Your First Six Days
This applies to HCT staff only You will be
regarded as being 'on staff' from the first full day you arrive and
payment will start from the date you sign your contract in the UAE. During
your hotel stay, you will have an allowance for meals and be given your
furniture and shipping allowances. It is not expected that staff hired
from within the Emirates will require hotel accommodation unless their
present visa is cancelled and they return to the UAE on an HCT visa. The schedule for the first few days
is very full, interesting and exciting because so much must be
accomplished. Do try to have good quality sleeps during your stay in the
hotel. You may, if you wish,
take more time in the hotel, but the HCT will not pay costs past the six
day limit unless your accommodation is not available for occupancy.
College representatives will be at the hotel each morning to assist you in
every way possible. The Visa Officer will take your
passports and other documents so that he can begin to process your
Residency visa. This visa takes about twenty-one days to process and
without it you cannot obtain a telephone, sponsor your family, obtain a
driver's license etc. Thus, it is vital that we start this process
immediately. A medical examination will be
scheduled in the first two days at a local health unit. It will involve
blood and urine samples, HIV test and a chest X-ray. You will be provided with shopping
information and maps. A staff member will take you to a bank where you can
open an account and cash your furniture and shipping cheque. Shopping
trips will be arranged. You may wish to buy only the essential household
items at this point (e.g. Bed/s), but remember you need to make your
accommodation liveable. We will also take you to visit your accommodation
to measure the rooms so that you can order carpets (if necessary as many
places are tiled) curtains and major appliances. You will be expected to
report for work at DWC on the third Saturday in August (usually one week
after arrival) to start a two-week orientation program during which you
will meet your colleagues, learn college policies and procedures and
prepare for classes. Thus, it is important to try to accomplish as many
settling-in requirements as you can during the first week. It is a busy first week!
Here are some comment from a staff member who arrived in Dubai in August 09 from the USA Her comments are relevant and up to date...Leigh
First Day or Two: Get a cell phone Open bank account Arrange for mattress delivery (if an actual mattress, instead of an air mattress, is important to you) Also early but maybe not as crucial as day one or two
Stove/microwave. Get a phone You will need a phone before almost everything else, because the bank and deliveries will require this. Get a phone early. In order to get a phone, you will need to take your passport and visa (or copies of) to a phone dealer. They’re all over the place. At the time of this writing, you will pay 165 AED for the “sim card” to go inside the phone. If you need a phone, they range in price from about 100 AED at the low end to ????. Your sim card will give some you minutes right away, but once they are used up, you can buy a refill card at almost any grocery store. They come in 20, 50, and 100 AED. Only the person calling gets charged for the phone call – not the person receiving the call. (This is different from the USA). Bank account: HCT will need your bank account information upon your first days of arriving in order to begin processing your direct deposit. Steps in getting bank account: Get letter from HR Take to bank in person along with your passport, your residence information, and your mobile number. You will also need HCT’s P.O. Box information for your mail. A few days later, you will go in person to your bank to pick up your ATM card. Please note: if you deposit a check, it may take 3 – 5 days for the check to clear. This means you may not make any withdrawals on the check in the first week or so. The best way, if you want some of your relocation allowance immediately, is to withdraw some of the cash at the same time that you deposit it. They will allow you to deposit a portion (say 10,000) and take 20,000 in cash
Furniture/Appliances Some popular places to buy furniture for this year’s orientation group have been Ikea, Home Centre (there is one in the Mall of the Emirates and one in Sahara Mall in Sharjah – very close to DWC), THE one ONE (there is an outlet version of the ONE at the Dubai Outlets and there is a non-outlet version in various malls). Dragon Market has also been used. There are plenty of furniture stores around; these are just the most popular among this year’s group. What I have learning about buying furniture/appliances: Know that mattresses may take days to weeks to be delivered. If you care about a mattress and don’t want to use an airbed from ACE Hardware (across from Ikea at Festival City), plan to buy your mattress early. Ikea advertises free delivery and assembly if you spend over 2500 AED. However, know that at the time of this writing, delivery is approximately 2 – 3 weeks. Ikea will set up a private contractor to deliver to your house for a fee. The fee varies depending on how much stuff you have and how far your building is. For my delivery, I had a large mattress, a bookshelf, and a toddler bed delivered to Mamzar in Dubai for 150 AED. On the bright side, it was same day delivery. Home Centre had faster delivery – three or four days. Plug Ins (for appliances, located in Festival city) had next day delivery. (But it did get delayed and ended up being 3 days). Lulu’s (for appliances) had next day delivery. (And it was next day). It has been common with this group of “newbies” to have deliveries delayed and delayed. I think almost all of us have experience with a delivery “guaranteed” between 10 – 5, only to have the delivery men call at 6 to say they’ll come tomorrow. Then it may be repeated tomorrow. So know that delivery schedules are very lose. Many people will advise you wait to buy your furniture. You will find great deals on the HCT marketplace, on dubizzle.com, and on souq.com, but it all depends on your style of living. Perhaps you don’t want to wait? Perhaps you want new? Perhaps used is perfectly fine? Note: if you buy used, you will most likely have to make your own delivery arrangements. Car If
you have a tourist visa, you may be able to rent a car with your home
driver’s license (depending on country of origin). In our situation, my husband (who entered on a tourist visa) got the car. I will not be able to drive it, because the insurance will not cover my driving since I have an employment visa but not a UAE driver’s license. Gas for Home Some people have gas tanks in their apartment while others have a gas line. If you have a gas line, there is a procedure to be followed. Find out from your apartment or villa security office which gas companies services your building. This is the procedure we had to following using Royal Gas for our building in Mamzar. Call the gas company and tell them you want service. They require 1000 AED deposit – 750 is refundable and 250 is a non-refundable connection fee. If you have a local check, you can just set up an appointment for the serviceman to come and set up your gas and give him a check. However, if you don’t have a local check, as most of us don’t, then call the company. Get their banking information (account number). Go to their bank and deposit 1000 AED. Make sure you get proof of the deposit. Then call the company back and set up the time for the serviceman to come. What we actually ended up doing was spending hours going around to different banks, only to find out the teller was closed, was on lunch, or whatever. When the serviceman came, we just gave him the 1000AED which he accepted with a shrug and gave us a receipt. You can probably follow this unofficial but less time consuming method.
