# Question about how hard it is to find work there, visa to UAE, etc?



## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

One of my best friends (US citizen) is engaged to a citizen of the UAE. He's been trying to get a job there for the last 9 months to no avail. Is it really hard for non visa holders to find a job there, or is the market just tanked right now like it is in America? Would it be better for him to wait until they're married to find a job there? And furthermore, once he is married to her I know he will have to apply for a visa to move there, so is it going to be hard for him to secure a visa if she has a low paying job and is living with her parents? She lived in the US for the last ten years and just moved back to Dubai, so she hasn't gotten fully on her feet yet. Lastly, If he doesn't have a job and has to rely on his savings to be able to move there to support them until he finds a job, is there a magic number that needs to be in his account for them to even consider him?

Any other information would be useful. I've been trying to tell him to come on this forum to ask questions, but he's being a hardheaded man. So i decided to ask myself! Lol. Thanks in advance for all your help.

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## amyjacksonsharma (Jul 3, 2011)

To be honest heaps of companies are changing the way they recruit. His vest bet is to come here and apply, not many will look at recruiting from o/s due to the costs. He needs to come over on a visit visa for a holiday and he might get lucky. What.kinda job is he looking for? Also what are his salary expectations?


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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

amyjacksonsharma said:


> To be honest heaps of companies are changing the way they recruit. His vest bet is to come here and apply, not many will look at recruiting from o/s due to the costs. He needs to come over on a visit visa for a holiday and he might get lucky. What.kinda job is he looking for? Also what are his salary expectations?


Thanks for your reply! He's got a bachelor degree in business management and a masters degree in finance. His job at the present is accounting, but he is looking at getting into supervisory/management positions. Not sure what he is looking for salary wise, but I'm thinking closer to the six figure mark is accurate, especially with his work experience and education. His fiancee is also working, not sure how much she makes, but not enough for her to live on her own.

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## dizzyizzy (Mar 30, 2008)

If applying from overseas has not worked then the best thing for him to do is to apply once he arrives here.

Re. visa, everyone is a 'non visa holder' until they find a job, so that should not be an issue. The problem is probably that he is overseas so employers don't take him seriously and won't give him the time of the day until he's here.

Once he finds a job, he will get sponsored by his employer, his wife will not be able to sponsor him unless she has a certain type of job (teacher, doctor, etc. -- search the forum for more info).

You say she is a UAE national? If he's not Muslim yet, he will have to convert too.


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## Canuck_Sens (Nov 16, 2010)

Vegasgirl94 said:


> Thanks for your reply! He's got a bachelor degree in business management and a masters degree in finance. His job at the present is accounting, but he is looking at getting into supervisory/management positions. Not sure what he is looking for salary wise, but I'm thinking closer to the six figure mark is accurate, especially with his work experience and education. His fiancee is also working, not sure how much she makes, but not enough for her to live on her own.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


Management positions in Finance pay around the six figure mark or more. Is he CPA/ CMA by any chance ? There is always demand for CPAs/CMAs


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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

dizzyizzy said:


> If applying from overseas has not worked then the best thing for him to do is to apply once he arrives here.
> 
> Re. visa, everyone is a 'non visa holder' until they find a job, so that should not be an issue. The problem is probably that he is overseas so employers don't take him seriously and won't give him the time of the day until he's here.
> 
> ...


Thanks Dizzy. I will pass that along to him. She's actually Indian, was born and raised in Goa. So not sure if that means she's a national or not, but I know she's catholic. So maybe I'm just confused. Hopefully because she's Indian that won't change the rules but I know her parents have lived in the UAE for a long time and maybe it's a part of India (??) so that's why she's able to live there with them? Or maybe she grew up there and is considered a citizen? I have no idea. The rules for visa are so different than they were with me moving to the UK. :-/

In regard to a visa, so you're saying that he's able to come there without a visa to find work and then he can switch over to a work visa? Or would he have to come back to the US to apply before he can get the work visa? I know that in the UK you couldn't just switch from a visit visa to a work visa, and there's a lot of red tape. I'm assuming though that Dubai is different?

