Possible move to Dubai

Where are you moving from Maril? For a family of four to live comfortably (i.e. not taking on debt to fund everyday expenses and saving a little for a rainy day), I would say you should be looking for a package of at LEAST AED 50k per month. Your baby will start nursery in a year or so, so that's 2 sets of school fees, 2 cars to run, and at least a 2 bedroom apartment in a family friendly community. Don't count on finding work yourself to cover expenses - you may well do, but you shouldn't rely on this to make ends meet in the initial calculation. Things are a little slow work wise in many sectors, and unless you are quite specialised you may have to take a substantial pay cut to find work, depending on where you are currently living & working. You will also then need to pay for good childcare while you are at work, and the cost of this can be much more than just a salary and visa.

To justify coming here, you should look at the following criteria: 1. Improvement of lifestyle 2. Save money If one or both criteria can't be fulfilled, don't come. Exactly this! We would not have come here if we were earning 24K a month cos it just would not satisfy the criteria Notnew mentioned. I do have friends who earn less that 24K, have no housing allowance, no school allowance, no flights back, and they are living well! They came because coming here was an improvement of lifestyle and they are able to save money.

Hi Maril, You will find when you receive your work contract here, that you will see the salary broken down and listed in a way that includes housing, there is a percentage from the total of the salary that is counted as housing allowance. If I am not mistaken most companies do provide annual return tickets to country of origin - that used to be standard practice recognised by the Labour office, maybe this has changed in the last few years, someone who knows more here, can highlight this. I cannot advise you on schools as I didn't get that far yet. But I can tell you after living here for so long I would say that this is doable indeed but you have to do a lot of research on where to live, where to shop, how to shop. Also saving funds for emergencies over here is very important, small surprises can pop out of the blue, ie. traffic fines, medical occurrences that are not covered by insurance. A lot depends on your family, what you like to do, what kind of lifestyle are you seeking? etc.....Best of luck! This is actually an ongoing problem in Dubai for some people who have housing provided by the employer in addition to their salary. I have seen those who work for major companies (whose names I would love to mention) that have their housing paid for separately... YET their contract suggests that half of their actual salary (what goes in the bank as theirs) is "housing allowance." Since end of service gratuity is based on BASIC salary only... it allows the company to get away with claiming half of their employee's actual salary is not really salary (though it is). This allows them to pay only 50% of what is owed to the employee as gratuity at the end of the contract. :( @Lady Lavender - the labour law contract requires that the employer provides a percentage (If I am not mistaken it used to be almost 40% of the total salary toward housing) most people don't realise this until they have a legal problem with their employer. People often don't understand the employment contracts they sign, one with the employer and one with the labour office, this causes all kinds of confusion, not only for those that have housing provided but sometimes even worse for those who don't have housing provided. It's a real shocker when it comes to the end-of-service benefits because all kinds of miscalculations occur. This is why I always advise everyone to keep all their documents and paperwork up-to-date, always have a written statement translated by a VERY reliable English to Arabic translator before going to deal with any governments offices or law firms. @UmmSofia Let me ask propose this to you and you can offer your thoughts. A person gets (for example) a 25,000dirham a month salary (direct deposited) and they also get separately, their housing provided. This housing is paid for by the employer. Would it be legal and acceptable to put on their labour contract that they earn 12,500 "basic salary" and 12,500 "living allowance" which they define as applying towards housing? After all, none of their salary is going towards their housing. That is already covered seperately. Doing it this way means that at the end of their contract the employee gets paid gratuity on only the 12,500/mth even though they earned double that and none of their salary was applied towards housing. I say no. I feel it is a way for an employer to get out of paying 50% of what an employee earned as salary. If I am not mistaken, using my example, the employee should get paid gratuity on all 25,000/mth they earned per month and nothing on what the employer paid for their housing. Am I wrong here? Hello Lady Lavender, Although it doesn't make sense to me until this very day. That is unfortunately pretty much how it works. I had the very unfortunate and humiliating experience of having to go through this on my own before I got married and the 'international' company I was working for pulled a long list of dirty tricks on the small staff that they had because of these contracts. We were so naive at the time, we were not aware of any of these laws and didn't understand the difference in types of contracts or what our rights were. I was being given conflicting information from all kinds of people. It wasn't until the company payed our salaries only every 3-4 months that we as a group decided to go to the labor office and that's when reality struck really really hard. I wish I could outline my entire experience here but I don't want to get in hot water for talking too much, but I can tell you it took me two and half years in the courts, changing law firms a couple of times and a lot of tears to get my end-of-service benefits and was also slapped with a work ban (which I thought was not even possible for European passports holders). What I went through caused me extreme health problems to this very day, from the all the fear, stress and exhaustion that I went through. When I read the other comments the other ladies have posted on here, I really wonder what other people are going through here today. I am moving back to Dubai shortly from another Emirate and even though I know that I will not face those situations again as my husband is a local, I still feel very uneasy. I just had a little one. I didn't reach the nursery and school stage yet but I would listen to these ladies with those experiences, I am and I really thank them for contributing to these threads and raising awareness, in fact I would really love to here from more of them on their experiences. I don't want to scare you, if you decide to move here and it is a lovely lovely place (if your finances are in order), just please come prepared, please do as much research as you can before binding yourself to any contract. I wish you the very best of luck

