This Crazy Arabian Life!

Yes. it's one of those days, weeks, months. I know everyone has times when things just don't go according to plan-thats part of life, I know. But the visa saga which is ongoing here is beginning to get beyond crazy!
Here is the short version of how its supposed to go.


1-the college where my Sweet teaches applies for approval for visa.
2 approval is granted.
3 paperwork is submitted to govt.
4 approval given.
5 passport stamped with visa.
6 visit the labor office to collect labour card.
7 My Sweet can apply for our family visa.


In between all these steps are all the weirdly wonderful unknown steps that confuse, complicate and generally cost money! We are thankfully at number 5 in the process but inbetween times we have had Ramadan in which no work visas get processed. The medical that was taken in our home country apparently didnt count (money wasted!) so another one had to be done here. Meanwhile the Kiddos and I can only stay here a month at a time before crossing the border (we cant leave the country too far away incase the visa approval is suddenly given and we have to appear at the government offices asap). Each time we renew the visit visa it costs us $250 (150 GBP) which adds up after 4 times! The whole process from 1-7 was in theory to take a month otherwise we wouldn't have flown in here when we did. There goes my allowance for curtains and carpets and the garden!


In the great scheme of things I am thankful that we are all together. The thought of being apart for the past 4 months would have been awful, so that is good.
Since May this visa has been in process. Almost 6 months and we are now at #6.  A week ago my Sweet was told to go to the govt offices and simply collect his labour card. So he planned to but then found out that he needed a local PRO (each business has a Public Relations Official) to go with him. That was set for 7am today. He didnt show up. He rescheduled for 2pm today.This is typical in this part of the world but the frustration is that we are 2 weeks away from having to do another visa renewal (and another 200+ dollars) so we need this process to be over already! As I write, my Sweet is at the labor office hopefully with the PRO having shown up this afternoon. Now I learn that it cant be processed today- the PRO didn't show up AGAIN-more time wasted. It is all a bit crazy. Even once my Sweet has his labour card, he still has to remain in the country to see our process through! If it takes another 6 months with more visit visa renewals, we will be really hurting. It is such a lot of money to keep forking out. There is also the risk that they may chose not to renew the visit visas since we have been across the border so many times already. 


Call it culture shock or just impatience-not sure which. But it is hard to settle with all this going on. On the positive front we did managed to finally get some wardrobes so we can unpack our clothes at last. This morning the lovely wardrobe in our room was still sitting empty. I couldn't bring myself to actually hang anything it in. So my Sweet did it for me. I told him that it just doesn't feel like home yet-not with all this visa stuff going on. He grabbed the hangers and my tops and hung everything and said. "This is home"! I know it is, but part of me feels anxious about how long all this has taken and how long the process will be for the Kiddos & I. Yes, this is the life we chose, it's just hard somedays.