Thanks so much for your input!

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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

Canuck_Sens said:


> Management positions in Finance pay around the six figure mark or more. Is he CPA/ CMA by any chance ? There is always demand for CPAs/CMAs


Hey Canuck! That's good to know. He's not a CPA/CMA. I think he wants to steer clear of accounting, he doesn't like it too much. Haha. But he also mentioned that they're kind of focusing on hiring foreign nationals instead of Americans, does anyone know if that's true? If so, he's got an uphill battle.

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## Canuck_Sens (Nov 16, 2010)

Vegasgirl94 said:


> Hey Canuck! That's good to know. He's not a CPA/CMA. I think he wants to steer clear of accounting, he doesn't like it too much. Haha. But he also mentioned that they're kind of focusing on hiring foreign nationals instead of Americans, does anyone know if that's true? If so, he's got an uphill battle.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


This is no true. They are hiring. We do not have lots of Americans imagine Canadians ? I noticed that he has masters in finance. What does he exactly do ? If he wants to change fields in finance I do not think it is a good idea to do that here. 

I also read about your friend ( American Indian from Goa). Is she American?, if she is; she cannot be an Emirati because as far as I know UAE does not recognize dual nationality.

There is a website called efinancial careers. Google it. There you can see the jobs available not only in Dubai, but almost everywhere.

You gotta be a nice friend. I was expecting "them" to be the actual posters!!!!


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## dizzyizzy (Mar 30, 2008)

Vegasgirl94 said:


> Thanks Dizzy. I will pass that along to him. She's actually Indian, was born and raised in Goa. So not sure if that means she's a national or not, but I know she's catholic. So maybe I'm just confused. Hopefully because she's Indian that won't change the rules but I know *her parents have lived in the UAE for a long time and maybe it's a part of India (??) *so that's why she's able to live there with them? Or maybe she grew up there and is considered a citizen? I have no idea. The rules for visa are so different than they were with me moving to the UK. :-/
> 
> In regard to a visa, so you're saying that he's able to come there without a visa to find work and then he can switch over to a work visa? Or would he have to come back to the US to apply before he can get the work visa? I know that in the UK you couldn't just switch from a visit visa to a work visa, and there's a lot of red tape. I'm assuming though that Dubai is different?
> 
> ...


OK, you said she is a 'citizen of the UAE' so I took that as she was an Emirati, but since she is actually Indian then forget about the whole religion/marriage thing as it doesn't matter.

Your friend will have to come here and find a job by himself, the fact that his bride to be is already here, works here, has lived here, etc. makes no difference whatsoever.

If your friend holds a USA passport he will get a visitor's visa on arrival. He will search for jobs whilst on that visa (although you are not supossed to do that but no choice really). Once he gets employed, his employer will sponsor his residence visa. Once this is done, he will be able to sponsor his wife. 

Not sure what you mean but no, UAE is not a part of India  Probably she is under her father's sponsorship at the moment or her own employer's sponsorship. But as I said, that means nothing to your male friend who is marrying her and looking for a job. He will have to find a job, get sponsored for a resident visa, marry her, and then sponsor her.


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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

Canuck_Sens said:


> This is no true. They are hiring. We do not have lots of Americans imagine Canadians ? I noticed that he has masters in finance. What does he exactly do ? If he wants to change fields in finance I do not think it is a good idea to do that here.
> 
> I also read about your friend ( American Indian from Goa). Is she American?, if she is; she cannot be an Emirati because as far as I know UAE does not recognize dual nationality.
> 
> ...


Right now he is working for a company doing their accounting, but he is looking more toward a management career, doesn't really matter what kind. I just know that he wants to stay away from finance because even though he got his masters in it, it's not his forte. 

His fiancé is actually Indian Indian (from India, lol). I think she is (as dizzy suspects) on her father's sponsorship. 

