Greetings:
After over ten years in Saudi Arabia, I am leaving. However, my employer doesnt have a great reputation when it comes to paying out severance pay. They have been known to give people a quick final exit visa (like 72 hours) and tell those people that the check (e.g., final indemnity and/or overtime) would be in the mail. If these people did eventually receive their monies, I have no idea. However, this was back in the day when they, HR, held our passports. Now, they, Administration, not HR, have in the past few years let us keep our passports (why I have no idea). Based on this, my plan was quite simple. I would hold onto my passport until I got all my money. In fact, I even told HR a few weeks ago that my passport was at the Embassy for processing. They didnt like that at all and they told me somewhat angrily to get it back from the Embassy as quickly as possible! Based on this, I really thought I could hold onto my passport until all of final money was deposited into my bank account. After this, I would give HR my passport and exit the Kingdom as gracefully as possible.
However, today I was speaking to Pakistani-American colleague who is also leaving. He told me that the Ministry of the Interior/the Passport Office can now issue your final exit visa to your employer without your passport. He told me that everything vis-à-vis the Passport Office is now on-line. The employer brings up your MOI file, presses one button, and presto, the system issues your final exit visa. He figures that the guy at HR perhaps doesnt understand the system yet, but when he does, he will issue our final exit visas so fast, that our heads will spin. However, he told me next that he at least cant be issued a final exit visa without his passport so quickly because he has a car and he doesnt plan to sell his car until he has all his money. According to him, our employer cant issue him his final exit visa until he sells his car. Unfortunately, in my case, I dont have a car. My colleague has advised me to run up my credit card from Riyadh Bank as quickly as possible. He tells me that if I have a debt (bigger the better) on my credit card, my employer cant issue me my final exit visa. With a big credit card debt, they would have to wait, according to my colleague, until I paid it off to issue me my final exit visa. However, is this true? Also, everyone tells me, except for my Pakistani-American colleague of course, that HR still needs my passport to issue me my final exit visa. The MOI/Passport Office on-line system is brand new (I think) so does anyone understand how this new system works. Basically, who is right here?
Please note that I am a bit paranoid about using my credit card in the way my colleague has advised me. I only got it to rent cars and book hotel rooms. I have never run up any debt on it because I have never wanted to run up any debt in Saudi Arabia. However, now I am told to run it up to the max. Frankly, I dont know what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading my posting and I look forward to reading your replies.
Help! I desperately need advice about my final exit visa.
While you know they are upset for you keeping the passport with you, return it to them at earliest.
Even if they apply for quick final exit, you should not leave kingdom without taking legal benefit from your employer.
Final exit forms must be signed by employee stating that "they have no pending claims towards company".
Be clear to them that you are not leaving without taking your legal benfits.
I see some logic in having debt, which could only be paid with your severance pay. The thing you should look for is a way to run up the debt that is easy to pay off. If you had a bank loan you could keep the cash offshore until you wanted. Some cards allow you to transfer an amount to your bank account also, but I doubt these have come the the KSA yet.
I think the best way to approach this issue is as though your company won't pay you, if you've left the country. It's not an anti-Saudi or Gulf thing, just the way many businesses operate. But, that doesn't mean being unkind, negative or burning bridges with your current colleagues (which ever ethnicity that have - I don't know why you've repeatedly mentioned it). The one thing I've noticed, as an expat who's lived in a few countries, is that you get less with a stick than a carrot. Unless you're prepared to have a lengthy court case and large expenses because you're having to live in a hotel, I wouldn't try anything other than diplomacy and tact.
To be blunt, when I signed my first contract I thought the 'severance bonus' was a joke, only fulfilled by government departments. Schools here are not unlike others elsewhere; they will pay you (usually) while you're doing the job. Once you're gone, you're gone from their attention. They have foreign teachers arriving and leaving on a regular basis and their primary objective is to keep up enrollment, reputation in their city, and their own jobs. An experienced, valued employee taking away 10 years of experience is not conducive to their needs.
if you have your family you can live in peace with good income, but don't let your ids grow up here, its better to back home if you have kids growing up here
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