In July 2017, we made a choice with Uğur to make a radical change in our lives and gradually moved to Bahrain.. When you say gradual; Uğur left in September, and at the end of December, Luffy and I took our place in our new home.. (If you’re wondering how we transported Luffy, you can refer to his article “Taking a Pet Abroad”.) As you can see, we have been living in Bahrain for about 1 month.. But since we found ourselves in the “Big Brother” of the Gulf countries as we stepped here – and this situation has become a subject of great curiosity especially by our close circle – the subject of this article is Saudi Arabia. I wanted to answer the questions asked one by one; Why are we here, how did we come, what were promised to us, what are the working conditions in Saudi Arabia, what’s the deal with Bahrain?. You can subscribe to my Youtube channel by clicking here to follow up-to-date videos on the subject.
What are we doing in Saudi Arabia?
The answer to this question is short and concise; we are here for business. For now, I came with the status of a housewife, but whatever Everything dates back to a period when we lived in Istanbul about 3-4 years ago and worked until our water ran out, when we were super unhappy.. Environmental factors and our antidepressant psychology that made the decision to move to İzmir “Enough, let’s get out of here!” it made us say. What an interesting(!) story!.. “Why did we want to immigrate from Turkey?” I have explained this issue at length in his article.
If it were up to me, I could have taken my breath abroad without waiting until now, but Uğur is a bit more assured character.. I didn’t mean it in a bad way, I agree with him until the end. Since he did not live outside of Istanbul until this age, he could not imagine what it would be like to leave his current order and embark on a brand new life.. Also, unlike most people, myself included, he really loved what he was doing and couldn’t afford to drop everything.. “Then how do we find a middle ground?” We thought, and we decided to do as follows: Uğur sent an e-mail to the human resources abroad of the international company he works for and said that he would like to evaluate if a suitable position abroad is created.. In the following periods, he reminded us of this request, from time to time, so that we can understand that we are serious about the subject.
After nearly 3 years of silence, we received the mail we expected from the company last May: There was a position abroad, suitable for Uğur.. After the incoming mail, we were doing halay with Luffy on the one hand and making a country estimation on the other hand.. “Is it Italy? It could be Poland, there is a new structuring there.. There’s also Canada coming out! The South Park looks that formed on our faces when we learned that Saudi Arabia came out of the lottery while we were dreaming… Then we started laughing nervously… My screaming “Asssslaaaaa!!” in the middle of the house…
Never say “Never!”!
Living conditions in Saudi Arabia are known. Even though there are “compounds” where the sharia laws are not valid, only foreigners live, and they have been in the process of being renewed in many respects as a country, I still do not think they are suitable for living for the people in our minds.
As soon as we heard the name of the country, we made an offer. Of course neither of us took kindly to “Money talks!” about working in Arab countries. We couldn’t ignore the fact. Therefore, Uğur clearly conveyed our concerns about the issue to the company and our persuasion process began.. When they realized that we were clearly against living in Arabia, they came up with a suggestion: “Then live in Bahrain.”
The office where she would work was in Dammam, that is, on the Persian Gulf coast, half an hour from the bridge connecting to Bahrain.. They said we could keep our house in Bahrain as many foreigners working in Dammam do. Uğur was going to cross from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia for business every day.. It’s a bit strange to change countries every day, but when we talked to someone who did, we learned that it was not impossible because Bahrain gives free visas to Turkish citizens for up to 30 days.. The idea of living in Bahrain started popping up in our minds, after all, it was the “Las Vegas of the Middle East”.. From the arrival of Luffy to the possibility of my working, it was more advantageous in every way.. Hearing positive things from people living in the region, he said, “Let’s try it then.” We said, “What do we lose?”
Working Conditions in Saudi Arabia
You have learned about the employment process here. Let me talk about the working conditions a little bit… Since there may be applications that differ according to the companies, I would like to state from the beginning that I am explaining the details in the specific place where Uğur works, but some rules that you can guess while reading are valid throughout the country.
The most advantageous part of working here is the salaries.. Europe has a salary average far above. As it is exaggerated, of course, not everyone who comes to earn enough money to work for 1 year and retire, of course, but at least there are numbers that will remove the anxiety of the future and increase your level of welfare.. Unfortunately, life is equally expensive, especially in Bahrain.. Gasoline is the only thing cheap for us. Haa! And coconut and avocado. Everything else is sold for at least twice the price.. (Update: As of May 2019, market prices in Turkey have reached those in Bahrain.)
