The Saudi Consulate seems to have made its mind about the documents it needs to issue visas. I can only wonder how they came up with their criteria. I am sure that they had the best of intentions as they matched visa-professions with the applicants’ educational certificates. Visa-professions are the designations of the applicants that appear on their resident permanent stamps imprinted inside the applicant’s passport. That’s how the Saudis categorize working foreigners when inside Saudi. i.e. Saeed the Programmer, Hasan the Technician…etc.
Probably the people who have put the requirements thought it is beneficial for the Saudi marketplace to only allow the crème de la crème of professionals, who have matching educational backgrounds, sanctioned for the top management visa-professions. In theory it adds up perfectly, but it is very challenging because not all visa-professions are available all the time. The main factor in deciding whether a person is applicable to his visa-profession is his educational certificate provided his visa profession is available (Saudis issue visas based on race and professions; i.e. company X has been issued 3 visas for Filipinos and 5 visas for Indians one of which is an engineer).
It’s also hard to understand the pyramid they categorize educational certificates with. But it’s easy to see with which eye they judge a person permissible for a managerial visa or not. For them, (Saudi Consulate clerks and officials) if you do not have a BA degree you don’t stand a chance to getting a managerial visa-profession. It is a fact that I didn’t appreciate. Why do they use educational certificates to qualify people for what they are? The consulate in Amman is a judge for what a professional can be based on a piece of paper. Don’t they have private enterprises in Saudi with free decision making venture capitalists? Can’t I hire a person for his abilities not awards? What if a person did not have a BA in Management but still had merit and was hired as a GM by a company, why is it a problem not to permit him his profession?
And so was my case as I didn’t have a certificate in the area of the profession that was granted to me by my employer. Even worst not only was it different, it was from a Greek Cypriot university that was not recognized by the Jordanian Higher Education ministry. The higher education ministry of Jordan publishes an online list of Universities for all students: http://www.mohe.gov.jo/RecognizedUniversities/tabid/67/Default.aspx and my university isn’t on it.
I had to take it to the Ministry of Higher Education and to the Foreign Affairs for attestations and to pay JD2 per stamp that said: “we are not responsible for the contents of this document”. It was funny to think that my unrecognized university certificate had to be attested by a governmental department that attests to nothing! My God, where is the logic in that? And how terribly stupid the system is; how come nobody is contesting this absurdity? I just wanted the document to be done, as required without problems. I then walked out of there with real contempt. It’s hard not to imagine that these departments but as pathetic revenue generators. They are an unscientific attestation bureaucracy that helps no one. If they wanted to really attest my documents why not have humans or educational professors from universities interview me and not office Zombies.
I went back to the Visa liaison office and he advised that I needed to create an additional one letter stating that I have worked in the capacity of the visa-profession I am applying for, for a number of years here in Amman. I assured him that I have not, but then he assured me that it is common practice and to forge a work experience document when it can enhance in acquiring the visa at the consulate. I hated to lie, and I hated the fact that now whilst in the middle of my application I am required to do just that. I called E. my friend who helped me (or tried to help me) in getting the Good Conduct certificate, and he confirmed he could do the letter for me. Of course it is a risk for him and say that he had employed me in the capacity of my required visa-profession. I soon collected it from his office and presented it to the Liaison office who told me that I have to go and attest it at the Labor Office in Abdali between Court of Justice and the Intelligence Building.
I walked into the Labor office on a very rainy day, after leaving my car and wife down the road. I ran all the way up with the work-experience-letter in my hand. I could not get my car where the Labor office was because it was a wrong pass and the other way around was jammed with cars. Gladly the letter didn’t get wet. As soon as I arrived the security guy told me that I needed to go to the third floor. That floor was so cold I could freeze in my place, even the faces were cold and nobody was smiling. However, and I should mention this, it was the best functioning office of all the other public offices I have been to. It was also the cleanest too. Not surprising at all, that the head of the office was a woman.
