September 1st

As of tomorrow, we will officially have been here for one month. Some days it feels like less but other days it feels like longer.

In one month we have moved into a new home and furnished it. We have bought a car, did some repairs/maintenance on it, replaced the tires and insured it. We have hired a gardener to help us clean up the desert that we call a yard. We have visited every mall in the city, shopped at five different grocery stores and opened a bank account.

We have also braved various immigration procedures – blood typing, medical, eye test and fingerprinting.

But we aren’t finished yet.

Last week we were informed that C’s visa was refused and that I have to attend to an Immigration Committee meeting September 1st at 8:30am.

Background: Everyone that lives here must have a visa and a sponsor. The Company is my sponsor and as C does not have a company to sponsor him at the moment, I (through the Company) apply for a visa for C as his sponsor. On my behalf, the Company applied for the Family Visit Visa for C which, despite the name, is the type of visa required for him to live here permanently. With an approved visa, he can then get the residence permit and when he finds a job, as his sponsor I would give him a “No Objection Letter” stating that as his sponsor I don’t have a problem with him working for said job.

More Background: It was only in November of 2009 that the country updated the law to even allow women to sponsor their husbands. Before it was simply not a possibility. Even though the law has been updated, the final decision still rests with the Immigration Department.

Therefore, my application was refused on the grounds that (and I quote), “in this country wives simply don’t sponsor their husbands, it is usually the other way around”.

Yes, this may be a hard fact to accept and understand for those of us born and raised in a different world. Or at least we would like to think so. But let’s be honest, when most people (not our friends and family) back home found out we were moving to Qatar – 100% of the time it was assumed to be with C’s job.

It is certainly hard not to be upset about this situation, but C and I are in a new world now and here their rules apply. Whatever opinions we might have are for behind closed doors.

Is it also hard to deal with a lack of information but we have learned that the “rules” are 1) in Arabic and 2) subject to change at any time. So don’t worry too much about getting the right information because by tomorrow, it might be wrong.
I also learned, in the book “Don’t They Know It’s Friday” (which I really found useful), that here in the Gulf, they don’t like to deliver bad news or to tell people no. So be careful of information that is vague or not forthcoming as it likely has little to do with information not being available. I think this is where a lot of the “tomorrow” comes from. “Tomorrow” might just mean “I can’t fix your toilet and it isn’t in my contract to do so – so I won’t be doing it”.

So tomorrow I will be taken to the Ministry of Labour and a Company Immigration Officer will meet me there. They will accompany me to the place of my committee meeting and be on hand until it starts. But once it starts, I have to go in on my own.

By myself.

The committee (four to five men) will have my file and I will have to answer questions. What is in the file and what the questions are – I don’t know. Apparently I don’t even have to bring anything. Of course I will. I have my “binder” of photocopies of all official documents ready and waiting. I will even bring the “attested” copies of my marriage certificate and birth certificate to show if needed. Maybe they will reconsider their decision and reverse it and maybe they won’t. All I can be is prepared, polite and respectful. And hope for the best.

And yes, I am the first female expat at the Company to encounter the situation. Lucky us.

What does it mean if they refuse us again? It means that C will have to keep leaving the country on the infamous “visa run” each time his tourist visa runs out until he finds a job and company to sponsor him.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us!