I write this out of a sense of gratitude to a whole flock of
UGRU people who sent me advice on various visa problems that cropped up with my
Philipino wife whom I needed to bring here for a visit so we could fly on
together with our children to Turkey and the USA. So this deals with that problem
plus my final clearance process from the university. I’ll leave out the packing
and moving!
The first problem in our knot of dilemmas was my wife’s one-month
tourist visa; many campus experts said I wouldn’t be able to sponsor her since
my residence visa was close to expiry itself. In fact I was able to without
problems, at Al Jimi immigration, a bureaucratic victory I described at the
time. They issued me the visa, I sent it to my wife, and she used it to get
into the country legally. (Later we’d pay a heavy price for getting the one-month
rather than the slightly more expensive two month).
My wife’s tourist visa caused us a major problem when we
applied for another tourist visa to Turkey where we have frequently gone for
vacations and business in Bodrum. When she applied this time, however (in the
past we got one day processing), the consulate turned us down, saying they
couldn’t grant her a visa based on her visit visa to the UAE! They insisted
that the only way they could grant the visa was for my wife to apply in her
home country, the Philippines! Disaster! Or apparently. The rest of the family
as US passport holders had no such problem of course. We had plenty of evidence
of legitimate business in Turkey, onward tickets to the US, and her obvious mother-
and wife- hood (arguing against a supposed illegal labor motive). After all our
planning, our case fell on deaf ears. We were stunned, stymied, speechless.
After recovering from shock, we went back to the window to
argue for our case. I showed the sympathetic but firm (& Tagalog speaking) clerk
pages from Marivic’s passport sporting both UAE residence visas and Turkish
tourist visas. We flourished once again our colorful medallioned marriage
certificate… and mentioned that we’d have to sell the house if we couldn’t go
there together. The clerk was obviously swayed by one or more of these pleas,
and disappeared again behind the magic curtain where the power person was
concealed.
We waited a few more agonizing moments before another women
emerged from the same place, the mysterious god herself, and crisply asked us
for Marivic’s passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate, then
returned to the mystical place she occupied. She returned a few minutes later
with the documents and the precious visa stamped into Marivic’s passport!
Halas! Blessing Turkey and all its inhabitants but especially the good consul
(who’d rushed back behind the screen to avoid our effusive thanks), we waited
to leave the embassy before celebrating with the customary high and low fives.
(Paul Fernandes of ETE hearing the story added that he thought the onward
tickets to the US were the most compelling argument).
Now (if any readers are still awake) for the arduous
fandango of “clearance.” Because I worked under the relatively light conditions
of a visiting contract the last two years, I had a comparatively easy “clearance”
or “cancellation” process; the visiting contract is quicker and less complex to
disencumber oneself from than the full time one. But the main thing about
leaving the UAE is to keep in mind that you can’t keep all the deadlines in
mind at the same time especially when you have extra exigencies and the memory
challenges I have (laugh).
The clearances – a list of about 6-8. But I never saw the
list, so negotiated it bit by bit as these were made apparent to me.
Head of Dept (automatic by email)
Dean of College (automatic by email)
Library (do it yourself; plus pay the fine for a lost book).
Help desk – (equipment issued; none for me)
Itisalat (have to go there, pay any bills, and apply for it
and pick up the next day)
(no utilities or house contract/landlord issues since put up
in hotel)
Immigration (cancellation of residence visa done by HR)
This latter is required before you get your last pay
deposited.
There is no published info on the process that I know of, so
you may not have abundant information about the process as you proceed. For
example, after I thought I had qualified for the final, liberating residence
visa cancellation – HR told me I had to show them my wife’s flight ticket. In
fact my wife’s visa was/is an airport visa so this requirement was a mistake
and slowed down my clearance by a day or so. It’s my fault that I didn’t point
this out to them myself. The process turns you into a passive automaton though
with no will of your own.
Meanwhile bills had to be paid – the moving company dunned
me yesterday for the completion of payment, and when we leave the Danat Hotel we’ll
have to cough up 20 days of hotel bills!
My residence visa cancellation finally came thru yesterday
although why it took so long I can’t explain but perhaps because the item
passed between the university visa section and the gov’t office in Al Jimi.
With the salary drop still in suspense, this formality wasn’t an academic
issue. Finally a few days before flight day, an email message from HR announced
the long awaited salary payment, which was less than I expected. Will it show up
in my bank today, and if not, when? Fortunately our plane tickets were already
paid for; we had to get them early, ahead of time, to qualify for my wife’s
reduced visa overstay fine (called an “outpass”).
Yes, yet another bureaucratic snarl! You see, my wife went
over her nonrenewable 30 day visa on July 5 and in principle was accumulating
fines – dhs 100 per day!
For this, we learned, there is another bureaucratic
procedure called the “outpass”—a stop gap measure which allows the overstayer
to pay a portion of the fines provided the overstay isn’t more than a week. We
learned about this and put it into practice in time.
We only had to pay 5 days of fines, about ½ the normal amt –
of dhs 100 per day. All this trouble came from my parsimoniously not having
gotten my wife a two-month visa at the beginning. It doesn’t always pay to be a
cheapskate!
So far these procedures alone wouldn’t have been so
overwhelming; we had another very important job, however, during the same few
weeks my wife and children were here: to apply for and obtain my younger
daughter’s Philippines passport.
Why so, many asked. Well the fact is Marisol was born in
this country and could have been registered as a Philippines citizen at that
time (2008); instead we registered her as an American citizen since that seemed
the obvious choice, never considering whether dual citizenship would be
advantageous for her.
During the last two years, however, while we were compelled
to live apart, wife & daughters in the Philippines and me here, we discovered
that Marisol became liable after a few months or so to a stiff visa overstay
penalty that ran as high as $100 per month! (my other daughter is a dual
citizen, having been born in the Philippines, afterward coming here and being
registered as a citizen in the US). We didn’t want to burden Marisol or
ourselves with such a financial burden in the future should we, or she, spend
long periods in the Philippines. My wife informed me that according to Philippines
immigration laws, children can stay on their entrance visa one year; but they
must renew and get an extension visa every two months (more than $100). The fee
goes up progressively with each extension, plus penalties for lateness,
(sometimes as much as dhs 100 per day!)
The duration from application to pick up was as promised,
about one month. This speaks well of the efficiency and reliability of the
Philippines Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
We picked up Marisol’s precious document yesterday
and celebrated with a blowout at Luce.
So those are some of the recent joys of from the
bureaucratic world of visas and passports in the UAE.
Diary – July 12 (more suspense)
On departure day, two problems: sill haven’t rid our selves
of all our excess property (framed photos for example) –second, no pay deposit
appears in my account. Today is Friday and it’s Ramadan (we say welcome to this
additional confusing factor we’ve had so many puzzles to resolve, the day
wouldn’t feel right without a dozen more impossibilities), so can’t expect to
do much business today. We need to change dirhams into dollars before we leave
since the national currency is worthless outside the country. Saturday maybe
but we’ll be gone if we catch our flight tonight though the flight is actually
at 2:00 am tomorrow.
It’s the last day of our 17 day (!!!) extended stay at
Danat. Thank god they’re giving us a break here on the room rate! Danat agreed
to the “company rate” of 300/day, which is close to pure charity. That means we
owe 4800 for the room, plus extras such as room service food last night. Though
with only 7000 left in our account, it looks like we will have to use savings
to finance our departure.
We’ll have to use credit or debit.
Our next communiqué should be from Istanbul, Turkey, a big
inshallah from now! Wish us luck. No better yet pray!
(also published
on Mid East Review of Books: www.mideastbook.blogspot.com)
