Extraction 2

I referred in the first extraction post to the bureaucratic minutiae associated with leaving. Saudi Arabia does not permit free movement of people in, out, or even within its borders.

Every non-Saudi must have a sponsor. For example, Upul’s sponsor is a Canadian family who lives on camp. In addition to his salary, they pay the renewal fees for his visa and iqama (residence permit) and give him money to travel home once a year. When a sponsor brings someone into the Kingdom, the sponsor (an individual or a company) also has to pay an initial fee to the Saudi government of around SAR 10,000-20,000. The army of small brown men who clean, sweep, mow, drive, etc. are sponsored in bulk by Saudi middlemen who “sell” them to contractors. It’s nothing more than slavery thinly disguised as these poor guys often have to work off the sponsorship fees. Hard to do when you only make SAR 200 a month (about USD 50). Their sponsors hold their iqamas and passports so they can’t even look for a better job (a slave isn’t supposed to be able to shop around for a nicer master, right?). But back to the point, Aramco is my sponsor. And even though I hold my passport and iqama, I can’t just waltz out of here when I choose.

One important thing that will happen is that eventually I will be issued an exit-only visa. These have a mythical air about them, becoming a metaphor for all sorts of things to an expat leaving Saudi Arabia.

In order to obtain that magical exit-only visa, there are dozens of hoops I must jump through. Some are silly (turn in my recreation library card; no need to clear fines since Aramco started doing payroll deduction for those a couple of years ago). Some are more difficult (selling my car, which will require paying a middleman to handle the paperwork for me, assuming of course I find a buyer).

The Dollar/Pound Sterling Payroll team in HR put together a departure booklet. Being the nerd that I am, I decided to turn the booklet into a checklist and assign deadlines for each specific task.

I quickly realized that I had to start at the end by defining my last day of work and my departure date. You can’t pick any old date to leave. It shouldn’t be on or around a holiday. It should be a date after Payroll closes for the month, assuming that your final clearance is approved by that closing date. It must be a regular work day, not the weekend. And since I’m flying with the dogs and cats, I will only fly KLM and they don’t fly from Dammam to the U.S. every day of the week. Getting the proper clearances for the dogs and cats can’t be done sooner than two days before the day that I leave so I have to make sure I make enough time for that (I’ll discuss the dog and cat departure saga in a future post). After spending a few days researching all of this, I finally identified those dates, last day of work and departure date (they will be the same day, in fact).

Then I started working back in time, listing all of the tasks that I needed to complete. Right now I’ve got over 40 distinct tasks listed and I’m adding more every day or so. For example, I remembered before I left on my trip to the US that the airlines require animals to have vaccinations at least 30 days before travel. Unfortunately, the entire CircusK9 pack is due for everything in Q1 so they all have to have shots at least one month before I leave. I stagger the dog’s shots, separating rabies from their other shots by a couple of weeks. Even if I take the animals into the vet in groups, I need to schedule three to five vet visits. More tasks added to the list.

I had my exit meeting with a Dollar Payroll advisor this morning. I was appalled at the amount of paperwork he loaded me down with—and the accompanying increase in the number of tasks on my checklist. So tonight after cats were fed and dogs were walked and fed, I spread out a mass of papers and opened a handful of websites and supporting files on my computer, getting ready to call Vanguard….doh! It’s Sunday!

I’m completely stressed. I wake up at night and start thinking about all the things I need to do and I end up tossing and turning for hours (doesn’t help that I’m still jetlagged from my US trip). I am worried and anxious. I feel like I’m stepping off a cliff. Some of you may think that leaving the US would have been difficult. I assure you that leaving KSA is far more so.