Whats the life as an expat in Hail, Saudi Arabia?

got it thanks for the reply.

Hello Guys!
Any news from UoH in regards to VISA etc after signing initial offer letter? Any idea when they send/start the whole process?

raguelmoon wrote:

Hello Guys!
Any news from UoH in regards to VISA etc after signing initial offer letter? Any idea when they send/start the whole process?

no idea same situation here, waiting

Hi Dears,
I signed the contract in May and I'm still waiting for the next step, no response to my emails from the University of Hail!!

Hello Doctors, did anyone already received any message from UoH?

Hi fellas hope everyone is doing fine if anyone has gone through the process of which we all are waiting for or anyone who has any particular information please share, sep is the reporting month and no one actually knows what will be the actual document processing time and procedural delays in it so please share ant relevant info.

Ps: has anyone been recently contacted by UOH or any other uni you may be waiting from.

Thanks

GuvJZ wrote:

Hi fellas hope everyone is doing fine if anyone has gone through the process of which we all are waiting for or anyone who has any particular information please share, sep is the reporting month and no one actually knows what will be the actual document processing time and procedural delays in it so please share ant relevant info.

Ps: has anyone been recently contacted by UOH or any other uni you may be waiting from.

Thanks

Not sure about the processing times, but my situation at a different university in KSA is as follows:

1st week of March: Accepted informal offer from department chairman
1st week of June: Received and accepted official offer letter from the contracting department.

After accepting the offer, I have been told that my visa number will be sent to the Saudi Culture Office in Islamabad and that I will be informed by email once this is done. It has been almost a month since then and I have yet to receive the email. I have also contacted the culture office several times to inquire if they have received my visa but, as of yet, they have not. I am afraid, there is not much we can do other that wait for their response.

For Pakistani applicants, if you have not already done so, please do the following:
1. Attest your highest degree from HEC and Foreign Office. In case, you have a foreign degree, get its equivalence first, then attest the equivalence letter from HEC and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
2. In case of a foreign degree, write to your university to send you a letter stating that you were a "regular" student of that university. Last year, I was preparing my documents for a different university in KSA and the culture office asked me to send them this letter.
3. In case you have a family and you want to take them along to KSA, get your birth certificates, marriage registration certificate in order. Translate them in English and Arabic and attest them from MOFA.

It will save you a lot of time, if by the time you receive your visa numbers, you have these documents ready.

Best of luck to everyone!

Thanks, SKK for the info, helps a lot throughout the thread you have shared a lot of valuable information especially very helpful to me. Just to be clear, casing point 2 you are talking about a bona fides for attending a school like a regular scholar or something if I am not wrong.

cheers budd

GuvJZ wrote:

Thanks, SKK for the info, helps a lot throughout the thread you have shared a lot of valuable information especially very helpful to me. Just to be clear, casing point 2 you are talking about a bona fides for attending a school like a regular scholar or something if I am not wrong.

cheers budd

Dear GuvJZ,

Many thanks for your kind words. I am happy my posts have been helpful.

The "regular letter" as the SCO calls it is a letter on the university letter head from the foreign university which confirms that the student was a regular student and not a distance learning/online student. The letter which my university has sent me has the following format:
"I am writing to confirm that the student XYZ successfully completed his research degree for the award of PhD on XYZ for the thesis titled XYZ, having studied at <university name>. He was a regular student throughout this period."

I hope it helps.

Dear SKK1984!
Thank you for sharing useful information. I have one question: Saudi consulate attests only equivalence degree (I have foreign PhD), should I need to show them all original documents (matric onward) or only equivalence certificate which I have got verified/attested both from HEC and MOFA?
Thank you...

raguelmoon wrote:

Dear SKK1984!
Thank you for sharing useful information. I have one question: Saudi consulate attests only equivalence degree (I have foreign PhD), should I need to show them all original documents (matric onward) or only equivalence certificate which I have got verified/attested both from HEC and MOFA?
Thank you...