More About Driver’s License:
I
took the following: Original passport Letter of no objection from HCT Copies of my residence visa and passport info pages Copies (front and back) of my driver’s license A completed application (available in Tony and Hosun’s office in FAD) Completed eye exam paper Two passport photos Total, it took about 30 minutes, and I only waited about one minute to be helped.
Banking Services
Transfer of funds may take some time in the UAE and credit cards are acceptable at many stores. As you cannot open an account before you get here, you cannot transfer funds. We have found the best method for ensuring immediate cash is to carry US Dollars or £ Sterling as they can be readily exchanged. However, please remember that you will have cash from your meal allowance given to you on arrival and access to more once your bank account is open within a couple of days.
A Multicultural Environment
Local Culture of the UAE As you prepare your move to the
United Arab Emirates, you are probably intrigued about the way of life of
the national citizens of this interesting little country. Learning about
new cultures is exciting, and there’s no better place to do it than
right here in Dubai. You will come face to face with the people of this
young country as they develop and progress, at the same time struggling to
retain their most valued traditions. You will find nationals whose way of
life seems very familiar – their dress, habits, and beliefs almost a
reflection of your own. You will find nationals who live a life so unlike
yours that you will wonder if it is at all possible to even begin to
understand each other. The delicate blend between contemporary and
traditional is beautifully illustrated in the country’s architecture –
modern structures with state of the art facilities stand tall between old
mosques and forts of days gone by. Cosmopolitan Dubai However national citizens make up
only 25 percent of those you will encounter here. The majority consists of
other Arabs (12%), Asians (60%), and small groups of Americans Canadians,
Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Europeans. Dubai is truly
cosmopolitan, bringing together a variety of individuals of different
ethnicities, nationalities, cultures, languages, colors and religions;
some wealthy, some poor; some who are highly educated, others who are
illiterate. Surprisingly, this collection of different people co-exist
quite peacefully. Guests in a Foreign Land Upon arriving in Dubai, you can
easily surround yourself with those who come from the same place and speak
your language. In fact, your life in Dubai can be very similar to your
life at home. However, the real challenge, indeed the real delight, of
living in a foreign country is to learn about and experience the unknown!
Opportunities abound for those with a sense of curiosity and a desire to
explore the culture of the UAE and the various cultures of the expatriates
living here. The challenge of living
successfully in Dubai is to be flexible, to observe, participate, learn,
adapt, and grow, while trying to minimize judgmental or ethnocentric
attitudes. It is not easy, but is a journey well worth taking! Cosmopolites of DWC And
you do not have to take this journey alone! The Dubai Women’s College is
made up of cosmopolites or "citizens of the world". Along with
many UAE nationals, your future co-workers come from America, Australia,
Bangladesh, Britain, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran,
Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, New Zealand, Palestine, Pakistan,
Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Turkey. This little
"United Nations" is working together towards one final goal –
to educate young Emirati women. Doing this successfully involves
understanding, patience, open-mindedness, humour, and lots of hard work.
There is no time or tolerance for prejudice, discrimination and racism –
these only slow down the accomplishment of the HCT mission and individual
growth. The Staff profile pages on this
site contain brief introductions of these people who, by necessity or
inclination, continue to probe the frontiers of being a citizen of the
world. We look forward to
adding a page with your name on it and hope that you, too, will take full
advantage of the adventures awaiting you and become a successful and happy
cosmopolite!
This page was last updated by Leigh Butler on October 19, 2009
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