Sunday, March 31, 2019

UAE bureaucracy 101 💩

So I haven't been moved there but I've already experienced a dosage of UAE bullshit.  Everyone who moves there needs to get their degree attested at the UAE embassy of the country where you obtained your degree from.  In my case, it's Australia.  Except I don't live there anymore.  I tried to get it attested at the UAE embassy in Singapore, of which they replied they do not attest foreign documents and the only way for me to get this done is to either fly to Australia or find a lawyer.  Of course, I'm not going to do this so I've told the recruiter either you or the company who is hiring me do it or forget about me moving.  Take note that this recruiter was continuously email / ringing me for a whole week (some people would call this stalking or hassling, but no, this person does not know how to behave and thinks calling someone 3x a day and emailing them a whole week is normal!) before I finally replied to him and when I did he was so happy it was ridiculous.  Obviously signing me on would mean a big deal to his paycheck.  It's so obvious.

Anyway the recruiter found a local attestation company in the UAE to do this for me, the "cheap" price of 600 US or "expedited" price of 800 US.  He told me it's expensive but a "drop in the ocean" considering what I'll be making.  Excuse me?  What does my salary have anything to do with this?  I am not forking over this amount of money just because of my salary.  Does it mean if I make a billion I should then pay for everything?  "Oh let him pay for everything he can handle it!"  This is bloody outrageous.  The employer should be paying for this, not me.  For the recruiter to even suggest I should pay this amount (for which I am sure he will get some kickback or commission!) is bloody unprofessional.  Honestly, the UAE is like the last place on Earth I want to move to, no matter whatever hugely sum of paper I am being paid.  I told him either the company pays for this or forget about it.  Any decent company would pay for this, in fact, all of my employers have paid for complete relocation costs.  Christ these people.  I haven't even moved and I'm already smelling the bullshit.

A couple of days ago I had an interview with a company in New Zealand.  It's the final interview so let's see what happens.  Next one is just having a chat with HR.  I think I'll get an offer but we'll see.  Heck, I would prefer to go to NZ over the UAE.  And yes, the money is a lot less but no one wants to live in a desert.

No comments:

Post a Comment