Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 18:38:28 GMT
Dear forum members,
Since this is my first post in this forum, please allow me first to introduce myself.
I am a french national and new hire waiting, like many others, for the visa block to be released - hopefully - any time soon.
However, I am in a very peculiar situation, since I have been living in a north African country where I have created and ran my own activity for 4 years.
As I was preparing last year to closing my company, I was approached by a former colleague working at ARAMCO for a job in KSA, and I went to AOC in London for an interview in first half of December 2013.
Then the job offer was received, signed and returned to AOC end of January 2014.
In the same period of time, ARAMCO put an incredible pressure on me to get all contingencies cleared before end of January, which has been complied with.
The initial benefits worksheet stated "assumed hire date 1/31/2014", but my personal advisor told me it is a common practice that this date is ahead of the effective relocation date by one to two months.
From the time of interview until issuance of the offer, it has been asserted to me that I would be travelling to KSA sometime between February and end of March at the latest.
It is only later, when march was slowly unwinding, that AOC started to postpone the date of relocation by two more weeks, then one more month, and so on and so on...
As an aside, I want to mention that I am now connected with my 4th advisor in a row, since one has been dismissed in January and two others left AOC in the following months...
Until I became myself confronted with relocation delay due to visa bloc issues, I did not consider checking the present forum any time before, and I sticked to the word of successive AOC advisors, preparing myself for the relocation before end of March by:
- closing my company (for this I had to sell company cars and renting a car in replacement)
- not renewing my local health insurance
- writing to the tenant to inform I will stop renting the house (in order to avoid paying additional months of renting according to the renting notice period).
- declining an alternative, though less attractive job offer.
I am therefore now in a situation where I have no job, no revenue, no health insurance and additional costs as well, and most recently the tenant informed me he has rented the place to another landlord as of July 1st 2014, which means that I have to get out of the place until end of June.
Of course, I can always find a place where to live not to become homeless, while waiting for the relocation to happen, but I have a major issue as where to put our household (since my wife is supposed to join and I will be on a married status).
A miracle could still happen and the visa block could still come in the coming week or two, but this is an improbable bet.
I have also to mention that when we moved to north Africa, we took all our stuff and household with us, and that I have no other place to go and no property on my own, either here or in my home country, where I could park any of my stuff.
Therefore, I am considering preparing the shipment in advance and approached my personal advisor at AOC in order to explain the situation, and she sent me in return the shipping booklet (dated July 1999), while mentioning that any container stoe costs will be my responsibility.
Since AOC advisors have never pointed out that it could come to a major relocation delay and kept providing me clear deadlines, I am considering they are at least to some extent accountable for my present situation.
I am therefore expecting some kind of assistance and support to help me getting out of this messy situation, but there appears to be absolutely no flexibility regarding the strict relocation guidelines, at least when discussing that matters with AOC in London.
In addition, I was aware from the preorientation presentation and relocation documentation that some items can not be brought into the Kingdom, but I am really disconcerted while reading the booklet about the full list of articles which are either prohibited or subject to censorship or confiscation, while many of them appear to be in total contradiction with mentions made in some discussions in the present forum (e.g. "What to bring" where it is mention that new hires are recommended to take with them e.g. foodstuff, pharmaceuticals, sanitary and cleaning products, etc...).
My questions to this forum are the following:
a) could I get some assistance from ARAMCO concerning container stoe cost in case I am relocated beyond end of June?
b) since all items I can not bring with me are going to be shipped back to Europe and be stored in a SHURGARD stoe or similar, could it be that the company also pay for that separate shipment to Europe due to my specific situation?
c) ideally in order to lower stoe costs in Europe and for personal convenience, I would like to take with me as many of our items, and I would like to understand what is the situation as of today compared with the shipping guidelines from 1999, which is 15 years ago... I will develop and provide more details when receiving answers to the present request.
Thanks everyone for valuable advice.
Since this is my first post in this forum, please allow me first to introduce myself.
I am a french national and new hire waiting, like many others, for the visa block to be released - hopefully - any time soon.
However, I am in a very peculiar situation, since I have been living in a north African country where I have created and ran my own activity for 4 years.
As I was preparing last year to closing my company, I was approached by a former colleague working at ARAMCO for a job in KSA, and I went to AOC in London for an interview in first half of December 2013.
Then the job offer was received, signed and returned to AOC end of January 2014.
In the same period of time, ARAMCO put an incredible pressure on me to get all contingencies cleared before end of January, which has been complied with.
The initial benefits worksheet stated "assumed hire date 1/31/2014", but my personal advisor told me it is a common practice that this date is ahead of the effective relocation date by one to two months.
From the time of interview until issuance of the offer, it has been asserted to me that I would be travelling to KSA sometime between February and end of March at the latest.
It is only later, when march was slowly unwinding, that AOC started to postpone the date of relocation by two more weeks, then one more month, and so on and so on...
As an aside, I want to mention that I am now connected with my 4th advisor in a row, since one has been dismissed in January and two others left AOC in the following months...
Until I became myself confronted with relocation delay due to visa bloc issues, I did not consider checking the present forum any time before, and I sticked to the word of successive AOC advisors, preparing myself for the relocation before end of March by:
- closing my company (for this I had to sell company cars and renting a car in replacement)
- not renewing my local health insurance
- writing to the tenant to inform I will stop renting the house (in order to avoid paying additional months of renting according to the renting notice period).
- declining an alternative, though less attractive job offer.
I am therefore now in a situation where I have no job, no revenue, no health insurance and additional costs as well, and most recently the tenant informed me he has rented the place to another landlord as of July 1st 2014, which means that I have to get out of the place until end of June.
Of course, I can always find a place where to live not to become homeless, while waiting for the relocation to happen, but I have a major issue as where to put our household (since my wife is supposed to join and I will be on a married status).
A miracle could still happen and the visa block could still come in the coming week or two, but this is an improbable bet.
I have also to mention that when we moved to north Africa, we took all our stuff and household with us, and that I have no other place to go and no property on my own, either here or in my home country, where I could park any of my stuff.
Therefore, I am considering preparing the shipment in advance and approached my personal advisor at AOC in order to explain the situation, and she sent me in return the shipping booklet (dated July 1999), while mentioning that any container stoe costs will be my responsibility.
Since AOC advisors have never pointed out that it could come to a major relocation delay and kept providing me clear deadlines, I am considering they are at least to some extent accountable for my present situation.
I am therefore expecting some kind of assistance and support to help me getting out of this messy situation, but there appears to be absolutely no flexibility regarding the strict relocation guidelines, at least when discussing that matters with AOC in London.
In addition, I was aware from the preorientation presentation and relocation documentation that some items can not be brought into the Kingdom, but I am really disconcerted while reading the booklet about the full list of articles which are either prohibited or subject to censorship or confiscation, while many of them appear to be in total contradiction with mentions made in some discussions in the present forum (e.g. "What to bring" where it is mention that new hires are recommended to take with them e.g. foodstuff, pharmaceuticals, sanitary and cleaning products, etc...).
My questions to this forum are the following:
a) could I get some assistance from ARAMCO concerning container stoe cost in case I am relocated beyond end of June?
b) since all items I can not bring with me are going to be shipped back to Europe and be stored in a SHURGARD stoe or similar, could it be that the company also pay for that separate shipment to Europe due to my specific situation?
c) ideally in order to lower stoe costs in Europe and for personal convenience, I would like to take with me as many of our items, and I would like to understand what is the situation as of today compared with the shipping guidelines from 1999, which is 15 years ago... I will develop and provide more details when receiving answers to the present request.
Thanks everyone for valuable advice.
