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Showing posts with label visa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visa. Show all posts
Thursday, February 27, 2014
The Life-In-Abu Dhabi Calculator - Chapter 1 Visa
I have been frequenting this forum where questions are posted about what needs to be done to go here in Abu Dhabi, or what is the average salary that could keep you comfortable living here or just how much everything here in UAE costs. So I have decided to break down necessary parts of living the life of an Expat here in UAE with numbers.
To continue reading, click here.
To continue reading, click here.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Abu Dhabi Visa for Philippine Passport Holder
I have been pretty up to my neck for a couple of weeks and haven't got the time to post something relevant. And since I'm not really in the mood to work right now, might as well pour it all out where no one gets hurt.
I think I have already posted similar topic on this blog or on the other blog. Anyway, this is a fresh take on how to apply for visit visa for Philippine passport holder.
Hopefully this overhaul of manpower will be beneficial to everyone planning to to go over the greener side of the fence.
Back on the process, rules and procedures often change here in Abu Dhabi. Especially with applying for visit visa and tourist visa. My parents are coming over (because they miss me!) as well as my brother. While asking around on what to do and how to apply for their visa I learned the difference between visit visa and tourist visa. I was planning to apply for tourist visa for my parents and brother since they will be coming in as tourists.
So we went to the typing center right next to Abu Dhabi Naturalization & Residence Directorate (ADNRD) to apply. What you need to bring:
- Passport copy of the person you wish to sponsor
- Passport size ID picture of the person to be sponsored
- Your passport copy
- Salary certificate in Arabic
- Employment Contract
- Residence visa copy
- Residence Contract copy
Turned out, we can apply visa just for my parents. For my parents we can sponsor them under visit visa. As for my brother we have to apply for a tourist visa. Per UAE ruling, only parents, wife and children can be sponsored by any expatriate with a basic salary more than AED 4,000.00. We spent AED 570.00 for the visit visa per parent. Plus a deposit of AED1,000.00 and health insurance of AED 40.00. This deposit will be returned once the visitor, in my case my parents, leave the country. Thr tourist visa we just visited one travel agency and applied for a tourist visa at a cost of AED 800.00 without deposit. Alhtough some travel agents will require a deposit ranging from AED 5000-7000. Also, refundable once the tourist leaves the coutrny. Visa application will only take 3-5 days. This visa should be used within 60 days after issuance and holder is allowed to stay in the country for 30 days.
Also, to avoid any problems for relatives or friends visiting UAE, they should have an affidavit of support sent by the person who they will be visiting here in UAE. This document can be taken from the Philippine Embassy. You have to fill up a form and attach your passport copy, passport copy of the sponsored person. Since, its my husband who sponsored my parents we also included our red ribbon-marriage certificate and my passport copy. The affidavit will take one week to process and will cost AED 100 per person. Once we got the documents, we sent it to the Philippines through FedEx (Shameless plugging).
Next on my list of things to do is just plan their stay here.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Woes of Working in Abu Dhabi
Today, 23 June 2011, is the crappiest day of the month. I should have known, when the week started, all the tell-tale signs of a bad week was everywhere to give me a warning. Working abroad is anything but predictable. Something always comes up and usually whatever is up is not really good. I don’t know if I would have preferred my foul-mouthed Chinese boss from the past or my temperamental American boss of the recent or my smoke-belching Arabian boss of the present. All of them can be categorized in different level of laziness. Not in order but, one is really, really lazy, the other one is just plain lazy and the other one is not lazy at all.
When I set foot in this dessert land of a country, work was far from my head. I came here because I want to join my husband. I came here because we both want to start a family already. Unfortunately some circumstances need some immediate remedy that I have to take a job to lessen the burden on my husband’s part while looking for another employment. You see, living in Abu Dhabi is not that simple. I came here using a husband’s visa. This visa depends basically on the employment of my husband. If his contract expires so does my visa. Anyhoo, their project was almost completed, so some of their personnel were being transferred to another site project, which is Ruwais. A 3 hours something drive from Abu Dhabi proper. My husband doesn’t want to take me there, since it is far from the city amenities, knowing that I’m a sickly person, I always need to be near a hospital. But enough about me.
