WTF is this about? I’m being told to move to some sh1tty apartment and pay for my kids schools if I don’t “comply”. Why is it even relevant? This was not made clear to me until I landed in the pit. What can I do?
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Many places in KSA, think Neom and other pointless government projects don’t have this kind of requirement on spouses being in KSA. It’s an Aramco thing that is mentioned time and time again in onboarding literature. It’s like a badge of honor for the HR clowns, they love their d-mb diktats that make them important. If only Aramco paid so much diligence to things that actually mattered.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the type of Expats we hire these day. Sheep. Even the janitor knows this, but Mr knows-it-all doesn't. Noone to blame but yourself. You want school fees when your kids are not here? your want family repat money when your family is not here? What planet were you hired from?
You may have missed this policy when you signed up but it's tough to believe you have just known about it recently. Don't they send those automated emails anymore whenever the wife exceeds 100 days out of KSA or discussed with your fellow expats at the very least? Yea there is no logic to it but it's the rule. My advise, get the wife to take the next plane to KSA. If it's her first time, they will fly her business class. She should stay there for a while, enough for you not to cough up the tuition fee money. Next year, switch to bachelor status. Easier way out is make the run for it. Tell them you are picking up your wife, then don't come back.
Rules are rules. Many firms don’t have this policy, but aramco do make this clear (unless you really have been misrepresented which is possible). It’s a Stuck-in-the-1950s housewife view of women, but that’s KSA. Does though often preclude expats that have working wives with careers, which explains why only certain types of families (with certain religious views) come here!
Boo hoo. You knew the rule and now are upset because the company is enforcing the rule. Absolutely no sympathy and if you expected some, you're in the wrong business. Even if you didn't know the rule before you came (which is highly unlikely), you had 6 months to make plans...
Rule number 1: Don't bring your family to the kingdom.
Rule number 2: Don't bring your family to the kingdom.
You can ask for a one-time 30 day extension exception to the rule. It has been done in the past.
The reason to choose family status, is that your wife and kids remain in kingdom. As a result, the company gives you money for your kids school and repat for the entire family. There were always a few older people that were on family status, but you only saw the wives when they were there to renew their visas.
Abuse of the rule became much worse with the Europeans they hired about 10 years ago on family status, but the wives and kids never bothered to show up. It was with these expats, who had school age kids, that they started to notice the extent of this, which is blatant fraud by the way.
If you want the company to pick up the tab for school fees, and the extra travel allowance, then tell your wife to stay in the kingdom for 181 days each year.
Nothing… comply or be automatically transferred to bachelor status after paying back anything you might owe them. Stupid rule with no way to check days out of kingdom easily even though the company knows how many it is but they won’t tell you. However I just say when I joined this rule was made very clear and the repercussion if it was broken.