Yawn yawn immigration stuff...

When people think about moving to a country, one of the most confusing elements is working out what the visa restrictions are and what needs to be done. I therefore thought I would share with you our experience when moving to Oman. I apologise if I have got any of it incorrect but this is simply what happened for us.

Firstly, it is very different dependent on who receives the job offer in the household, i.e. man or woman. If the man receives it then his spouse and family automatically obtain permission to enter the country with him for the duration of his visa.  However, as in my case it was my wife who secured a job in Oman first and so I had to enter on a tourist visa.  This means that I am allowed to enter for 30 days initially, at a cost of 20 OMR which is about 30GBP or $50 US. Once that time has passed you have to return to the airport and purchase another 30 day visa at the same cost.

I went yesterday to renew my tourist visa thinking it should be simple and straightforward. Whilst the process was easy it ended up taking about an hour and a half to complete. All because the gentleman behind the counter used his last piece of paper in his book and had to go find another one. 45 minutes later and he returned with a new notebook. Only in Oman!

However, once this visa runs out it becomes a bit more difficult as you can’t renew again without leaving the country or questions start to be asked. Therefore a trip to Dubai or neighbouring country is required which can be a pain. The other problem is if you find a job and a company willing to sponsor you then the new rules are that you also have to leave the country for a few days and return on a work visa.

Each company will have a person who is their PRO (not 100% sure what this stands for) who looks after all this side of things. They will process the paperwork and on most occasions take you to the ministry to get all that sorted. One you have your work visa you need to visit the ministry, get your fingerprints taken and get your residents card and driving licence. The time it takes to do all this depends on how good the PRO is, it can vary from a couple of weeks to months from what I hear.

Nice clear signage always helps!

A separate note on the driving licences since I mentioned them earlier. As a visitor on a tourist visa you are only allowed to drive vehicles with red plates, which are rental and leased vehicles. Once you get your residents card you must get a local driving licence that you carry with you at all times and this allows you to drive yellow plated vehicles. This changed in the last few years as it used to be you could drive any car here. Worth taking note. 

I realise that this is a bit of a boring post but hopefully someone out there will find some useful information on it. Hopefully the next post will be a bit more interesting!