Hi Maril, You will find when you receive your work contract here, that you will see the salary broken down and listed in a way that includes housing, there is a percentage from the total of the salary that is counted as housing allowance. If I am not mistaken most companies do provide annual return tickets to country of origin - that used to be standard practice recognised by the Labour office, maybe this has changed in the last few years, someone who knows more here, can highlight this. I cannot advise you on schools as I didn't get that far yet. But I can tell you after living here for so long I would say that this is doable indeed but you have to do a lot of research on where to live, where to shop, how to shop. Also saving funds for emergencies over here is very important, small surprises can pop out of the blue, ie. traffic fines, medical occurrences that are not covered by insurance. A lot depends on your family, what you like to do, what kind of lifestyle are you seeking? etc.....Best of luck! This is actually an ongoing problem in Dubai for some people who have housing provided by the employer in addition to their salary. I have seen those who work for major companies (whose names I would love to mention) that have their housing paid for separately... YET their contract suggests that half of their actual salary (what goes in the bank as theirs) is "housing allowance." Since end of service gratuity is based on BASIC salary only... it allows the company to get away with claiming half of their employee's actual salary is not really salary (though it is). This allows them to pay only 50% of what is owed to the employee as gratuity at the end of the contract. :( @Lady Lavender - the labour law contract requires that the employer provides a percentage (If I am not mistaken it used to be almost 40% of the total salary toward housing) most people don't realise this until they have a legal problem with their employer. People often don't understand the employment contracts they sign, one with the employer and one with the labour office, this causes all kinds of confusion, not only for those that have housing provided but sometimes even worse for those who don't have housing provided. It's a real shocker when it comes to the end-of-service benefits because all kinds of miscalculations occur. This is why I always advise everyone to keep all their documents and paperwork up-to-date, always have a written statement translated by a VERY reliable English to Arabic translator before going to deal with any governments offices or law firms. @UmmSofia Let me ask propose this to you and you can offer your thoughts. A person gets (for example) a 25,000dirham a month salary (direct deposited) and they also get separately, their housing provided. This housing is paid for by the employer. Would it be legal and acceptable to put on their labour contract that they earn 12,500 "basic salary" and 12,500 "living allowance" which they define as applying towards housing? After all, none of their salary is going towards their housing. That is already covered seperately. Doing it this way means that at the end of their contract the employee gets paid gratuity on only the 12,500/mth even though they earned double that and none of their salary was applied towards housing. I say no. I feel it is a way for an employer to get out of paying 50% of what an employee earned as salary. If I am not mistaken, using my example, the employee should get paid gratuity on all 25,000/mth they earned per month and nothing on what the employer paid for their housing. Am I wrong here?

As much as your heart wants to do it, always listen to your head.

Also even if you calculate monthly cost of living most of the major expenses are payable in adavance therefore draining a huge amount from your savings: school fees and rent.

Honestly - don't even consider it. I earned that salary about 15 years ago when I was single. It is not a salary to support a family. Even if the salary was double that - I would say think carefully. The cost of living is high here and while there are cheaper options for some things, generally you will spend a lot on day to day expenses. On AED24,000 you would end up getting into debt and be very stressed. It would be horrible to live in Dubai and have absolutely nothing left at end of the month. Its not worth being away from home if you either cants save or enjoy lifestyle here. AED24000 would disappear fast: Rent 10,000 (at least) Groceries 4,000 Car 2,000 School 4,000 (but has to be paid termly in advance) DEWA 1,000 Phone, internet etc 2,000 Other 1,000 this would leave you with zero. So any emergency trips home, doctors visits (most of the time you pay and claim back on insurance), birthdays, outings, clothes, buying stuff for house would need to be funded from somewhere else - savings, credit. Please don't do it. I have seen too many people get into a mess over here as they underestimated the set up costs and were left in debt for years.... Dubai is not a place to live without a good disposable income.