Only your highest degree is sufficient. There is no need for Matric, F.Sc. etc.

skk1984 wrote:

GuvJZ wrote:

Thanks, SKK for the info, helps a lot throughout the thread you have shared a lot of valuable information especially very helpful to me. Just to be clear, casing point 2 you are talking about a bona fides for attending a school like a regular scholar or something if I am not wrong.

cheers budd

Dear GuvJZ,

Many thanks for your kind words. I am happy my posts have been helpful.

The "regular letter" as the SCO calls it is a letter on the university letter head from the foreign university which confirms that the student was a regular student and not a distance learning/online student. The letter which my university has sent me has the following format:
"I am writing to confirm that the student XYZ successfully completed his research degree for the award of PhD on XYZ for the thesis titled XYZ, having studied at <university name>. He was a regular student throughout this period."

I hope it helps.

Cheers mate

Hii
any updates after accepting the initial offer letter?
I accepted the offer in late March. No response then from UOH. Is this type of delay are usual?

I also accepted the offer in mid April, but no reply yet...

Dear SKK!
No need to attest PhD transcript for Saudi work visa? Only PhD degree is sufficient?
Thanks in advance!

raguelmoon wrote:

Dear SKK!
No need to attest PhD transcript for Saudi work visa? Only PhD degree is sufficient?
Thanks in advance!

Hello Raguelmoon,

I think only the degree is sufficient. But please confirm it from the Saudi Culture Office.

Hi

Has anyone got any response form UOH or any information?

GuvJZ wrote:

Hi

Has anyone got any response form UOH or any information?

No response yet.

No response yet.

No responce yet from the university

no update from the university. isn't it?

Dear all,

I would like to inform you that I received my visa number from King Faisal University today. Insha'Allah, you all will receive it soon as well.

I think the next step of documents attestation from Saudi Culture Office is also a daunting task. I hope it goes smoothly.

Best of luck to everyone.

By the way, the date of issue on the visa number is 22 May 2018. Not sure why they delayed it so much.

Congratulation! Did you also accept the offer of Hail?

Congratulations SKK.

I sent an email last Sunday to UoH, but to no avail.

Praying anytime soon we will also receive an update.

Congratulations SKK
Your further processing on documents defnitely help us in near future.
Please stay in touch though this forum.

raguelmoon wrote:

Congratulation! Did you also accept the offer of Hail?

Thanks. No, I did not accept it.

llegojordan wrote:

Congratulations SKK.

I sent an email last Sunday to UoH, but to no avail.

Praying anytime soon we will also receive an update.

Thanks. Insha'Allah, you will receive it soon.

ExpHail wrote:

Congratulations SKK
Your further processing on documents defnitely help us in near future.
Please stay in touch though this forum.

Thanks. Sure, I will Insha'Allah.

skk1984 wrote:

Dear all,

I would like to inform you that I received my visa number from King Faisal University today. Insha'Allah, you all will receive it soon as well.

I think the next step of documents attestation from Saudi Culture Office is also a daunting task. I hope it goes smoothly.

Best of luck to everyone.

By the way, the date of issue on the visa number is 22 May 2018. Not sure why they delayed it so much.

great news man, sound quite absurd why did they hold it for so long. Were you in contact with someone at your university. Who is the best person to be contacted by your opinion HR the person whom we got email from etc.. any insight would be great as to no idea what is going on in UOH.

GuvJZ wrote:

skk1984 wrote:

Dear all,

I would like to inform you that I received my visa number from King Faisal University today. Insha'Allah, you all will receive it soon as well.

I think the next step of documents attestation from Saudi Culture Office is also a daunting task. I hope it goes smoothly.

Best of luck to everyone.

By the way, the date of issue on the visa number is 22 May 2018. Not sure why they delayed it so much.

great news man, sound quite absurd why did they hold it for so long. Were you in contact with someone at your university. Who is the best person to be contacted by your opinion HR the person whom we got email from etc.. any insight would be great as to no idea what is going on in UOH.