Each employee has 30 days of annual leave, after working for 1 month, they are entitled to take 2.5 days off.. What does this mean? It means that there is a chance to have a 5-day holiday by combining the weekend with 3 days off every month, not including the months with religious holidays; It means working for 3 weeks and resting for 1 week; means high motivation. But there is a bitter truth that there is no official holiday except Ramadan and Eid-al-Adha.. In addition, the lack of the concept of cheap air tickets is heartbreaking, but we get used to it.
It’s not easy to find a job in Saudi Arabia while living in Turkey.. The state has a serious Saudi policy here, every foreign company should have a Saudi partner and a certain percentage of Saudi should work in that company.. There are different rules such as a job posting must be published for a minimum of 50 days before hiring a Muslim coming from another country for a position.. Therefore, companies primarily consider Saudis.. But there is a fact that those who know how to do the job are usually foreigners.. However, a Saudi always earns a higher salary than a foreigner; even if he is less experienced and pushes the limits of laziness! (Update: After 1.5 years, the video we prepared about working life in Saudi Arabia is here)
How Long Will We Stay in Saudi Arabia?
“When will you be back?” The question is actually one that our parents ask and repeat periodically, but while we’re on the subject, I’ll write it down as well; We don’t know!
There was no contract with the company regarding time.. The only deal is that if we want to return in 2 years, Uğur will be able to continue his work in Turkey from where he left off.. We came purely for testing purposes.. “We’ll try and see for a year, if we can’t, we’ll come back, if we love, we’ll continue to live.” we said. Our first impressions of life in Bahrain are very positive, but we don’t know what time will show.
Since it is not clear when we will return, we did not bring any of our belongings from Turkey except for two suitcases of clothes, we rented a furnished house in Bahrain.. Strange experience for someone who is very homely like me. If you are curious, you can refer to the article “Moving to Bahrain and House Details”. We sold some of our belongings in Izmir and moved the rest to a much smaller house.. We didn’t want to deal with the hassle of moving again if you rebelled and tried to come back soon.. (I told you that Uğur is a guaranteed character :))
Well, what am I doing?
Since I talk too much instead of Uğur, I guess I can talk a little bit about my own situation.. The reason we spent 10 days in Saudi Arabia was to get me a residence permit.. We took advantage of the opportunity and started to make small-scale discoveries during our time.. Now I have a permit to live in Saudi Arabia but not a work permit. In Bahrain, I’m technically a “tourist”. After my 30-day visa expires, I will re-enter Saudi Arabia and renew my Bahrain visa.. I have to repeat this process every month until I get a long-term visa or residence permit from Bahrain. (Update: After 1 year, we managed to get a residence permit from Bahrain.. Detailed article here.)
I can find the opportunity to work in Bahrain even if I do not have a work permit. In the coming days -maybe not in my field-I want to get experience of working somewhere, but I have no idea what kind of process I will encounter.. According to what we heard, the subject of “torpedo” under the name of “reference” is worse than Turkey.. Considering that I don’t know anyone other than the realtor and the apartment worker with whom we rented the house, I’m very clear(!).. The blog you are reading now is now my income.. Next year’s blog posts include “How to make money by blogging?” I aim to add your writings :))
Short Answers to Other Questions
* We did not go to Umrah, we are not planning to go now, I do not know about the processes yet.
* Those who have a residence permit in Saudi Arabia can go to Mecca during Hajj without joining the queue or the lottery, but only once every 5 years.
* We are very new, but we are in good spirits in Bahrain, frankly, this is how happy we are. we didn’t expect that we would be. I had to write a detailed article about it.. My answer for now is: Yes, it can be lived in Bahrain, and it is very well lived.. You can find answers to frequently asked questions about life in Bahrain in the video.
* You don’t need to know Arabic to live in Bahrain, English is enough, but at least you can learn certain patterns in Saudi Arabia. and learn the numbers. Even the traffic signs on the road only write in Arabic, we had to memorize the numbers as we arrived.. (It’s not bad to have to, actually, I always look forward to learning a new language.)
* I found Saudi Arabia quite interesting for traveling but not for living.. Since there is hardly any tourism, I think it is one of the ideal places for those who want to experience a pure culture.. I learned something brand new every minute I was there. Even sitting in the shopping mall and watching the people passing by had a very different feeling.. We plan to visit different regions frequently by taking advantage of my residence permit.
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“Life Abroad Series-1: What Are We Doing In Saudi Arabia?”, click to read the articles about life abroad. To be updated about other articles, you can subscribe to the e-mail group by filling out the form at the bottom of the page.
