Australian family moving to Dubai please help answer some of my questions :)

Apologies if I've missed someone else mentioning it amongst all the good advice you've been getting - but don't forget the start-up costs if you don't ship all your worldly goods over with you - and even if you do! Two and a half years on, we've only just finished paying off our debt on the stuff we had to buy (mostly second-hand on Dubizzle) when we first moved into our villa - fridge/freezer, cooker, dishwasher (we don't have a live-in maid ;) ) sofas, beds, mattresses, curtains, blinds, garden furniture.. Also, medical insurance is very necessary. This living in Ajman and commuting to Dubai doesn't sit well with me on your behalf. Good luck with your Skype chat and your decision.

I totally hear you re wanting to take some time off working. Honestly, if I had the choice of working full-time and living back in Brisbane or being a stay at home mum and living in Ajman I would totally choose Brisbane. I think you need to do 2 things before you worry about any other details. 1 - Find out if you can possibly live in Dubai. Simple as that. 2 - If the answer is no and Ajman is the only possibility, then I believe your husband owes it to you and you owe it to your children to first come out and actually SEE Ajman. Then and only then will you know whether it will be the right move for you. No matter how much we explain things, you really need to see it (Ajman) for yourself.

Personally, I would consider this offer with great caution. Another Brisbane girl (Northern Suburbs) and I have to be honest I would not have moved here to live in Ajman and for that financial package. I would be concerned that your DH's company is trying to scrimp on the money side of things. Why house you in Ajman when he works in Dubai? The other posters have made some great points. Ultimately, I think you might feel very isolated and not have enough money or resources to make a decent life for your family. Before we decided to move to Dubai (I stress "Dubai" - different emirate to Ajman ) we did some research on the costs of moving and living here. Now it may not be accurate for life in Ajman (which is poorer and less developed) but some of it might help you. If you follow this link, you will find the details within the thread: http://www.expatwoman.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=156959 Good luck with your decision.

Firstly, of course, you must be married. Ajman is a very quiet and more traditional and much more conservative area but at the same time, it is must cheaper to live there than in the more popular areas (for expats) in Dubai. It can also be more interesting. I was originally from west of Brisbane but have lived abroad for 30 years now. I would much prefer Sharjah and Ajman to Dubai for living with the odd trip to Dubai for meeting up with other expats. I now live outside Dubai in one of the smaller towns and am very happy. School age is defined here. My DD was living (stuck there because of fighting) with her grandmother and missed out on going to KG. because of that, we found it very difficult at aged 7 to find a school here that would accept her into Grade One. She could not pass the entrance exams. After being stuck on our farm from aged 18months to 7years without access to any schools, she had lost any English she may have gained in her first year. Hearing me on the phone (when we could get through) was not enough. KG skills are a must to enter Grade One here. There is a great Sustralian Curriculum school (Victorian) in Sharjah, I believe. Life here is what you make it. If you have an adventurous spirit, you will enjoy your time; however, if you wish to live as you do now, with the ease of getting things done, doing what you want, wearing what you want, you may find it a little difficult. Ajman and Sharjah are more traditional and much more conservative than Dubai and do not cater as much for foreigners. You need to consider what you want to gain from this experience. Definitely, the salary offered to your partner will not provide the "expat high life" that many come here expecting. Life here has become expensive and benefits fewer. Working hours are long and expectations of you are high. Consider your move carefully. I love it here but I do not participate much in the "expat life".

You do realise Ajman is not in Dubai, don't you? (just checking). The fact your partners company has him working in Dubai and living in Ajman would not really sit well with us. Have you asked why they're having you live in Ajman? Why can't you live in Dubai, a LOT closer to your partner's work? For you, as a mum with a little one, driving from Ajman to Dubai is not really like driving from, say, Northlakes to Brisbane City. In saying that, I have a friend who lives in Um Al Quwain and she regularly drives to Dubai but she lives in a lovely westernised compound with loads of expats and has a fairly easy drive on the Bypass Rd to reach Dubai. So maybe for you its possible to have a nice life in Ajman, but we certainly wouldn't pack up and leave beautiful Brisbane for Ajman. Don't want to be Miss Negative, but just worried your partner's company could be painting Ajman as 'living in Dubai', which it aint. Hope this helps. All the best!

I'm sorry, I'm really not familiar with Ajman, it's just somewhere we drive through to get to Dubai or to get home :) If your DH will be working in Dubai then he'll be out of the home for a good few hours. I'm not aware of any compounds or communities in Ajman so you'd be in an apartment or villa in a mixed area so mainly with locals or Asians. I think you'd find that pretty lonely because the people around you are very unlikely to invite you in for coffee or playdates. If there's a park nearby then most children will probably be there with their maids so again, you'd be sitting on your own with your children. Unless you have a chilled pool very close by, and I'm not sure of the likelihood of that in Ajman, you won't be spending any time outside from May to October so you'll need to amuse yourselves. There's Ajman City Centre Mall which I think would get bring VERY quickly and which would probably be a taxi ride away. Anything else of interest would be a taxi ride away too. Summers are crippling here and on AED 25k a month could you and the kids afford to fly home for the summer months? Most people leave for the summer. Your DH would probably spend at least AED 500 a month on fuel and you could well be spending at least that on taxi fares if you have no car. If DH is out at work all day you'll need to try and manage kids and carseats in taxis everywhere, including grocery shopping, and if you're in an apartment, get it all up to your apartment. I'd budget for AED 2500 - 3000 a month for food. The UAE is not a cheap place to live. Hopefully someone who knows ore about Ajman can help, but I don't know anyone who lives in Ajman (and that could well be for good reason), but personally, I can't think of one reason to move to Ajman for 25k.

My first thought was our credit card bill is usually more than that! Personally, 20k a month isn't worth the upheaval to ME, others may say it's fine. Also, I wouldn't be too struck on living in Ajman. I could be doing it a great disservice but I'm not aware of too much to do there or too many western expats living there so it could be a bit lonely. I'm not sure what age children [i'>must[/i'> start school but it would be unusual for a child to start in year 2 (at 6 year old). The one international school in Ajman is 30k per year so averages out at AED 2500 a month - out of your AED 20k. Then there's uniform and books plus transport if you only have one car and your DH can't do the school run. Sorry, but everything you say is screaming DON'T DO IT to me.