During the whole process, I have been in contact with the department chairman. Moreover, end of May, I got the official offer through their online faculty recruitment system. It's a web portal which has a dedicated 'queries' page where one can post questions and get instant (within a couple of days) replies from their contracting department. I have been raising questions there about my visa only to be told that it was under processing. Perhaps, it was a combination of constant reminders to the chairman and the contracting department which helped in my case. It also depends on the university. Last year, I got an offer from another uni in KSA and their correspondence and the whole process was very unprofessional to say the least.

Thanks for the quick reply man lets hope they wake up.

Hello Dears,
I tried to call the university but not response

That's unfortunate Dr. Mehrez if we cannot reach them through phone and cannot reach them also by email, it is like we are waiting in vain.

I hope, they will also inform us if our application has pushed through or not.

Hello Dears,
I called the Saudi Culture Office in Tunisia, they tell me that they received some visas from Hail University but not mine!

Dr Mehrez B wrote:

Hello Dears,
I called the Saudi Culture Office in Tunisia, they tell me that they received some visas from Hail University but not mine!

Don't worry. I'A they will receive yours soon. In my case also, whenever I called, they told me that they have received visas of two other persons from the same uni but not mine. After a long wait, they received my visa number.

Thank you Skk 1984
I hope to receive the confirmation of my contract as soon as possible, the next procedure steps will take more time

Dear SKK!
Do you have idea how many days it will take after recieving visa number? I have to attene one workshop in Germany from 26 august to 31 august.

raguelmoon wrote:

Dear SKK!
Do you have idea how many days it will take after recieving visa number? I have to attene one workshop in Germany from 26 august to 31 august.

After receiving visa number, the following steps are required:

1. Attestation of highest degree from Saudi Culture Office (SCO).
I have submitted by documents 2 days ago. I have been told by the agent to expect the process to complete in 4-6 weeks while the SCO guy told me it'd take 2-4 weeks. So, I guess it can take anywhere between 2-6 weeks if all my documents are in order and they don't ask me for more documents/attestations.

2. Attestation of documents/stamping of visa by Saudi Embassy.
I think it takes 2-4 working days. Needs to be confirmed.

3. Medical tests from authorised medical centre.
I think it takes 2-4 working days. Needs to be confirmed.

4. Issuance of air tickets.
This should be very quick.

The most important thing is to get all the required documents ready for Step 1 so that when visa number arrives, there is no delay from your side in submitting documents to SCO. Please call SCO to confirm what documents will be required for attestation.

P.S. Please chip in with your inputs if anyone has a different opinion.

Dear SKK!
Thank you very much for your reply. I want to ask one question: which types of documents have you submitted to the Saudi culture for attestation in step 1? I mean only PhD equivalence certificate attested by HEC and MOFA? or others ? thank you very much!

raguelmoon wrote:

Dear SKK!
which types of documents have you submitted to the Saudi culture for attestation in step 1? I mean only PhD equivalence certificate attested by HEC and MOFA? or others ? thank you very much!

1. Original Passport
2. PhD Degree (Foreign)
3. PhD Equivalence Certificate (attested by HEC and MOFA)
4. A letter from my university in UK which confirms I was a 'regular' student. I had it attested from British Council in Singapore while I was there. Not sure if attestation is required though.
5. Scholarship letter from my UK university which confirms my fee and stipend was given by them.

A couple of points to mention:
1. The agent was insisting that I first attest my foreign PhD degree from UK before giving him the documents. I refused this. Called SCO and put my phone on speaker. SCO said it is ok to submit the documents which I have. In case they want anything else, they will let me know in a couple of days. So I just submitted the above five documents to the agent.
2. A guy from SCO told me to submit proof of payment of my university fee. I told him that I was on scholarship and submitted my scholarship letter along with other documents. 

My experience is that the agents are nothing more than postmen. They are not a reliable source of information. The best thing to do is to ask SCO directly for any clarification.