Would these be confiscated and what to bring?

Hi Fauna, I will be working for Sidra as well; will likely be relocating sometimes in October. If you do not mind me asking, did you only negotiate base salary or you were negotiating vacation and other allowances? My agent recommended to negotiate only base salary. However, I was at first told that I will have 40 days leave/year + national holidays, and once providional offer came they said it will be 30 days leave/year + national holidays. I was bit anoyed by this... Hi Klaraleva, Sorry I moved your message to Sidra Medical thread, so as not to confuse the readers. I have replied to your queries on that thread, hope it helps. Cheers! :)

Hi Fauna, I will be working for Sidra as well; will likely be relocating sometimes in October. If you do not mind me asking, did you only negotiate base salary or you were negotiating vacation and other allowances? My agent recommended to negotiate only base salary. However, I was at first told that I will have 40 days leave/year + national holidays, and once providional offer came they said it will be 30 days leave/year + national holidays. I was bit anoyed by this...

Hi happy_feet, Thank you for this valuable information and much appreciated. I will be working for Sidra, got the provisional offer, happy with the renegotiated terms and waiting for contract sign off. Cheers! :)

Hi node, About the shampoos and perfumes – well I will not dare to send them in cargos because of chances of breakage and spilling and damaging other items in the box. But you can always bring them with you when u r travelling by air. Just pack them nicely and put in your check in baggage. The air travel rules for all country are same and normally you must have some personal experience also if u travel that the airport authorities do not open all the hand luggage and check in bags on a regular basis. They will just open in case they doubt something. Anywhere I travel I always carry my perfume with me, and most of the time all my toiletries also like body wash and shampoo and body cream etc. Recently we went for a vacation and i travelled in Qatar Airways, both going and coming, carrying all the above mentioned liquids in my hand luggage as we did not have any check in luggage at all and I did not have any problem at all. I had them packed nicely and in a transparent zip pouch. I even carried semi-liquid baby food all the time with me when my daughter was very small. Only once I had a problem (in another country) with a liquid which was milk + baby food in a thermos, when the airport authority asked me to take a sip of it. I just took a sip of it and everything was fine. (actually that was a special day for checking in that place, long story). So you should be perfectly fine with all your liquids as long as you put them in your check-in baggage. Nobody bothers. Now hi Fauna, When my DH came here, he applied for his RP immediately. He got the RP within 15 days actually 13 days to be exact. Then he applied for our visas which he should have gotten within another 15 days but there was slight carelessness from his HR manager (she lost a certificate) and a small misunderstanding in visa dept (DH has done his MBA after his BE, but the visa person thought MBA to be a diploma and not post graduate degree, so DH had to meet him and explain this to him.). Due to this delay, visa took around 25 days. So I and DD came through sponsorship visas and not visit visas. After we came, we also applied for RP and got it within 2 weeks, just before Ramadan. Now about the 6 month waiting period, well I think this rule differs from employer to employer, grade of the job, salary and the papers which they ask are in proper order or not like properly attested and all. So 6 month waiting is not a necessary but again as I have mentioned above, it depends. Better you talk to your employer about it and what policies they are having. I hope I have answered your questions. If you have anything else do let me know. Bye.

Node, I imagine that would be fine, I brought some garnier fructis products with my in my bags and they went through just fine.

Hi node, We moved here (me n DD) in June but my husband came in mid April. We had cargo allowance of 300kg and I had sent some around 9 boxes weighing around 250kg. We had been told the only restriction in cargo is explosives, liquid and perishable . Hi happy_feet, Sorry ladies if I go off the topic on this thread, just would like to seek some valuable tips on someone who has recently and successfully reunited with their family on a short period of time. Your DH came in April, then you and your DD followed in around June. Did you came on Special entry visa? or visitors visa then goes to renewal process? How long does it take your DH to process your RP(resdidency permit)? Do they still ask to show a 6 months bank statement from your sponsor(DH)to process the RP? Kind regards, :)