Working abroad always entails contracts and visa. Your stay in the country depends basically with your work. This is true here in Abu Dhabi. Most of the Filipinos who came here to try their luck here entered the country using a visit visa. This visa allows the holder 30 days stay here in the UAE. An extension can be applied to a maximum of another 30 days. When applying for visa, once it is granted you need to use it within 2 months else, the visa will expire and will no longer be usable. Once a visit visa holder lands a job, the company will be the one applying for the visa of that person.
Employment visa varies. There is the missionary visa and the employment visa. The missionary visas are given to those who are hired directly from their mother country and sponsored to work in Abu Dhabi for six months. The employment visa however is the real deal. The validity of such visa is the entire period of the contract signed by the hired personnel. For those who are holding visit visa and have found a job during the stay here in Abu Dhabi, their visa are usually transferred to employment visa , but before getting that they have to exit the country first for certain legalities. Exit can be to other countries outside UAE and one in particular is Kish Island. No one has ever heard of Kish Island, but if you are here in Abu Dhabi it’s the last place you would want to go for an exit. Horrible stories about the island. Some of those who go there for exit are already forgotten. Many are raped and killed. That is why some hotels there are haunted. I don’t know for certain the truth in those, but 3 of my officemates were told to exit to Kish Island and yes, it was a scary place for any woman to go to.
For those who are lucky to get an employment visa without any hitches, they get to finish their contract and jump into another company. But before doing so, expats should complete two years of their contract before they can transfer to another company. This is the new UAE employment law. Back then, once your contract is completed, you are to go home in your mother country since you are banned to look for another job for the next 6 months.
So many clauses surround you when working abroad. And so you try to comfort yourself with the stuff that you could buy when you get your salary at the end of the month. In that way, in a little way the hurtful things that your bosses and officemates hurled at you is not that ego blowing anymore.
When I set foot in this dessert land of a country, work was far from my head. I came here because I want to join my husband. I came here because we both want to start a family already. Unfortunately some circumstances need some immediate remedy that I have to take a job to lessen the burden on my husband’s part while looking for another employment. You see, living in Abu Dhabi is not that simple. I came here using a husband’s visa. This visa depends basically on the employment of my husband. If his contract expires so does my visa. Anyhoo, their project was almost completed, so some of their personnel were being transferred to another site project, which is Ruwais. A 3 hours something drive from Abu Dhabi proper. My husband doesn’t want to take me there, since it is far from the city amenities, knowing that I’m a sickly person, I always need to be near a hospital. But enough about me.
Working abroad always entails contracts and visa. Your stay in the country depends basically with your work. This is true here in Abu Dhabi. Most of the Filipinos who came here to try their luck here entered the country using a visit visa. This visa allows the holder 30 days stay here in the UAE. An extension can be applied to a maximum of another 30 days. When applying for visa, once it is granted you need to use it within 2 months else, the visa will expire and will no longer be usable. Once a visit visa holder lands a job, the company will be the one applying for the visa of that person.
Employment visa varies. There is the missionary visa and the employment visa. The missionary visas are given to those who are hired directly from their mother country and sponsored to work in Abu Dhabi for six months. The employment visa however is the real deal. The validity of such visa is the entire period of the contract signed by the hired personnel. For those who are holding visit visa and have found a job during the stay here in Abu Dhabi, their visa are usually transferred to employment visa , but before getting that they have to exit the country first for certain legalities. Exit can be to other countries outside UAE and one in particular is Kish Island. No one has ever heard of Kish Island, but if you are here in Abu Dhabi it’s the last place you would want to go for an exit. Horrible stories about the island. Some of those who go there for exit are already forgotten. Many are raped and killed. That is why some hotels there are haunted. I don’t know for certain the truth in those, but 3 of my officemates were told to exit to Kish Island and yes, it was a scary place for any woman to go to.
For those who are lucky to get an employment visa without any hitches, they get to finish their contract and jump into another company. But before doing so, expats should complete two years of their contract before they can transfer to another company. This is the new UAE employment law. Back then, once your contract is completed, you are to go home in your mother country since you are banned to look for another job for the next 6 months.
So many clauses surround you when working abroad. And so you try to comfort yourself with the stuff that you could buy when you get your salary at the end of the month. In that way, in a little way the hurtful things that your bosses and officemates hurled at you is not that ego blowing anymore.
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