One Month and Finally Residents (finally!)

One of the most delightful experiences expats get to enjoy in their early days living in a new country is the residency process. For our experience in the UAE, that process has been more than memorable, sometimes scary, but finally it is finished (at least we hope!). On Sept. 10 we became official residents of Abu Dhabi. We have a nice shiny pink piece of paper pasted into our passports to show for it. Now for a few stories behind that piece of paper.

The normal routine for all tourists and most would-be workers arriving in the UAE is to get a 30 day visitors' visa stamped in your passport upon arrival. If you intend to set up residency to work, you then have 30 days to gain an official employment letter from your company or sponsor. Once you get the letter, you can either pay a fee to have a residency stamp placed in your passport, or you get to participate in an exciting visa run!

Since our employer didn't have the employment letter waiting for us at the airport, we first stamped in using the visitors' visa. About a week later, we received the employment letter from AISA and were told that we would be travelling by bus to Oman the next day for the visa run. Around 8 the next morning, we loaded up with 5 other colleagues and began the long drive towards Al Ain, UAE which is very near the Oman border. The process is pretty simple. You get an exit stamp from the UAE, an entry stamp into Oman with their own visitors' stamp, an exit stamp from Oman, and then fill out some paperwork, get an eye exam, and get a new residency stamp into the UAE. All the bus driver had to do was make a u-turn about 20 meters inside Oman and let us out. Oh, and the school gave him all the money to pay for the process, which was nice. Maybe the school should have paid him a little better because he then got us lost on the way back to Abu Dhabi. We were driving hopelessly around Al Ain, while starving. We did finally get back to Abu Dhabi after losing a whole day in the process. But I guess sacrificing one day is worth it, if you can be residents for the next 3 years.

The next hurdle to clear is to pass a blood test. Anyone seeking employment in the UAE has to to be checked for HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. I would guess they probably do some kind of drug test as well since drug possession and use is very heavily penalized here. We went with about 15 other colleagues to get our blood test about a week after doing the visa run. We both were amazed that the nurses here performed the needle work with less pain than the US nurses who had stuck us a month earlier during our physicals. Everything went fine at the clinic and we didn't think anything of it until Chandra was greeted by our school's Director just after finishing her first day of class (August 31). The Director walked into her room and closed the door behind him. Just doing that is enough to make any teacher nervous! He then informed her that she had failed her blood test and was required to go back to the hospital the next morning for a follow-up exam. Needless to say, we were panicked when she got the news. We had heard stories of people who failed the test (even a false positive for HIV) who were arrested, shackled, and deported within a day. There was nothing to have us to believe she was sick or hooked on drugs. We could only pray it was a mistake. The next 18 hours were pretty agonizing. We frantically called our life insurance agent to have them rush a scanned copy of our previous blood work to us via email. We got the info just before her appointment and printed a copy for her to take. Everything was fine on the old exam, of course, so we were breathing easier. Chandra was accompanied to the hospital by our director and another school administrator named Perihan who is fluent in Arabic. According to Chandra, Perihan arranged to meet with the head doctor to see what the problem was about. Armed with Chandra's previous blood work, Perihan demanded a second test to be run on her original sample. This time the test results were clear. What a relief! We're not sure what would have happened had Perihan not been able to advocate for her. We're grateful to our Lord for Perihan's help and for taking care of a very scary situation! An event like this definitely sharpens our faith, and it reaffirms that God is in control and He has been faithful in guiding our steps here.

About a week after the blood work scare, our school requested our passports. We knew from talking with the returning teachers that this was a good sign. It meant our residence papers were almost official. On September 10 we received our passports back with the official residency seal inside. After all this headache, you would think all the little details would be taken care of, right? Well not quite. According to my residency visa, my official name in this country is Wesley "Gorge" Pike. If the mistake is accidental, I don't think it's a big deal. But if the mistake is intentional, the governmental surveillance in this country is top notch. They've evidently been watching my behavior at the all-you-can-eat Ramadan buffets...