Packing and Paperwork, not necessarily in that order

from September 2010

From the moment you authorise a criminal background check to about a month (or more, depending on your future travel choices) after you return to your home country for the last time at the end of your contract - or contracts - you will spend a lot of time dealing with government agencies.

Blame the paperwork process.

Here's what you need, in short order:

1. Passport. Duh. If you haven't got one, or if yours has less than a year left on it, take care of that NOW. Get thee to a post office! (By the way, though it may be cheaper to get your passport pics at Walgreens or similar, the convenience of doing it at the PO is worth the $15. Unless you have a large number of people coming with you. Then, by all means, save!) Additionally, if you have a stamp from a visit to Israel in your passport, you may wish to ask someone at Teach Away about any concerns. The UAE, like most ME countries, does not recognise Israel as a nation.
2. Background check. You can try your local sheriff's office, or your state PD. Me, I went right to the top: FBI. Since I have moved around rather a lot, I thought I'd cover all my bases. Additionally, it's faster and cheaper than getting a CRC from my state. No, I'm not kidding. Dealing with the State of South Carolina has been good preparation for dealing with future paperwork frustrations overseas. Plan on $25ish and 12 weeks at the most (FBI says 12 weeks, but my experience has been 3-6).
3. Certified Teaching Certificate. This is where it gets exciting, as with this document you begin to go through the repetitive authentication exercises. PLEASE NOTE: The certificate you got in the mail, the one you keep in your professional portfolio of important papers (or have frames on your wall, or whatever) is probably not certified. You need to go to the certification board of your state (or country, but I only know about the US) and request acertified teaching certificate. It's just another stamp, but you gotta get it.
4. Certified diploma(s). You officially only need your highest degree (for me it's a MA), but again, chances are VERY good that it's not the diploma they mailed you after graduation. Contact your school's registrar to get the proper certified certificate.
5. optional: international driver's license. Go to AAA; it costs $15 at last check. Take care of this item a little nearer your leave date (like right after you HAVE a leave date. or potential leave date. or you've been offered a contract, at least), as it is good for 12 months only.

Once you have items 3 & 4, you will need to send them (or authenticated, notarised?, copies; I'm not 100% clear on this yet) to the Secretary of State office. (I believe this is for the state from which they were issued, but it may be the state in which you now live - for me, these are 3 different states, but again, that's why I chose to go the FBI route rather than the local route for my background check.) At the Sec of State, they will be authenticated by the State Authenticator or some such person. Once they come back from the State Authenticators, you will need to send these documents to the State Department in DC for the National Authenticator to authenticate them. Then I think they have to go to the UAE embassy. But I'm not sure. Additionally, all of these steps cost money. And time. So start getting things sorted (at least steps 1-4) ASAP. Perhaps even before you have your in-person interview, or else about 2 seconds after your interview is completed.

All of these bits of paper, with the appropriate signatures and stamps and seals affixed, are necessary for you to get your resident's visa in UAE. And without that Very Important Sticker in your passport, you won't be able to do things (with ease) like rent/buy a car, utilise your bank account, smooth your transition overseas. I promise, speaking from experience, you want to do anything you can to ease the paperwork transition overseas. Everything is twice as difficult to accomplish when you're out of your home country (paperwork-wise), and that difficulty increases exponentially when your new country does not speak the same language or even operate by the same basic principles (of time, urgency, convenience).

Take it from someone who's been there: it's no fun feeling stranded on the other side of the world with no money, no communication, and no way home. Of course, it always works out, but the waiting is quite unpleasant when you're down to your last penny.



Other tips:

• Make 5-10 color copies of the signature page of your passport.
• Have a dozen or so passport-size photos made. You'll need them.
• For your own sense of security, photocopy and itemise everything before you send batches of paperwork to different government agencies. Leave this set of photocopies with a trusted person in your home country when you leave.
• In-country, before you hand over your visa'd passport to ADEC (this bit I've gleaned from the discussion boards, of course, as I've never been to the UAE), make several copies of the visa-stamped page too. This will ease the car and appliance and bank shopping/using. A lot. In fact, renting a car without that stamp can be impossible.

From a packer's/traveller's perspective, you may also find it useful to create an itemised list of the contents of your luggage. You may also find it useful to NOT over-pack. Bring some (not a ton of!) clothes. A few pairs of shoes. Toiletries. Your laptop, a journal, Very Important Papers, a few mementos, and money. Mostly, pack money. In the form of credit cards, ATM cards, travellers cheques and actual cash money (maybe a little bit in Dirhams (Dh), but do your main changing there, as there may be no fees). Everything else you can (and should) probably buy there.

DO NOT pack more than you can carry/move by yourself. Learn from my experience: nobody needs 3 massive suitcases full of stuff. It is THE biggest pain in the bottom to wrangle your luggage through the airport, onto a bus, into a hotel or B&B, etc. Keep your luggage light. You DON'T need those 12 pairs of shoes (I'm trying to convince myself) or those 15 books. Amazon delivers world-wide. So does zappos. And HELLO! The whole world goes to the UAE to shop! Chances are, you'll find what you need there. In spades.

yes.

vs

no.

Oh. Also start practicing your British English. The ADEC English curriculum is modified from an Australian curriculum, and they're using British, not US, spellings. (I think it's practising. Also theatre and centre and colour and anaemic.) We'll discuss pronunciation later. Or, you know, never.