Doha, Qatar

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

DH has been offered a job in Doha - salary is £40k, plus bonus of £6k, plus housing allowance of 25,000 QR per month (also covers utilities), and car allowance. We also get school fees paid and medical insurance, and a flight home per year (for the whole family). We have 2 kids aged 4 and 2. In Scotland DD doesn't start school until 2017, but in Doha she would start this year in Reception.

Does this sound like a good deal or not? He gets tax equalisation applied to his salary, so I think he gets tax deducted as if he lived in the UK. Our current net combined salary is £42k, but we pay £390 childcare, £700 rent, £100 council tax, £100 utilities (more if you count line rental) and £200 on car repayments (will sell car here and pay it off) per month. I wouldn't be working there, or at least not at first.

Is this a good plan or not?? Please help!

Cooking from scratch can save you money. Stick to what the locals and Filipinos eat. By Tiliapia (fish), long beans, marrow, cucumbers, onions, eggplant, chicken thighs, wings and legs instead of breast.

I've cut loads out of my food budget eating what our nanny eats.

I have lots of friends working In Qatar and I say they have SAVINGS almost everything are free, transport, accomodation and yeah when you travel back home for a holiday they can reimburse your plane ticket cost.

Sometimes I think to move there with DH, work for 3 years, save save save and come back here to buy a 5 bedroom house.

zikreet interesting how crossing a boarder can make a difference!!! I've just read our cornflakes packet (no price, unfortunately), and they have printed Arabic on them, but were made in Germany!!

Sorry, Cheddar I'll stop hijacking with inconsequential stuff.

Karma do it then. There is a reason why the ME pays so well. It's the only way to get people to move over here.

Karma - you must work in a pretty good industry if you think you can save enough to buy a five bed house in three years. I'm pretty well paid and even if we saved 100% of my salary for three years we wouldn't be buying a five bed house for cash anywhere I'd want to live (and I'm from Leeds not the south east). I admit we'd have a pretty good deposit but it would be a pretty poor standard of living if we lived off DH's salary alone as the childcare costs associated with both of us working would take up about half of DH's salary. But if you can do it, what are you waiting for?

Thefitfatty - ah. That's what I've been doing wrong. Sorry, I generally shop only in Spinneys and I refuse to buy any food that isn't allocated its own seat in first class as transportation to Qatar. It all depends on what you're comparing it to, it costs far more to cook from scratch than to buy everything from the cheap frozen section (but I think this is the same in the UK isn't it?). When my nanny cooks for us all she spends far more than we would do for a similar meal and her food budget is about equivalent to ours per head (taking into account we buy the staples). I'm loving the idea of long beans being a budget vegetable!

When I really need to cut costs (thankfully we haven't been in this situation for a while now), I either decide we're going to not cook from scratch and buy frozen stuff of dubious origins or we live off lentils and pulses. I know which is more popular with the family.

We do eat a lot of curry! Kids are less keen on pulses, though.

All this information on hidden costs is very helpful! So when they say 'furnished apartment', it comes with zero kitchen stuff at all? I am leaning back in the direction of the shipping container and bringing the contents of the kitchen and the barbecue! I can just see DH let loose in Ikea thinking he's got £3000 to spend. What about bedding and towels and things like that - do you need to bring/buy absolutely everything? What about TVs - are they provided?

I am hoping if DH's contract gets extended until 2022 we can save most of his bonuses every year (and I will try to find a job as soon as we know if we're staying longer than a year) which will give us £20-25k, which would be the deposit on a 4 bed house in Scotland. I don't see how we're going to get onto the property ladder any other way!

School bus seems like a good option, if whichever school it is offers that.

Furnished apartment can mean different things, you need to check. Sometimes it just means white goods and curtains, sometimes it also includes chairs, beds and other furniture. You will need to bring towels / buy them there, but I suggest you wait to buy bedding as the beds are often not quite the same size there - they are often quite a bit bigger. Something else to consider if you are filling a container is that when you bring it all back again you have to pay tax on all your furniture (not loads, but it mounts up doesn't it?) Most schools seem to have buses.

Curry is good in Doha and usually lots of options for cheap curry eating out as well (if you don't need to have a beer with it!). There's lots to do in Doha but you have to put yourself out there. Look at DohaMums as well - it will be your lifeline in the early days (but do not post on their forum forgetting you're not on AIBU!).

Normally 'furnished' in Doha means all furniture (sofa, beds, curtains, sometimes tv) but won't include bedding, towels, household goods, water cooler thingy (which you need as you can't drink the tap water), bins, smaller electricals (such as hoover etc) but it does vary a bit. It's pretty much what you'd get with a furnished house in the UK I think (or it's certainly what I rent my house out with).

