Posted By GT
Chris D, I don't work there however, I visit on a regular basis what can I help you with?

Schooling I know nothing about but I am sure there are British curriculum teaching schools there has to be for the expat population.

Housing is expensive so you need to ensure this is included in your package and indexed link it goes up by the month.

Traffic............horrendous........new monorail being constructed.

anything else ?

Gt

Posted By Steve Butler
Hi Chris

I've also been offered a position in Dubai and have found out a lot of info regarding living/working over there with your family.

The schooling is second to none and costs per child per term of which there are only 3 terms per year. I have been informed that it will cost £1500 each per term for my children (6&8).

The housing is great, ranges from 1 bed apartments to 4 bed villas and should be rented (most popular choice as mortgages are difficult to obtain unless your wealthy and can buy outright). My employer has property for me to stay in first before i take the family out (after approx 3mths so i can settle into the job and find schooling etc).

Loads of English speaking people (roughly 150 families a week emigrate to Dubai from USA/UK/Australia).

And of course the salary is TAX FREE !!!!

I can't wait to get my terms and conditions, i have been offered family status working for EMCOR as Corporate H&S Manager on major projects.

Let me know when your going out and we can keep in touch.

Regards, Steve

Posted By Steve Butler
Hi Andrew

Thanks for the very interesting and informative response to this thread. I have a question for you please.

Q. Why is it that you can expect to make little or no money for the first 18 months?

Steve

Posted By Andrew Joule Land
Dear Steve.


the loans that you may need to take out just to get settled in to Dubai

– Most consumer items that you need to get cannot be obtained until you have your visa then you can start to approach the banks to open an account.

– You have to provide salary statements copies of your passport and visa and usually 3 passport photos. You will also need a letter from your employer stating what your salary is.

– To get you over the (average) three months it takes to finally get your visa companies usually put you up in apartment hotels / company apartments – because they do this they stop your housing allowance.

– You will also need to get a copy of your qualifications attested by the foreign and commonwealth office then take them to the UAE Embassy – check on their opening times as well – you will need to do this also for your marriage certificate so that your wife / partner, whatever you wish to refer to the lady as, other wise this will slow down your visa process.

– When this is finished then you can look for a property – Where your work location is, is a factor in this as well so that you can be within a reasonable distance to work.



The above also depends on the package that you are coming out to – Some companies have their own accommodation and provide you with vehicles plus pick up the tab for electricity / water and fuel plus provide a partial allowance for children’s education because they also own the school. These however are in the minority.



As said before there is no direct debit system in most of the banks here so if you have to pay for housing you have to pay by cheque – some require one cheque but at the best it will be three cheques – plus deposit on the property- deposit for the electric plus a five percent finders fee to the estate agent.



A reasonable property in a good area will cost about 140,000 dhm per year – if this is one cheque you will have to get a loan for about 200,000 dhm.



If you have to pay in one cheque. Then furnish the place – IKEA is the favourite. That will be say another 20,000 dhm. And you haven’t bought a car yet – you might even need 2. A good second hand car will cost from 89000 dhm most buy a four by four for security – when you see how they drive you will know what I mean.



Usually this can be paid over 36 months – yes that means you have to write 36 post dated cheques. Then Schooling – again paid up front – travel, insurance is sometimes charged as an extra over the cost of the actual term fees, and then uniforms will be needed. These sometimes can only be bought from certain shops that have a franchise. Add to this your cost of living which is reasonable then this has taken care of your first nine months salary.



By this time your wife and children will want to have a holiday back in UK to escape the summer here. This will blow another couple of thousand pounds. Add to this the repayment of loans which you probably want to do as quickly as possible one year is over and you have to stump up next years rent – this also may have increased 15%.



The Minimum package to look for is 45000dhm pcm (your basic wage in this will be about 24,000 the rest made up in allowances) otherwise you will struggle

If you do come out remember that any life insurances etc. you pay in UK will be on hold best you find out he details of their small print. Get in touch with the Income tax people to get a P98. and the national insurance pensions department to maintain your contribution to the pension fund. you may also need to open an offshore account - I'm told that HSBC or Lloyd's give some good advice - I'm not with them by the way not for any particular reason other than the company I work for don't have an agreement with them.