I will let him know about the efinancial website. He's already stoked that I've asked a couple questions for him. And yes, I'm a very good friend. I've found with him it's easier to just do it myself than to tell him what to ask. I just went through an international move myself about 6 months ago, so I know what questions to ask! ;-)

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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

dizzyizzy said:


> OK, you said she is a 'citizen of the UAE' so I took that as she was an Emirati, but since she is actually Indian then forget about the whole religion/marriage thing as it doesn't matter.
> 
> Your friend will have to come here and find a job by himself, the fact that his bride to be is already here, works here, has lived here, etc. makes no difference whatsoever.
> 
> ...


Thanks for this information, it is a lot more complicated than I initially told him, thinking that the visa rules would be the same around the globe (silly me). So he is only allowed to be there for 30 days on this visit visa, correct? To his understanding, that's what he said. And he stressed that there's no way he will be able to find a job in 30 days. Is he wrong to assume that? 

I'm a little naive when it comes to countries in the middle east, so I assumed since she was living in Dubai, she did so because they were connected to India somehow (like Ireland is connected to England). I have since found out today that she's actually under her father's sponsorship as you've suggested. Do you know if he will be able to do the whole visit visa, get married, find a job, get sponsored all in one swift shot or will he have to go back and forth to the US to adhere to time restrictions?

Sorry about all the questions, but this is completely new to me and I want to make sure I understand so I can tell him since you guys know your stuff. Thanks a lot.

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## dizzyizzy (Mar 30, 2008)

He may not be able to find a job on the first 30 days of his visa but luckly for him, USA passport holders can do ´visa runs' (do a forum search) every 30 days so he can extend his stay much longer, for a few months actually, by doing a border run to get a new visit visa.

information regarding the need to exit the country in order to get the residence visa stamped can be quite contradictory, so he'll be better off checking those details with his employer once he secures a job. Even if he does have to leave the country, as I said, he can just easily cross the border to Oman and come back so it shouldn't be an issue. Once that's done and his residence has been stamped on his passport, he'll be able to sponsor his wife. Don't think the wedding date or place makes any difference, as long as they are already married by the time he applies for her residence visa. Because the UAE doesn't give out citizenship nor benefits to non nationals, the rules are quite different from UK or USA. Nobody will care if they have been married only for one day before he applies for her visa, as long as there is an attessted marriage certificate, and she passes the medical tests (which she already has anyway since she is under her father's sponsorship) they will be fine.

have a read to the 'read before you post' (or even better, ask your friends to read it) since it will answer a lot of their questions.

also is illegal for them to live together until they are married (but many people overlook this, at their own risk of course)


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## wazza2222 (Sep 7, 2011)

*Vistitor visa*

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you can opt for a once off 90 day visa when you first enter (for a fee) 

That might take some of the pressure off?

Regards
Waz


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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

dizzyizzy said:


> He may not be able to find a job on the first 30 days of his visa but luckly for him, USA passport holders can do ´visa runs' (do a forum search) every 30 days so he can extend his stay much longer, for a few months actually, by doing a border run to get a new visit visa.
> 
> information regarding the need to exit the country in order to get the residence visa stamped can be quite contradictory, so he'll be better off checking those details with his employer once he secures a job. Even if he does have to leave the country, as I said, he can just easily cross the border to Oman and come back so it shouldn't be an issue. Once that's done and his residence has been stamped on his passport, he'll be able to sponsor his wife. Don't think the wedding date or place makes any difference, as long as they are already married by the time he applies for her residence visa. Because the UAE doesn't give out citizenship nor benefits to non nationals, the rules are quite different from UK or USA. Nobody will care if they have been married only for one day before he applies for her visa, as long as there is an attessted marriage certificate, and she passes the medical tests (which she already has anyway since she is under her father's sponsorship) they will be fine.
> 
> ...


Thanks so so much for all your help. I am going to copy everything you've said and will refer him to this forum as well. I'm sure he will be shoot to hear there are ways to get around the whole thirty day thing. Awesome. Thanks again!

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## Vegasgirl94 (Feb 12, 2011)

wazza2222 said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you can opt for a once off 90 day visa when you first enter (for a fee)
> 
> That might take some of the pressure off?
> 
> ...


That would be interesting to know as well.

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