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Post by principe.azzurro69 on May 16, 2013 20:50:43 GMT
Hi, I have recently done my interview in London, had an offer only one week later and now am thinking about accepting it. Would be working in DHA. Thing is, my wife has her own career back home and definitely does not want to interrupt it. Yet we are VERY close and the perspective to see each other only two-three times a year would be devastating. Hence my question to the ones with experience:
- is it possible for her to visit, and visit as often as she wants or are there restrictions? I know about Saudi regulations with single women arriving at airports, so obviously I'd be there to pick her up.
- if there are restrictions, what do you guys do, meet in Dubai or some other place where I could go basically every weekend if I wanted?
Last but not least, it the job turns out to be as fantastic as advertised, maybe I could get her to come later - any of you have done this?
Thanks for the answers!
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Post by vpainter on May 17, 2013 21:59:05 GMT
Yes, once you are here and have your resident visa and iqama, you can start paperwork at any time for your wife to visit. The restrictions are whatever the visitor visa places on her stay. You can always meet in Bahrain or Dubai or Europe.
You can turn around and apply for her another visitor visa as often as you want to pay for one.
Length of stay can be 3 months or longer, and the visa states how she has to arrive: land or air. You will be able to take care of all the details once you arrive.
Yes, many men come by themselves and the wives come later or just continue to visit.
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Post by principe.azzurro69 on May 18, 2013 10:35:34 GMT
Hey vpainter, thanks a lot for these details. I thought so about asking for my wife's visa once I have my resident visa / iqama... How long does this usually take (I am asking because many people in the form have experiences that differ a lot from each other)?
You say Is it correct to assume that once I have perm.res.visa / iqama, can I go there whenever I want (can)? Like, after my shift finishes on Friday afternoon, I take my car (in case I have one) and drive to Bahrain, or I take a plane and fly to Dubai? That would make thinks A LOT easier in fact.
What exactly do you mean when you say ?
I have many more questions about everything… Let me say that I know the ME quite well and have a lot of Arab friends. I have traveled and worked almost everywhere there (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, even Afghanistan) plus in almost all the Maghreb. Never set foot into Saudi but I guess it can't be so different, right? When I was living in Amman for example I was able to travel (with my own car) wherever I wanted, even cross borders etc. Is that the same in KSA? And in that case, should I bring a car or buy it in KSA? Thanks again!
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Post by vpainter on May 18, 2013 18:12:43 GMT
As with everything Aramco, the time lines are all different. We have gotten ours renewed in a week to 3 weeks time. We have gotten older kids visitor visas in a month to 6 months. We have always started 6 months prior to wanting them here, just to be on the safe side, only once did it take that long. Ramadan will slow everything down in July.
Yes, once you have your resident visa and iqama you can go where ever you want when you want. People go to Bahrain all the time, even in the evenings after work and the weekends, at least from DHA. Drive, fly, wherever, whenever on your off work time.
Visitor visas are good for a stated length of time, you can apply for an extension prior to it being up or apply for a new visitor visa once they have left the kingdom. There are fees for visitor visas and you would be paying them as often as you get a visitor visa.
Well, KSA is different from all those countries in some ways. They are the Custodians of the Two Mosques of Islam and have more restrictions in place.
You can drive anywhere in the kingdom except Mekkah and Madina, unless you are Muslim. Your Iqama will state whether or not you at Muslim and it is checked if trying to go to those two places. Otherwise you are free to drive anywhere and cross any neighboring border. People drive to Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, etc.
Some people ship their cars. Driving is on the right side of the road as in the U.S. Speed limits are in KMs. From the U.S. it is cheap to ship a vehicle. It must have a clear le and be less than 5 years old. I am from the U.S. so that is the info I know. Someone from Europe on the forum might be able to address shipping from there. There is an excellent post on the forum, posted some time ago, but will give you a good idea of prices of vehicles here.
Some new car dealers do finance car buying now.
Hope this helps.
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