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!

Don't panic too much on the alcohol licence, you can still drink in hotels if you can't get one. If there are several people working there they probably will have alcohol licences. Where it was an issue it was because the women in the admin department refused to process the forms rather than it being a specific policy!

Seems unlikely Qatar is actually rabies free if KSA isn't. I know there's a lot of desert between them but they're still joined by land! Even so, I have never heard of anyone getting rabies in Qatar. There are a lot of feral cats and I don't know anyone who's worried about rabies (as opposed to them being generally not very healthy).

I don't think you'll have an issue with the chicken pox. Plenty of kids move from the UK who won't be vaccinated. You do need TB though (although you could do it when you arrive). It's given at birth in Qatar because there is a large population from south-Asia where it is quite prevalent. They test for TB when you first have your medical but they don't test everyone coming back from holiday.

I moved to doha as a child in 1984. There were donkeys in e street!

Have a look at samrya gardens in al Waab, it's next door to Doha college, one block from wholesale market and close to Doha British school.
I know lots who got into dbs without an rp, an in process letter was enough.