# Time running out, help please?



## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

Okay, so the daughter & I are staying rather than coming back in January. The stamp in our passports is fast running out (this week). Hubby is trying to get the residency thing sorted (for our daughter & I, he already has his, having been here for nearly a year), and has just found out that we should've had our U.S Marriage certificate attested IN the US, before leaving~ WHAT TO DO???? HELP Please~


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

Are you asking for help with your visa or marriage certificate?

Your visa can be extended for another 30 days at DRND or you can drive to Oman border and back in again for a new 30 day visa. You can do the visa runs as many times as you want to give you time to arrange for your marriage certificate to be attested.

I am sure someone form US will come on and advise you about marriage certificate.


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

A visa run to Oman?


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

Yes, you drive to Oman through Hatta (about 1.5 hrs drive), get an exit stamp at UAE border, drive thru Oman border - do a u turn - drive back in Dubai and get a new 30 day visa. Very easy but only certain nationalities are allowed.


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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

wandabug said:


> Are you asking for help with your visa or marriage certificate?
> 
> Your visa can be extended for another 30 days at DRND or you can drive to Oman border and back in again for a new 30 day visa. You can do the visa runs as many times as you want to give you time to arrange for your marriage certificate to be attested.
> 
> I am sure someone form US will come on and advise you about marriage certificate.


Thank you for the advice! 
Yes, I am asking for help with both. Is the DRND thing better or Oman & any other thoughts on that one? As to the U.S marriage certificate being attested here in Dubai, as we didn't get it done before leaving the U.S~ all advice desperately needed & welcome!


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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

wandabug said:


> Yes, you drive to Oman through Hatta (about 1.5 hrs drive), get an exit stamp at UAE border, drive thru Oman border - do a u turn - drive back in Dubai and get a new 30 day visa. Very easy but only certain nationalities are allowed.


Regards the 'only certain nationalities allowed'~ Our daughter & I are American, Husband is British~ are we allowed to do the Oman thing?


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

Visa extension cost about dhs.600 and can only be done once.

Visa Run - you drive towards Oman border past Hatta Fort , its a nice drive gets you out of Dubai for a few hours. Just before the border you need to buy car insurance for Oman, there is an office on the left by the gas station (costs about dhs.60). Then drive to UAE border and stop for your exit stamp. Carry on til you get to Oman Immigation Centre (10 mins drive). Go in and get an Oman Stamp (about dhs.70), Walk to the other side of the building for exit stamp. Get back in car drive back to Dubai Border and get a new 30 day visa stamp (free). Total time needed about 3 hours, best time in the mornings.


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

TheKos said:


> Regards the 'only certain nationalities allowed'~ Our daughter & I are American, Husband is British~ are we allowed to do the Oman thing?


Yes Americans and British are allowed.


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

wandabug said:


> Visa extension cost about dhs.600 and can only be done once.
> 
> Visa Run - you drive towards Oman border past Hatta Fort , its a nice drive gets you out of Dubai for a few hours. Just before the border you need to buy car insurance for Oman, there is an office on the left by the gas station (costs about dhs.60). Then drive to UAE border and stop for your exit stamp. Carry on til you get to Oman Immigation Centre (10 mins drive). Go in and get an Oman Stamp (about dhs.70), Walk to the other side of the building for exit stamp. Get back in car drive back to Dubai Border and get a new 30 day visa stamp (free). Total time needed about 3 hours, best time in the mornings.


As the poster does not have residency, they will not have a Dubai driving licence, so will be driving a leased/hired car. For that you need to get permission from the rental company & get them to organise Oman insurance. You cannot do this yourself for a rental car.
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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

Husband has residency.


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

wandabug said:


> Husband has residency.


Then he has to go with them as he's the only one permitted to drive.

Not such a bad trip and I bet no one spots any women in the town called Al Madam on the way. Spooky that!
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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

Thank you everyone for all the advice- Wandabug you've been fab! 
Looks like Oman is the way to go then~ and there's no legal issue doing this, is my final question then on getting another 30 days, so we can move forward on the marriage certificate attestation problem?


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## Yoga girl (Oct 19, 2008)

TheKos said:


> Thank you for the advice!
> Yes, I am asking for help with both. Is the DRND thing better or Oman & any other thoughts on that one? As to the U.S marriage certificate being attested here in Dubai, as we didn't get it done before leaving the U.S~ all advice desperately needed & welcome!


The best thing for you to do is to contact the US Embassy or Consulate here in Dubai and ask them to help. At some point in the process you will probably need to get their stamp or something and I am sure they have had this come up beforel


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

Maybe this can help.

ASAP Document Services


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## bonk (Jun 13, 2008)

wandabug said:


> Visa extension cost about dhs.600 and can only be done once.
> 
> Visa Run - you drive towards Oman border past Hatta Fort , its a nice drive gets you out of Dubai for a few hours. Just before the border you need to buy car insurance for Oman, there is an office on the left by the gas station (costs about dhs.60). Then drive to UAE border and stop for your exit stamp. Carry on til you get to Oman Immigation Centre (10 mins drive). Go in and get an Oman Stamp (about dhs.70), Walk to the other side of the building for exit stamp. Get back in car drive back to Dubai Border and get a new 30 day visa stamp (free). Total time needed about 3 hours, best time in the mornings.


If you're only doing visa run, parking on Dubai side of Oman passport control building means you're not asked for proof of Oman insurance (probably). Which means you could take a hire care, however, for the bit of road between UAE exit and Oman border post, assume it's not insured. Try not to bend it.