Hi node, We moved here (me n DD) in June but my husband came in mid April. We had cargo allowance of 300kg and I had sent some around 9 boxes weighing around 250kg. We had been told the only restriction in cargo is explosives, liquid and perishable items (particularly food) and battery operated toys or books or clocks etc. So other than those I had sent many things like lots of my daughter’s books and toys (she will go to reception from Sept), cloths including towels and bed-sheets etc, shoes, some vessels and crockery, some dry cake decorating items like sprinkles etc, some decorative items etc. Basically I had sent all those things except groceries, that I thought we will need in a furnished apt for at least a month or so. Of course groceries and other small small things like water cans etc u get from nearby small stores which can be found in every nook and corner in walking distance if u r staying inside the city. Those stores even do home delivery over phone. Along with us we carried only the normal things that u carry in air travel and there were no problems. What I would suggest is, by now you must have known that this is a conservative country where modesty in every form is expected may be in clothing, speaking, behaviour etc, hence if u have any doubt about any of your belongings then better to send those things in cargo. You may not have any kind of postal address before u land in this country, and in that case either ur family or friends can send it to you here once u come and get some kind of po box nos or if that is not a suitable option then talk to your employer and see if they can provide you with an address. We were given an address and told to send there and we loaded it just 2 days before DH was due to travel and he got it within 7-8 days of his arrival. A mail came to his office id that your cargo has arrived, please arrange for pick-up. He took another 3-4 days as his company accommodation was not ready. Once he moved to the apartment from hotel, he went and picked up the cargo. BTW as far as I know cargos are not immediately opened, they are run through scanners and if they doubt any objectionable things (mentioned above) are there, then only they are opened. So any kind of books or dvds etc can easily come but better to be careful about the contents of them. FYI almost everything is available here, may not be your specific books, but what I have got in my cargo, almost everything is available here. And you can always check out in Amazon or other stores for the digital versions of your books if you are interested and either store them in cloud or carry them in a tab or kindle or memory drives, wherever you go. Little less cargo to bother with. Lol. I do not know if this mail has answered any of your questions or not. But if you want to know anything else, do let me know. Bye and all the best.

Im sure you wont be bringing anything in that can have you imprisoned. lol Oh Gosh, no. But as Hamra said what we think is harmless may have quite another interpretation to another. It's my personal hobby but I just don't want to offend anyone. Feels like a grey area... Do not bring any codeine or the likes. If you have prescription meds, get the doctor to give you a note. No DVD's showing any over 18 scenes. You cannot bring in any alcohol either. <em>edited by salsB on 18/08/2014</em>

Bear in mind that some of the people doing the inspection of your goods will make their judgement based solely on the picture on the cover of the book or dvd. What we think is harmless may have quite another interpretation. In the case of confiscation, usually the person and their employer's representative are called in and have to sign for the confiscated items which are later destroyed. The importer and the rep might also get a stern warning (yes, both of them) but it all depends on the nature and number of the item/s. In serious situations, the involvement of the local sponsor is not unheard of. Imprisonment or deportation however would be a drastic outcome, but it all depends.... edited by Hamra on 18/08/2014 <em>edited by Hamra on 18/08/2014</em>

Im sure you wont be bringing anything in that can have you imprisoned. lol

It seems to depend on who checks your shipment and what mood they're in at the time. We were told to list every individual DVD, video and book and the boxes of them had to be packed last in the container so they were at the front when the container was opened in Doha. After opening only 5 boxes of cookbooks they seemed to have given up though - there were 9 boxes of recipe books alone LOL.

no worries :) Good luck!

you are welcome :) I dunno about the bible, I am a Muslim but I did have a bible shipped, I didn't get my stuff yet so I'm not sure. But what I mean is books that discuss religion, particularly Islam, or are offensive to Islam or the idea of a God. As for the hair products and other essentials I've found everything I've used in the US so far. Hope that helps

Hello, I just moved to Doha last week. Got lots of books with me and had no problem, as long as your books are not related to religion or of a pornographic nature you should be fine. Where are you moving from and what kind of things are you worried about not finding here? <em>edited by khokha2 on 17/08/2014</em>