Moving to Riyadh- on August 19 2008-need basic info?

Question

I am a Pakistani Telecom Engineer, have accepted a job offer from LCC KSA to work for Saudi Telecom and shall be moving to Riyadh on August 18, 2008 , God willing! I am desperately in need of the following info:-

1- Reputation of my employer

2-Taxes in KSA

3-Cost of living, medium level, family of four audults and three children

4-Possibility of keeping my mother, a divorced sister and her daughter pemanently with me.

5-Independent Iqama for my sister an elementary school teacher

6-cost of a decent used car.

Answer 1

i answerd the ones i know, becuase i dont wanna tell you somthing im not sure of.

2-we dont have taxes

3-eh well were not ritch or poor and were living with a salery of 8000-12,000 a month and thats doing well for us. and were a familly of four.

4-sorry i dont know.

6- it depends on the car your buying i mean i think it starts i think from like.... 10,000 for an okay car.

but if you want somthing like a new 2008 but used GMC thats gonna be like 45,000 and up.

Answer 2

1- dont know

2- there are no taxes in KSA, u get ur salary in full, no VAT either .

3- the biggest cost u will have is Rent, make sure ur company gives u a residence or pay u housing allowance, it should not be less than SAR 25000  other cost of living depends on your lifestyle, if ur not much of a spender you shouldnt have any problems

4- i'm not sure of this but i guess u can make visit visas for them and u can constantly renew it

5- u can buy one if u have the right connections.

6- my advice is go for new cars, u can pay by installments, its easy in ksa.

Good luck my friend

Answer 3

try not to die

Answer 4

ok I dont know about LCC KSA but I know about Saudi Telecom. Saudi Telecom is the phone provider for landline phones here. Its ok but the phone service does go out occasionally. There are no Income or Sales Taxes here so you dont need to worry about that. As for cost of living that can depend. Are you going to be living in a private villa or will you be living in a compound? Food is generally not too expensive here so you shouldnt have too much of a problem with that. For clothing it can be fairly inexpensive if you go to the Souks and Bargain there for it. The best souks are the ones run by Filipinos. You could probably have your mother and sister with her daughter come to live with you but you would have to wait until you get your Iqama before you could have them come with you. When  my Dad came over here we couldnt come over until he got his Iqama which took a couple of months and then he had to get permission to bring us over before we could get our visas. For that I recommend that you contact the nearest Saudi Embassy. The Washington D.C. Saudi embassy has the visa applications on their website with the information you need to fill them out. I'm not sure if your sister could get her own Iqama since she would be living with you. But again it would probably depend on the school she would be teaching at. A decent used car could cost anything from about 2000 riyals to 12,00 riyals or more ($500 to $3000 U.S.D.). Driving here is technically american so right hand side of road and steering wheels on the left side of the car but people drive crazy here. You really wont understand what I mean until you get here. You will be able to use a international driving license here. I believe you can use it until you get your Iqama. Once you get your Iqama you can get your Saudi Drivers license here. I'm not exactly sure how but just ask some of the Saudi Men here how to get it once you arrive. Yes they do have weight training gyms here so you shouldnt have a problem with that. If your living on a compound most of them have gyms as well. Go ahead and pack your suits. I dont know what kind of business attire you would need to wear for your job but it cant hurt to bring your suits. I dont think you could buy an Iqama for your sister as that would technically be considered attempting to bribe a public official.