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Saudi Arabia: Job offer from Aramco Trading company:
Typically need to see -
Basic, housing allowance, transportation allowance (if any), ramadan bonus (if any) & any other year end bonuses (if they give).
How many days vacation in a year, etc.
Salary (basic) should increase every year, based on some company wide % that might be linked to performance too. But good to clarify all these things.
The big advantage of saudi is no taxes, so you will save that extra bit if you are paying taxes in your home country.
KSA is quite a boring place in general, people only come here to save some money over a few years & go back home.
Good luck!
Saudi Arabia: Possibly moving to Jeddah:
Hi there,
If the sponsor is going to arrange your accomodation 'with your consent', try and get accomodation into one of the expat compounds. That would be ideal for you (single woman).
Expat compounds are generally quite self sufficient in every sense (social life, making new friends, facilities, weekend activities, etc).
Outside the compound, life is generally a bore. It would take you a while to make new friends & find common interest groups.
You cannot drive, so will always need to be driven around.
Travel often within the region (take frequent breaks outside the kingdom)... sometimes necessary to maintain sanity levels :)
Saudi Arabia: Exchange Rate Question:
Convert your riyals into GBP at the sending end (if possible). Then attempt to send that amount in GBP itself to your home bank in the UK. That way, your home bank will not extort you on the exchange rate.
That said, you may want to check what exchange rate are you getting from the Saudi bank. I suspect they too may not give you a very good exchange rate, but might be slightly better than your UK bank.
Saudi Arabia: Accommodation in Rabigh (Petro Rabigh):
You can live in Rabigh city (about 25 minutes from the plant). Lots of asian expats live in Rabigh city and commute to the plant from there.
If they have not given you accomodation, your best option is Rabigh. No compounds in Rabigh, you just need to rent an apartment & furnish it yourself. You get fully furnished apartments too, would cost your approx. 2K SAR per month.
If you want a compound, you need to go to Jeddah (2 hrs from the plant). If you live in jeddah, you will have to commute 2 hrs each way. Something to think about.
Saudi Arabia: Petro Rabigh:
It is a downstream business of Aramco, no doubt there. It is a listed company on the saudi stock exchange so you can look it up if you need more information on the company per se.
If your offer from Petro Rabigh includes housing, then housing is provided by the company. If it includes a school allowance for your kids, then that too is taken care of. They have a community of their own here in Rabigh, for its employees. If you are entitled to company housing, you will get a place to stay either in the community or KAEC. If not, that too will be made clear at the time of receiving your offer. You need to clarify that if it is not mentioned.
Visa for family is not necessarily in their Petro Rabigh's hands - it depends on the issuing Saudi authority in your home country from where you are applying. However, as for the paper work required from Petro Rabigh's end, they are reasonably prompt in providing whatever is required.
That said, Petro Rabigh is no ARAMCO. You have to understand this is a joint venture between a japanese company & ARAMCO, so some differences will obviously exist.
If you are coming to work for Petro Rabigh through a contractor, then none of what I have mentioned above is applicable. It all depends on the contracting company that is making you the offer. You need to sort out these issues with that specific manpower company hiring you & bringing you to Saudi Arabia to work for Petro Rabigh.
Hope that helps!
Saudi Arabia: Moving to Rabigh:
Answers -
1) Safety is not an issue - Rabigh is like a village, not much to do for family. Have to watch TV & be happy. All groceries are available.
2) No activities, maybe eat out with family - only 1 or 2 restaurants, not much options.
3) There is a school but only upto 3/4th grade it is ok, education quality is not great but ok. If your kids are older, you might prefer to live in Jeddah as Jeddah has better schools. But Jeddah approximately 2 hrs from Rabigh.
4) Family with 2 kids flat - a decent flat will cost you somewhere between 15K to 20K SAR per year. I saw a good flat today in Rabigh, asking rate was 17,000 per annum + utilities cost SAR 1,200/- (water/electricity) per annum.
5) Furniture rental or buying will cost extra. You can buy or lease a car on installments - the cheapest ones are chinese cars which cost approx. 25K SAR. Japanese cars are more expensive comparatively. Of course, you can always buy used cars which will be cheaper & price is negotiable too.
6) Nobody can settle down permanently in Saudi Arabia - you come, save some money & go back to your home country when you have had enough.
You will find other Indian families from Gujarat... social circle you will have to create over time, but there are Indians living in Rabigh.
Hope this helps.
Saudi Arabia: Moving with Saudi Aramco, Ras Tanura:
Congrats on the Ras Tanura offer. I doubt you will be able to work as an RN. If you are coming as his dependant, you cannot readily work. There might be another process for that which you can guage better after you come here (or maybe after your husband arrives here).
Which country do you come from?
No churches here so you might have to practice faith within the confines of your home/compound. That said, politics & religion are not common conversation in this part of the world. Compound life might offer some respite in that aspect.
Middle east tension is nothing new. There are lots of foreigners working in Saudi Arabia so it is not really an issue (not yet atleast!).
If this is your first visit to the gulf region, it will be a huge culture shock but you need to give yourself time to absorb it & settle down (which could take a couple of months).
Hope that helps!
-H
Saudi Arabia: Visa:
Thats tricky! The problem with the saudi visa is no one really knows how long it might take to get.
If possible, finish your vacation first then hand in your passport for the visa formalities. The wait for the visa can be painfully endless.
Saudi Arabia: Moving to Rabigh:
Hi there, Will be moving to Rabigh to work with Aramco. Would it be better for me to live in Jeddah & commute? Or live in Rabigh (in an expat compound) itself?
If I live in Rabigh, would that mean I will have to commute to Jeddah every weekend for outings/malls/etc/anything social? How are the compounds in Rabigh?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
thanks!
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