Visit Visa Renewal Dubai


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

bonk said:


> If you're only doing visa run, parking on Dubai side of Oman passport control building means you're not asked for proof of Oman insurance (probably). Which means you could take a hire care, however, for the bit of road between UAE exit and Oman border post, assume it's not insured. Try not to bend it.
> 
> Visit Visa Renewal Dubai


That 'advice' is NOT condoned by the forum. We do not encourage people to break the law. 
-


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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

Elphaba said:


> That 'advice' is NOT condoned by the forum. We do not encourage people to break the law.
> -


I wasn't even sure if I understood the advice from 'bonk', so thanks for clearing up that it is illegal & therefore I need no further explanation


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## bonk (Jun 13, 2008)

Elphaba said:


> That 'advice' is NOT condoned by the forum. We do not encourage people to break the law.
> -


Sorry, wasn't meant to sound like advice, just clarification of what could be a grey area. I was afraid that some people might assume not crossing the Oman border would mean they didn't need an insurance document.

Aside from the visa run, some people have discovered that their car is not insured when they thought it was. For example, driving a hire car (or even your own car sometimes) to Hatta probably means you are uninsured for part of the journey since there is a section of road in Oman even before you get to Hatta AFAIK.


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

I think we are confusing OP , Visa run is Legal.
Car Insurance, if in your own car you can buy cheap car insurance just before the border for about dhs.60. If you are in a hire car you need to ask the hire company to arrange insurance (they will charge dhs.200 which is a total rip off but what can you do!!). Purchasing the insurance yourself at the border if in a hire car is not legal.
The Oman Border control will ask to see the insurance document.


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## Huzzah Barking-Hatstand (Jul 16, 2010)

TheKos said:


> Okay, so the daughter & I are staying rather than coming back in January. The stamp in our passports is fast running out (this week). Hubby is trying to get the residency thing sorted (for our daughter & I, he already has his, having been here for nearly a year), and has just found out that we should've had our U.S Marriage certificate attested IN the US, before leaving~ WHAT TO DO???? HELP Please~


As a general rule its usually less trouble if you get your marriage cert. attested in the country of issue. To the point, for instance, that the British Embassy recommend you send your marriage certificate back to the UK to get it certified there. The rules state that your home embassy in UAE can certify it. In practice however its 50/50 as to whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will actually accept the certificate. Depends which official you get and what mood they are in.

In the long run it might be easier to actually send it back to the US to get it stamped by the State Dept. there.

My specialty is the UK process so my apologies for any inaccuracies.

Good luck
H-B-H


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## ingerevans (Mar 5, 2010)

Hallo TheKos (& all), I've just seen your original post and am chiming in belatedly as I am an irregular visitor to the forum... you may already have gotten all the same information as me, at this point. We are in exactly the same boat as you.. American couple with one teenaged son.. husband has his work visa already but we are plugging away at obtaining residence visas for myself and DS, and are in the thick of the lonnnnnng process of 'attestation' of the documents by the THREE different agencies required back in the US....

TheKos, since it's been a couple of weeks since your original post, can you let me/us know what your experience has been since then, & how your process is going? 

We are planning our first visa run to Oman this weekend, as our 30-day visit visas are due to run out soon, and we already formally renewed once at the Immigration office. Thanks to all who offered information about the visa run process -- what a great help! TIA from a newbie


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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

ingerevans said:


> Hallo TheKos (& all), I've just seen your original post and am chiming in belatedly as I am an irregular visitor to the forum... you may already have gotten all the same information as me, at this point. We are in exactly the same boat as you.. American couple with one teenaged son.. husband has his work visa already but we are plugging away at obtaining residence visas for myself and DS, and are in the thick of the lonnnnnng process of 'attestation' of the documents by the THREE different agencies required back in the US....
> 
> TheKos, since it's been a couple of weeks since your original post, can you let me/us know what your experience has been since then, & how your process is going?
> 
> We are planning our first visa run to Oman this weekend, as our 30-day visit visas are due to run out soon, and we already formally renewed once at the Immigration office. Thanks to all who offered information about the visa run process -- what a great help! TIA from a newbie


Hi Ingerevans 

We did the visa run~ it was a bit intimidating at first, but seems to be quite the 'thing to do' in our situation. Since then, we have FedEx'd the required docs back over to the States for a firm that was recommended in Va. to sort out what's needed from the US for attestation & are expecting them back anytime between the end of Sept & first week of Oct. It just seems so much easier to let someone else handle it all that knows what they're doing~comes with a price, but it wasn't too bad for the piece of mind.

I rec'd the friend req & have tried to IM you, please let me know if it works & I'll be happy to answer any other questions I can~ trust me! I know the stress of it all! lol!

BTW~Everyone here has been awesome to us with suggestions/advice/help


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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

ingerevans said:


> Hallo TheKos (& all), I've just seen your original post and am chiming in belatedly as I am an irregular visitor to the forum... you may already have gotten all the same information as me, at this point. We are in exactly the same boat as you.. American couple with one teenaged son.. husband has his work visa already but we are plugging away at obtaining residence visas for myself and DS, and are in the thick of the lonnnnnng process of 'attestation' of the documents by the THREE different agencies required back in the US....
> 
> TheKos, since it's been a couple of weeks since your original post, can you let me/us know what your experience has been since then, & how your process is going?
> 
> We are planning our first visa run to Oman this weekend, as our 30-day visit visas are due to run out soon, and we already formally renewed once at the Immigration office. Thanks to all who offered information about the visa run process -- what a great help! TIA from a newbie


Ingerevans, please check your profile for PM


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## TheKos (May 5, 2008)

Inger,
I've emailed you a reply but am unsure if your spamblock has allowed it


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