'Serviced apartment' means you get everything which can be a good bet but they're a lot more expensive (you'll use your housing allowance).

'Semi-furnished' means you just get ACs and (usually) white goods.

'Unfurnished' and you're buying white goods and probably the AC units as well.

Where will they put you when you first arrive and for how long? One issue is it may take a while for your container to arrive so you might have to buy a lot of this stuff anyway, in which case you'd not probably be better taking the money.

What has the company said about residence permits for the family? This can (legitimately) take up to six months after arrival to sort out and your DD can't start school until she has one. I'd ask that. I'd also be contacting schools now and asking about space - I looked at Doha College this morning and they're waitlist only in reception and it will probably be a very long wait list. You'll get to the top if you wait long enough but it might take longer than September 2017.

As I said, I generally had a great time in Doha, my kids were born there and I have very fond memories of the place. That said, I've been in the UAE for eight months now and it is a far better place to live (and I'm not in one of the big cities). Stuff just works better here. I'd need to be offered a lot of money to move back to Doha. As a first expat experience it can be quite exciting and different though.

Honestly though there is no way I would let a young child on a bus in Qatar unless there was genuinely no other options. Kids die on buses in the GCC every year because they fall asleep and get left on the bus in the heat. I think the last death of this kind in Doha was in around 2010 but kids died in a school bus crash this year. A child also died after being left in a hot car earlier this year. The good schools will have policies in place to make sure the same number of children get off the bus as get on but that means the cost of your bus services at those schools is high.

Thanks Zikreet - I will get DH to ask about the residency permits! I was leaving the school thing until I had a better idea of where we'd be living, and also because DH will be helped by a relocation specialist and I was assuming that they would be able to help with the schools.

When we first arrive we will be put up in serviced apartments (Fraser Suites) for a maximum of 12 weeks. If we drag our feet a bit finding a place of our own it might be no bad thing!

I've joined a FB group called When Where and How in Doha and it seems to have heaps of information about stuff to do, and I've also had a bit of a lurk on the DohaMums website.

Thank you for the information re serviced/furnished/semi-furnished! I'm currently in an unfurnished rented house here, but when I've rented furnished flats before in the UK, they have included kitchenware - certainly crockery/cutlery/pans/sharp knives/oven dishes, if not necessarily very nice ones, so I was assuming it would be the same.

InTheDesert - if you're still following I just checked and cornflakes were 10 AED for 350g, 15AED for 500g. YOu could spend 25AED but that was for the biggest pack of cornflakes I have ever seen. Qatari food prices are higher than the UAE but I was looking in a fairly expensive supermarket so it probably evens out.

TooExtra - this is the sort of thing you will become obsessed by :) What Where How (whatever it is) is a really useful site for finding things out. It's more useful than Doha Mums for that now. Doha Mums is good for playgroups, coffee mornings, that sort of thing. They also have a really good children's library. dohanews.co do a 'what's on in Doha this weekend' thing every week which will give you an idea of the sort of things to do. They're also a good source for general news on Doha.

Get your husband to ask about what he needs to do with certificates as they've changed that recently and it's causing a lot of people nightmares.

In Doha you get the school first, then you get the accommodation. There are a limited number of good schools and even fewer number of good schools with space.

zikreet I'm in KSA!!! Found this tho - 1 kg for 20 SAR. Perhaps I've rounded things up, or are remembering cherios/Coco pops prices. It's slightly irelevent, since she's not coming to Saudi, and I can't see making quarterly flight to Doha for cornflakes cost effective

Cheddar were all mixing currency units, as they are generally all pegged to each other, at 1:1 or 1:10 exchange rates. So I spend my Saudi Riyals in Barhain, just need to add a 0 to the price. And get my change in Bahrani Dinars....

We rented fully furnished and kitchenware wasn't included.
Stayed in fraser suites too, lovely, can walk to Mia park and souk wakif.

Yeah, most of my friends are nurses there with no partners yet.

I think if you are working in a hospital they give you all for free, allowances etc.

Ah but InTheDesert you could start a cornflake smuggling ring.

Not sure who mentioned it above but you can't bring alcohol into Qatar. You will get it taken off you at customs (technically you get a tag to pick it up when you fly out). They're very diligent on this.

Karma - western nurses in KSA get paid quite a bit (although I doubt enough to save for a five bed house in three years!) and yes they will get accommodation and hospitals may well do food as well. It's about the only place in the GCC where nurses get paid well I think. I have a friend looking in the UAE and she's struggling to find work well paid enough to justify the hours/shifts. I think the best offer she's had so far is GBP 34k a year (all in). Not bad but quite a bit less than she'd be getting at home and costs of working will eat up at least half of that. She's worked out she'd make more money as a school nurse which would mean being school hours and term time working. Sad because she loves her job! I don't think I've ever seen a western-qualified nurse in a hospital in either Doha or the UAE.