I had mixed emotions by now, one part of me admired the relative functionality and dynamics of the place and the other part just wanted out of there with what I came for. The Lady told me that it is impossible to attest my working experience letter without having a copy of the contract from the office of E. I told her that my working experience was years ago and the contract was not around anymore (2 lies). I despised myself as I started begging to have it attested. She passed it on to her manager who asked that at-least I should have a social security number they can refer to. In reality I have no social security number because of the fact I have rarely worked here in Amman, Jordan, I was almost always working abroad. I declined to have one and she then reluctantly said to her assistant that she should call the number on the letterhead to certify that Saeed Omar (myself) was once upon a time an employee at E’s office working in the capacity of the visa-profession I was asking for. My lying and the weather that day made me feel sick in the stomach. I have started to damn the day I thought of going to Saudi Arabia. I imagined the visa-process like quicksand, once it grabs your legs you just have to give in for the end result.
With that out of the way I had one last thing to do; the health check-up for the Saudi Consulate. This checkup is needed to certify that I have no HIV contamination and clear from all contagious diseases. The Liaison office deals with the Hospital of Palestine, an old hospital by the interior Round-about and Marriott hotel in Shmeisani. Believe it or not sticking 2 thick needles in my hand and sucking up 2 big tubes was the easiest thing I done in this whole troubling endeavor.
After all that was done I was ready to go to the liaison office and submit my application. I had to pay JD100 ($140). He told me that I needed to additionally certify a couple of copies of what I’ve done and I did that. He told me I will submit them by the beginning of the week and should get my approval by the same day. I was so happy that I suddenly forgot about all what I’ve gone thru. That weekend was a relief, and I and my wife could begin to think beyond getting the visa for the first time in 35 days.
However, the wind blew backwards. The state of jubilee was soon history and I was back on track with misery with a refusal from the Consulate on grounds of consistency of my educational certificate with the visa-profession. It was a Jordanian clerk working at the Consulate who refused to take the application altogether. After I learnt that from the Liaison office I started pitying the time I spent in pursuit of things and lost all hope because I was out of steam.
They had informed the office liaison that to make sure that my kind of experience and educational background was okay with my employer, and that he (my employer) needs to certify that to them. They gave us the Consulate numbers to make my employer call them. I immediately then thought; no problem my employers will call and sort it out. But the Consulate telephone kept ringing with no one to answer on the other end. 3 days passed and I call my employers to daily remind them to call and they called and called and called… and with no light in the horizon I had to revert to someone on the inside to influence the process of my visa processing. I will call him Shike.
Shike is one of those who have dual citizenships. His tribe has once upon a time lived happily with their cattle spread from the desert of Syria and Jordan southwards into Hijaz. They continue to be extremely respected and influential in Saudi as well as Jordan. Many Saudi Princes had married from them, and that’s a big power sign. Shike was a friend of a friend. I could only tell him my desolation after his working hours at the Consulate. He assured me he will do all that he could and in accordance to the laws in order to help me out. There was a certain confidence that he could.
And he helped me after a painful week of despair. I called the Liaison office and the manager told me to come and pick up my passport with the Visa stamp on it. I couldn’t believe that it could have been done finally and rushed to his office to collect my passport. To my sudden surprise I discovered that the imbecile printed the Visa on the old passport instead of the new. Now I started believing that there was indeed a Wicked Eye hovering over my fate wherever I went and whatever I did. As if in all sarcasm, destiny had it that I don’t be happy even now that it was finally over. It was over alright, but with a final punch in the face.
The following day, I went to collect my new passport after the over-worked clerk at the Consulate corrected their mistake without any of his superiors noticing. They took off the sticker from my old passport and pasted it back inside my new one. Then they sealed it again after adding a stamp. I was okay with that.
I thought I was done, and my mission accomplished. I thought of throwing a party and making duplicates of my Visa and frame them as portrays on my parents house walls. I called my employers and told them that I was ready to travel and travel I did on a hot day. I packed all what I owned some I have put in cartons to be shipped later and some in luggage to be carried with me. I planned my whole move to Saudi Arabia and have left nothing to chance. After all I already had a 3 bedroom apartment rented and semi furnished waiting for me and my wife to move in and begin a new life there.