We've never had a maid...if you don't work it's not necessary.

Sorry to sau but this salary is not enough to pay for school fees and daycare fees which are almost as expensive as schools. You will not be able to find part time and your calculations don't seem to include the moving costs. Also consider community fees and help at home. Most family here have a live in maid as cleaners would cost almost same price if you want them more then once a week. Food is very expensice ans most of all rent. You will not be happy here with so little, epsecially then living costs increase continuously...

Sadly, Dubai is not the place to live on a shoestring especially if you have children. There will be endless expenses such as school uniform and school trips which the school will tell you are not compulsory but make you feel like the biggest Scrooge ever if you are the one parent who doesn't let their child go !! As an example we paid 11,000 dhs for our eldest to go to Vietnam and have just paid 3 thousand something for our 11 year old to go to Sri Lanka.. If you have to pay for your own visas that's another few hundred every 2 or 3 years, internet package (tv isn't necessary, you can get by with a v p n to watch iplayers), DEWA (electricity and water), groceries aren't as expensive as a lot of people will tell you, or at least I don't think so - many things we buy are cheaper here than at home..Alcohol licence is 200 dhs annually, ID card and driving licence cost, thankfully fuel is really cheap - I can fill a 4x4 tank for less than 100 dhs !! (would cost that much in pounds back home !! lol). Beauty treatments aren't necessary - I've been here for years and have yet to set foot inside a salon although I do get my hair coloured every 2 or 3 months. You can make savings in lots of ways but then an unexpected expense will come up and your savings have gone !! It's a fabulous place and bursting with amazing things to do so I would say, if you have the opportunity then take it, just don't expect to save much or do everything you want to do and keep an exit plan funded should it prove too difficult to manage. Just beware that most of us only plan to be here a short time but end up staying much longer and be prepared for the peculiar thing that happens to so many of us when we've been here for a while and our circumstances dictate that we really should head home yet we desperately look for ways to stay, at any cost !! Deciding to come will be a difficult decision but deciding to leave is virtually impossible !!

Hi Maril, You will find when you receive your work contract here, that you will see the salary broken down and listed in a way that includes housing, there is a percentage from the total of the salary that is counted as housing allowance. If I am not mistaken most companies do provide annual return tickets to country of origin - that used to be standard practice recognised by the Labour office, maybe this has changed in the last few years, someone who knows more here, can highlight this. I cannot advise you on schools as I didn't get that far yet. But I can tell you after living here for so long I would say that this is doable indeed but you have to do a lot of research on where to live, where to shop, how to shop. Also saving funds for emergencies over here is very important, small surprises can pop out of the blue, ie. traffic fines, medical occurrences that are not covered by insurance. A lot depends on your family, what you like to do, what kind of lifestyle are you seeking? etc.....Best of luck! This is actually an ongoing problem in Dubai for some people who have housing provided by the employer in addition to their salary. I have seen those who work for major companies (whose names I would love to mention) that have their housing paid for separately... YET their contract suggests that half of their actual salary (what goes in the bank as theirs) is "housing allowance." Since end of service gratuity is based on BASIC salary only... it allows the company to get away with claiming half of their employee's actual salary is not really salary (though it is). This allows them to pay only 50% of what is owed to the employee as gratuity at the end of the contract. :( @Lady Lavender - the labour law contract requires that the employer provides a percentage (If I am not mistaken it used to be almost 40% of the total salary toward housing) most people don't realise this until they have a legal problem with their employer. People often don't understand the employment contracts they sign, one with the employer and one with the labour office, this causes all kinds of confusion, not only for those that have housing provided but sometimes even worse for those who don't have housing provided. It's a real shocker when it comes to the end-of-service benefits because all kinds of miscalculations occur. This is why I always advise everyone to keep all their documents and paperwork up-to-date, always have a written statement translated by a VERY reliable English to Arabic translator before going to deal with any governments offices or law firms.

