah handbooks I was reading,it said that one of the newest malls ( Red Sea Mall ) had a multi screen cinema !