Note by Robone:This was prepared by Stewart, but managed to somehow get lost, but it has been restored. Thanks Stewart for all the effort.
There are two aspects to this: the papers that have to be done in South Africa, and everything else that you have to do here in Saudi. South Africa seems to be a lot more complex and time-consuming and just downright irritating! But it has to be done, and you just have to endure it.
First, you’ve negotiated your contract. The Saudi company then sends you a formal invitation to come to Saudi. You will require the following papers to make your application for a work visa:-
• The abovementioned letter
• A copy of your contract
• Your birth certificate
• Your ejukayshun sutifikates
• A Police Clearance Certificate
• A Medical form that must come from the Saudi Embassy in Pretoria, and which you must take to a doctor, who completes every aspects that the form requires
• An application form for the work visa, also available from the embassy
• Your CV
• If you’re coming here on a married status contract, your wife will have to supply all of the above, you will furnish your marriage certificate (no living in sin over here), and your kids will have to supply birth certificates as well as records of any jabs they’ve had
The next step: Get a good visa agent! Unless you live in Pretoria and have inordinate amounts of time, these people are indispensable. They will do all the running about for you, make sure you’ve got all the right forms, stand in all the queues for you, and deliver your passport back to you complete with work visa. I used SAVisaszone, based in Johannesburg. The chap who did the legwork is Jaendre. Give him a call on cell 083 296 3676 or at
jhbtravel@visaszone.co.za . Tell him I say hi, and remind him about my advertising fee……
Jaendre was the second agent that I used (incidentally, your prospective employer should be paying these costs, or at the very least have agreed to pay the costs back to you on your arrival in Saudi. That goes for the medicals and the courier fees as well. I think my total costs before I got here were in the region of Rands 4000). The first one was recommended to me by the company employing me, but I found her to be dishonest with regards progress. There, I’ve said it! This is a very stressful time in the process, and to have someone telling you everything’s fine, only to find out at the last minute that it isn’t, just doesn’t help. Jaendre, on the other hand, was straight down the line. Which is what you need, believe me. It’s much easier knowing the rotten truth from Square One, than finding it out at Square 23……..
The Police Clearance Certificate seems to take the longest to organise. You have a choice of two methods here. You can go to your local police station, get the forms filled in, pay Rands50.00, and they send it off to Pretoria. This will take anything from 3 to 8 weeks. Just not good enough. Or, you can pay a “specialist” to get this done in about ten days. Do not ask how they do this……..The chap I used to do this was Pine Pienaar, based in Springs. I went down to the local copshop, got the forms, had the fingerprints done, and then couriered everything off to Pine. He organised the rest. He can be contacted at 083 560 0083 or 011 363 0457. Definitely worthwhile.
So, once you’ve got all of the above done, send everything to the visa agent. He will then do battle with the Saudi Embassy. As stated earlier, it may be that you catch the Saudi official at a bad phase in his life. He may require completely unrelated forms, things that you cannot, in any way, link to your need for a visa. For instance, my company was asked to justify what they are paying me, as the official at the embassy felt that I was being paid far too much for the position for which I was being employed. Besides this being none of his business, it took additional days to get the paperwork done. Nobody else had this particular problem. But forewarned is forearmed……
If all goes well, your passports will be couriered back to you. PLEASE, use couriers, not the post, and specify to the visa agent the courier that you want to use. DHL is great for couriering between South Africa and Saudi, Sky Couriers did themselves proud in South Africa. Again, I had a bad experience with the first visa agent, to whom I did not specify which courier to use. She used her own one which, it transpired, first didn’t deliver to my neck of the woods, and then after I’d arranged to pick up my passport in Durban (a drive of 200km), they lost the package for four days…….
And get yourself about 30 passport size photographs to bring with you. If your family is going to follow you out, get 30 group shots of the wife and kids (without you), size about 60mm x 40mm.
And then you’re all set to hit the Big Sand…….
