Living In Yanbu

[Talib]

Hi Mark!  I'm so glad I found this site.  My husband has been offered a job with Parsons in Yanbu and it's SO hard to find out any information!

According to Parsons, we won't be living in a compound, but I have not been told where exactly we'll be living(my husband mentioned a neighborhood).  I was all set to go with him when I thought we'd be living in a compound, but if we are just going to be in a regular neighborhood, I'm concerned about safety.  We have two little girls(ages 2 1/2 and 4).  If we were to live in a regular neighborhood, wouldn't we be extremely limited to certain things?

Also, any information you have about living there in general would be greatly appreciated.  I feel like we're going into this blind and it scares me.  (my whole family is worried about us living there due to all the unrest in the surrounding countries.)

I have so many questions, but I don't want to overload you all at once.  My biggest concern is where we'll be living.  

Thanking you in advance for your help.  (and I'm hoping you'll be blunt honest about everything.)  :)

Staci

ANSWER: Hi Stacy,

The HR guy for Parsons in Yanbu lives across the pool from me.  I knew they were planning on bringing people in over the next vew months as they've been in touch with me about it.  Hopefully they are just slow in contacting you as they generally are pretty good about settling people in here.  If you'll send me an email in my offical capacity at [email protected] , I'll send it on to the Parsons guy and he can do with it what he will.

You'll probably need to contact me there eventually, I'm the Director of Admissions at the American School in Yanbu. Unless your going to homeschool, we're the one.  Your 4-year-old is probably old enough for our Junior Kindergarten program.

You can find us at:  http://isgyis.org/index.htm.

Those who don't live on compounds(there are only two in Yanbu) live in the Royal Commission areas.  The RC, for the most part, is divided into camps built on the same design as the average suburb in the US, exccept the houses are smaller and are all walled.

Define safe.  The RC area is a concentration of foreigners who are also high wage earners.  So, it attracts crime of the garden variety.  Every so often one hears about houses and cars being broken into, but probably with less frequency than any big city in the US.  There is a strong police presence in all of the RC, and they do watch out for foreigners(particularly those with white faces)

Saudi Arabia is a restrictive society, if your coming here there are lots of things you just can't do.  Women can't drive.  A women can go out on her own, but you have to arrange for a driver or a taxi.  Everything stops five times a day for prayers.  Men frequently work long hours six days a week.  You can learn to live with it , but it takes awhile.  Many, many Americans do, there are people who have lived in and worked in this country for decades because they like it here.  I don't know if I'll stay that long, but we've been here for five years so far.

On the whole, Saudis are friendly, many speak English and love children(there are playgrounds everywhere, average family size in Saudi is 7 children).  Life in Saudi for Saudis, is pretty good, unlike many of those countries around us.  The king has recently announced an even better package of social goodies for Saudi citizens, so, I can't see the common Saudi rising up anytime soon. Once your settled, it is fairly easy to bring the inlaws over for a visit(I brought mine and it helped a lot).   

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

Sorry, Mark, forgot one major question.  In regards to the visa's...how does it all work?  My husband has heard horror stories about the men heading over and then the families get left behind for months waiting for a family visa.  Is there any way to ensure this whole process runs smoothly?  

Thank you!

Staci

[perce4]

Visas in Saudi are the realm of specialist experts who do that and only that.  I'm not one of those experts.  Saudi is a monarchy and things here change occasionally just because The King Says So.  Also, your husband's company could have a Prince as an investor or board member.  Those who have such an arrangement live by a different set of rules.

That said, here goes.

Nearly everyone who enters Saudi has visa problems of one type or another.  Frequently our people aren't here to start school because the 9 months between when we hire teachers and when they need to report for the first day of work isn't long enough to get it all done.  For Americans its improving, but there are still a few hiccups in the process.

For most, here is how it goes, this is assuming that you're a US citizen without question(not a resident alien# and you use your husband's name and its that name that appears on your passport. The work visa person comes over first on a short term visa #generally the husband, but even in Saudi, not always#.  The company VISA expert then starts the process for obtaining a work visa #called an Iqama#.  That process will take about 6 weeks.  Once the working party has their Iqama, you and the kids get a short term visa about two weeks after that and can enter the country.  None of you will be able to leave till you all have Iqamas, another six to eight weeks after this.

The problem is, of course, that it is Saudis doing all of this.  There are typo's in documents, they lose documents, and the whole Saudi government #including police and fire# shut down for Ramadan at about the time you'll want to be doing all of this next year summer.

So, a six week process can become a twelve week one fairly easily.  But, on the whole, westerners don't have many problems with visas other than the normal #i.e. it takes three months to get here and another three before you can leave again#. What a good number of people struggle with is getting out when they want to.  In Saudi, your employer generally holds your passport.  For most people, the company will only pay for a single entry/exit visa.  If you want to pop over to Dubai, you have to get a multiple entry/exit visa.  You then have to jump through a new set of hoops with equal likelihood of a mistake.  It is the norm for people to show up at the airport at least once in there stay in Saudi and present their visa, only to find something wrong with it #an unpaid traffic ticket will do it# and be unable to leave the country.  Many times its an easy fix #only takes a day or two) but it can really mess up your travel plans.