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Post by gorm on Dec 4, 2013 9:16:30 GMT
Hi,
My husband received an offer letter last week for a position in Dhahran. We are quite excited and we have a 1,5 year old son.
The offer specifies as planned Aramco community Abqaiq. We have done our research (on this forum) and with a friend that worked with Saudi Aramco a year prior. A commute of 3 hours every day is just not acceptable for us. Working in Dhahran and being close together as a family is one of the most important things for us.
In fact the one friend of us resigned from Aramco after 1,5 years due to the long commute. He also mentioned that moving from Abqaiq to Dhahran could take years.
So my husband outlined our reasons and conditions to the Aramco Expatriate Recruitment & Relocation Representative and she came back to us after 4 days with an offer of a 5 % salary increase but a no on the Dhahran community:
Her exact words were:
“In regards to housing, Saudi Aramco cannot accommodate you in the main Dhahran community as there are no family houses currently available in this location. Your planned Saudi Aramco housing is Abqaiq however, if you wish to live closer to Dhahran to maintain a better work/life balance I would suggest considering renting a house in a nearby local expat community and claiming the annual rental assistance allowance instead”
Our questions to this forum are now:
1. Is this true? Are there really no family houses free in Dhahran? Or is it just because of our passport and GC. We have a European passport (not british) and my husband is on USD payroll. The GC offered by Aramco is 13.
2. How long would it take us to bid on a house in Dhahran? And what are our chances with a GC of 13?
3. Does anyone here have experience about living in a nearby local expat community? The forum is pretty empty there (only 2 posts).
So while we are excited about the opportunity and are ready to move our family over this is the one breaking point. We really want to be as close as possible together.
I am sure other people had the same issue, so we wondered how they raised it in negotiations and if this was successfull.
We would be happy about any advise in this regards, as we are quite happy with everything apart this one housing issue.
Thanks in advance,
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Maursh
Senior Member
Posts: 169
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Post by Maursh on Dec 4, 2013 17:00:45 GMT
Hi Gorm,
We explored living outside the Aramco Compounds for reasons that aren't particularly interesting. We concluded that the expense of doing so (not to mention the inconvenience) exceeded the extra money that Aramco offered for doing so - I believe it was a one off payment of three months salary.
Have you asked whether there is space in the Rakkah compound?
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Post by azraeil on Dec 4, 2013 17:22:19 GMT
As far as I know, family housing in the Dhahran compound is full. In fact, bachelor and single housing is also full in the Dhahran compound (usually, if you are on Bachelor or Single status, you'd get a house in Dhahran but that is not the case anymore)
Even Americans are not able to get family housing in Dhahran. They are being assigned to the Rakah compound (which is another option for your husband to enquire with the relocation advisor)
I presume your husband is on the Global Payroll (paid in USD) instead of the American Payroll? There is a difference between the two.
As for the local compound, that is an option and since you are not American, you will be allowed to live in the local community BUT (there's a big negative coming here ...) your children will not be eligible for the Aramco School. You will have to send them to other international school (ISG for the Dhahran British Grammar School etc). If in your case, that has always been your choice, then maybe that's not a big negative ...
The rental allowance assistance will be 3 times the basic salary unaccountable (meaning, you will not need to furnish a receipt for the rental agreement etc to get the RAA). If your rental is higher than the RAA unaccountable amount, then Aramco will also add an accountable amount based on the size of your family (can't remember the exact amount but it's quite significant .... something of upwards of SAR200K (inclusive of the RAA unaccountable amount) for a family with 2 kids I believe) which should get you to rent a good house in a secure compound.
Please also be reminded that if you do choose to live in Abqaiq (a lot of people do), your husband will also receive on top of his base salary and overbase, an 8% commuting allowance (8% of base salary) which requires the department head's approval.