I reached the airport and wave goodbyes to my mom, mother-in-law and wife. It was a direct flight to Dammam. We arrived on a clear early evening in Dammam King Fahad Internationally Airport. The airport was as I left it. The officers who wore army uniforms were exactly as I remembered them. The only difference was that they have implemented a new system of finger-printing. I thought I was okay with that since all was legal now on my side, the Saudi Consulate in Amman had issued me a definite entry visa. My turn at the passport counter arrives and I and the officer behind the counter share a couple of jokes while he was processing my visa. He has then landed the biggest shock of my life. He said I am blacklisted!
Quick flashes of memory throw me back at a time when my current employer had issued me a Visit visa. I over due on it by 2 days, and was caught on the Bahraini borders. It was a hell of a situation back then since I was held like a prisoner. It is an immigration issue in Saudi to overstay on your given visa. The officials like to hit with an iron fist for all violators; they think this can solve the problem of overstaying by foreign immigrants and pilgrims. The system is not contestable and incurs an immediate fine on the employer and a written statement signed by me that guarantees not to do it again. I had little in mind that this could cause a 2-year ban. Especially, when my employer has arranged for another visit visa soon after this has happened. How would I have had a problem with that since I entered Saudi immediately after?
It was a problem now. I was kept in limbo and confusion while he started arranging for flight back to Amman. I couldn’t believe my luck! I started calling my employer and they immediately understood the wrong-doing they did and sympathized with me, but they eventually could do nothing to get me out of there. And that’s when I had a nervous breakdown, I excused the officers around me to the toilet and locked myself in and cried so hard and so quietly for nearly 30 minutes. I then had ablution and decided to pray Istikhara (Istikhara is a special prayer where a Muslim prays when in need of God’s guidance). The shock has eaten me inside out, and the pain was so severe that afterwards I just sat beside of the passport counters faceless and emotionless for the remaining hours of the night; staring into nothing. The following day my employer sent me an e-ticket back home. And that’s where I am right now writing these lines.
This experience was ground-shaking for me, I used to think that everything and anything was possible in a world of my own making. I am a firm believer that if I wanted to accomplish something and I have the means to get it, I would get it. This was a case of so many hurdles in the way that now I started justifying why some people could not easily accomplish or at best be least motivated to do so. There are obstacles that some People put, consciously and unconsciously, in the way of those who just want to live and earn a living. Those very people live in ignorance of the pain and suffering they cause to others. While the blame falls on inefficient systems, these officers and clerks who are in direct contact are only blamed. I could see and feel with Palestinian citizens now more than ever before who have what I just encountered every day of their lives; Palestinians with Palestinian Authority passports, Palestinians with Egyptian temporary travel documents, and those of Lebanese and Syrian Travel documents; I FEEL WITH YOU!
It is also amazing I found out, how human resilience and suffering can be forgotten and can be pushed away as if they never happened. I am sure that this is the case with all of those who went thru what I went thru. Otherwise why haven’t there been any blog entry with about the same, why haven’t there been any news report about the empty circles that the Saudi Consulate imposes on Jordanian workers and professionals who ask for visas? It is because as soon as these Visa applicants get what they wanted they just move on and never look back or even complain. All of those I know just warned me in a friendly way that it is going to be difficult for you and for your wife to get into Saudi. They never confess outrage or disdain to the system. Worst even write and complain about it. Complain for the sake of complain is futile, what I am concerned with here is to give a proper service to those in need, not a disservice at the very vulnerable time of need. And I was vulnerable. I am afraid to admit that this is what we had to reap in return to our consent and nevermindness. Let me tell you that the Saudi system of applying for a visa in Jordan has at the very best been HEARTACHING and unfair to many, it has at worst helped people go in circles and revert to lying and forging documents for the price of an entry. Was all that was required from me, dictated by what the Saudi Consulate wants all Jordanian citizens to do, or is it just what the Jordanian officials and government do not mind them demanding for? Whose jurisdiction is it to state and dictate all visa requirements? Have they ever considered enhancing the system? I doubt it! Do we treat Saudi citizens the same way they treat us? I doubt that too.
I hope this reaches people in positions of power that are decision makers. I hope this humble blog-entry can make them review the processes and that can eventually push for relaxing the requirements for the Saudi Consulate and make it more humane for people to admit for visas and getting them.
Salam
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