DH has now been asked to start the residency permit process - complicated! They've said it should take about a month to get his, and his has to be in place before we can apply for mine and the kids'.

Bloody company claims to offer Arabic lessons for the family (not the kids as they are too young), which has turned out to be one 2 hour lesson in Glasgow (we're outside Edinburgh). Not exactly convenient!

We've been told to get jabs for hepatitis A and B and the MMR (which I think we've all had) and rabies jabs if we will be anywhere near bats! I have no idea if we'll be near bats - did you all get rabies jabs before you went out?

I'm in China, not ME, but I would have every jab as you will be fully prepared for travel to far east etc :)

Oh, and DH's office is on Wholesale Market St near Salwa Road. Zikreet, if you find the school first and then the accommodation, what do you do if you have to find accommodation within 12 weeks? I'm not sure how easy it would be to move once we've got somewhere - won't we need new deposit etc?

Our doctor said extra jabs were unnecessary provided we had had the normal ones you have in the UK anyway, but it's good idea to have any if you are planning trips to India or places where you will need them. I don't know of anyone who had a rabies jab though.

That's going to be quite a commute from Fraser Suites for him in the beginning and I don't think your plan of dropping at work and school with work with traffic long term. Fraser suites are perfectly decent though.

You can apply for the school from outside of the country and I would recommend doing so. If he's going to be based on wholesale market street, you probably want to look at schools around Al Waab way and live around there or in Gharaffa to avoid him having a massive commute.

You could maybe look at ACS, Doha British School. Doha College (Al Waab) and maybe Sherborne. If none of those have space then you'll need to spread the web wider although if your daughter wouldn't be in school at home anyway you could consider having her out of school for a term or so whilst you wait. DC almost certainly won't have space. You might get lucky with some of the others. ACS will mean you'll have to top up your schooling allowance. There may be other newer ones that are getting an ok reputation now. You could try asking a question through the 'ask a mum' feature on Doha Mums as to which schools might have space in reception.

Don't worry about the Arabic. It really doesn't matter. Maybe bargain for them to cover some Arabic lessons once you're here instead?

I'd get all jabs recommended (although I don't think rabies is actually an issue!) because why not. Have your kids had chicken pox? That's a standard vaccination here so I'd try and get that if they haven't had it (you can get it done when you arrive). I'd also make sure everyone has been vaccinated for TB as a priority.

He has to get RP before you can apply for yours however, the issue is whether he needs proof of salary having gone into his account for six months before he can get a visa for you. Lots of companies manage to get around this but that makes a major difference.

One last thing, ask who his actual sponsor in Qatar will be. It might be the government department. If so, is worth finding out if they will be willing to give the supporting letter for an alcohol licence - I have heard of some who won't.

Yikes, no alcohol??? I will definitely get him to check that!

There's a car-pool arrangement going on through his work where they all meet in Fraser Suites reception at 6am and drive to the office together, so to begin with he won't be the one driving.

I'm quite happy to keep DD out of school for a term or so while we wait for a place, given that she wasn't expecting to start school until Aug 2017, so we could do that. I'll look up the schools properly at the weekend, and I like your suggestion of posting on DohaMums as well.

I will check about TB, because the kids haven't had it. I think it isn't offered as standard any more in the UK unless you have risk factors. Kids have both had chicken pox shudders at memory .

We had the Hep jabs (A&B) but decided against Rabies as it is rare in KSA, a horrible jab to have, and not very effective. According to Wiki Qatar is rabies free. I think I'd avoid.
Yes to TB vaccs. If you can find some dates for when the kids had chicken pox, that might help. Ive had to be really firm about rejecting varicella vaccines. We also had to get more meningitis vaccs (ACW and Y) for school, but not adults. So maybe look at the school web sites and see what the vaccine requirements are.
Some of our MMR wasn't counted, as "preschool" boosters had to be post 4, and they are typically 3 Y 4 m in UK.

Yes, DD has had the 3 yo MMR booster but DS is too young, and I think the next lot they get offered here is before they start school, so probably next year for her. Looking at the school vaccines is a great idea!

I can't prove when the kids had chicken pox because they didn't see a doctor for it, so I shall just try to remember and they'll have to take my word for it. I think it was May 2015.

They have taken my word for chicken pox. We never saw a GP either. But DS1s school used to send the electronic registrar of all sessions over the year, so I could tell them he'd been off XYZ week due to chicken pox - and apart from school blue lighting him to hospital, that was his only absence. They have accepted it. DS2 was about 2 weeks later, and we've just used that date on all paperwork....

Yeah Western Nurses are paid more in there.

Maybe me moving there and work for few years, time will tell.