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Post by Hadia on Dec 4, 2013 19:11:04 GMT
Life inside the Aramco compounds is geared toward families and your son would thrive. You would have immediate recreation options in a relaxed atmosphere. Personally, as a woman and as a mother, there is absolutely no way I'd live off compound. I encoue you to press hard about Rakkah.
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Ram723
Advanced Member
Posts: 69
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Post by Ram723 on Dec 5, 2013 4:10:20 GMT
(Just curious why Americans will not be able to live in the local community if they wanted that option...?)
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Post by vpainter on Dec 5, 2013 4:49:29 GMT
Security reasons for one.
Found out there are also tax reasons for U.S. citizens that has something to do with KSA's agreement with the U.S. government that U.S. citizens will live on a company compound.....
The ASC HR employee did not explain it completely to me, so I do not know details.
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Post by canadain fam on Jan 26, 2014 20:10:08 GMT
Hadia,
Hi there, what age are your kids? We have 3 and I'm just starting to research all about Aramco before my husbands interview just incase he gets an offer letter. One of my big concerns is my sons is in grade 4 right now and would be going into grade 5 for September but his birthday is after the cut off of Aug.31 of that year. I don't want him to have to repeat grade 4 because his birthday is 30 days after the cut off. Do you know how sticky they are with this? What do you think of the schools in the compound? Are kids will be going into kindergarten, grade 3 and grade 5. Thanks
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Post by azraeil on Feb 4, 2014 17:17:46 GMT
The school are very firm with regards to the cutoff dates.
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Post by Vimto on Feb 6, 2014 16:03:49 GMT
the thing is more locals are moving in and old expats (husband and wife) who their kids are out of kingdom in colleges are still in family housing. you can fit so much in DH but because it is full, new arrivals are being diverted to other camps. i have been here for 1 year and have seen 3 new families leaving saudi for good.
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Post by O&GEngg on Feb 7, 2014 17:45:14 GMT
To be honest...at first I really wanted to live in Dhahran and was quite opposed to living in any of the other communities. After doing a bunch of reading on here and going through the orientation yesterday I think my family and I would really enjoy living in Rakah. Sure, having the kids take the bus is a bit of an inconvenience but as with any new situation: life is what you make it. I realize that I'm not guaranteed Rakah but after talking with the interviewer yesterday it sounded like there was a good probability that we'd end up there. Just my $0.02.
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Post by snowNsand on Feb 7, 2014 20:06:35 GMT
O&GEngg I think yours is a very positive approach to have. We were just reading up on weighing the pros and cons of changing jobs, and one of the pieces of advice we found really useful was "decide what your bottom line is BEFORE you are made an offer".
This includes identifying any potential deal breakers, such as travel time, housing allocation and/or location, school, medical covee, etc.
From the sounds of it, Aramco does not guarantee housing location prior to your arrival. Since this is the case, I guess it's best to decide ahead of time whether any particular location assignment would consute a deal breaker. Doesn't sound like there's any room for negotiation on this one.
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Post by swisscobalt on Feb 11, 2014 8:57:10 GMT
Are they building more new housing inside the compound or they just make use what already available and assign the house from those who left the compound?
In google earth, it sure looks like there are still lot of empty land in the area! :lol:
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Post by vpainter on Feb 11, 2014 9:36:30 GMT
There has been plans to build at the back of the residential camp in the Hills. But it is in the initial stages and has been for a year. Utilities, I think are in, no roads yet.
Aramco has rented another housing area, haven't heard who will be placed there in the Khobar area, just that it has been rented.
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Post by Lynjohnson-Bartlett on Feb 23, 2014 6:11:36 GMT
Have also been allocated Abqaiq at present. Moving there anytime. What is it like. We like many had hoped for the main camp. What is the community like? Is there much to do?
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Post by vpainter on Feb 24, 2014 20:53:42 GMT
ABQ information can be found in the discussion group: Living in ABQ. There is also a partial list of the self-directed activity groups in that forum.
ABQ has all the amenities that the main camp has.
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