Hi Maril, You will find when you receive your work contract here, that you will see the salary broken down and listed in a way that includes housing, there is a percentage from the total of the salary that is counted as housing allowance. If I am not mistaken most companies do provide annual return tickets to country of origin - that used to be standard practice recognised by the Labour office, maybe this has changed in the last few years, someone who knows more here, can highlight this. I cannot advise you on schools as I didn't get that far yet. But I can tell you after living here for so long I would say that this is doable indeed but you have to do a lot of research on where to live, where to shop, how to shop. Also saving funds for emergencies over here is very important, small surprises can pop out of the blue, ie. traffic fines, medical occurrences that are not covered by insurance. A lot depends on your family, what you like to do, what kind of lifestyle are you seeking? etc.....Best of luck! This is actually an ongoing problem in Dubai for some people who have housing provided by the employer in addition to their salary. I have seen those who work for major companies (whose names I would love to mention) that have their housing paid for separately... YET their contract suggests that half of their actual salary (what goes in the bank as theirs) is "housing allowance." Since end of service gratuity is based on BASIC salary only... it allows the company to get away with claiming half of their employee's actual salary is not really salary (though it is). This allows them to pay only 50% of what is owed to the employee as gratuity at the end of the contract. :(

To justify coming here, you should look at the following criteria: 1. Improvement of lifestyle 2. Save money If one or both criteria can't be fulfilled, don't come.

Sorry, I don't think the salary will be enough to cover school fees and housing for a family of 5. There are also a lot of hidden charges here and it definitely adds up. You would have to double the salary to live comfortable without it being luxury. Where do you plan to rent and send your children to school for 170 k together?

Hi First thing good luck with the move, you MUST negotiate housing and school allowances, in all honesty you will not survive on what he is currently being offered, especially with kids, Weigh up how your lifestyle is at the moment and then what your lifestyle would be like here. We already substitute the school fees (currently paying for my 2 boys 130k (thats for the 2 of them) and rent 165k (2 cheques) Uptown Mirdif is a very family friendly close to shops and everything you need. I am going to home school to cut costs, yes that means I give up my part time job, which are hard to come by, but its a decision we had to make.

More and more companies seem to be looking for singles as then school fees don't come into it and cheapish to rent a one bed apartment. Or oldies like us with grown up children back home :)

If you really must move here, perhaps you could live in Sharjah? Much cheaper there although the commute will be quite difficult. Why are you moving here? Is your current situation quite untenable? Because keep in mind that moving itself can be really, really expensive. You don't expect it, but having to buy things all over again - like curtains and cleaning equipment or whatever can really add up.

More and more companies seem to be looking for singles as then school fees don't come into it and cheapish to rent a one bed apartment.

Layan and Remraan have apartments but apartment we paid 78k for in 2012 is now going for between 110 and 120k. I think Remraan are cheaper. Both are further out of Dubai but access most places is quick. Other areas may be much closer but gridlock more. As rent and school fees need to be paid upfront ( rent will either be 1,2,3 or occasionally 4 checks paid over a year) you should ask company whether they will be advancing salary to cover these initial costs..you also have agent fees for renting.. Also, will they pay to ship furniture etc out?

I rented a car for 1700 a month ..this was cheapest smallest car available and was on a long term agreement. I went back on holiday for a week and paid 900 for a week with same car so this was on a special deal. Until you get your residency card you can't get a UAE licence which means you can only drive a rental car. Immediately you get residency you MUST transfer your UK licence to a UAE one..from memory this is AED400 each plus a charge for a mandatory eye test which must be done in UK. All housing incurs an additional 5% of your annual rental cost...this is added to your DEWA which is your water and electricity bill. Ie if you rent for 80k a year you will pay an additional 4k a year split over 12 months ie approx an extra AED333 a month. The biggest issue is that rents tend to go up annually as do school costs...I comes don't tend to rise. When we came out, we knew it wpuld be tight ( although had a few k a month more than you to play with after school fees etc) Our problem was that within three years rent had increased almost 20% and school fees almost doubled. Once your youngest starts FS1 you need to allow for that. Apartments in silicon oasis are fine but you will almost def need to run two cars....often those apartments only give one car parking space. Shopping locally and buying local produce I spent AED800 a week but this was no treats or food court meals out. Mobile phone contracts are way more expensive than UK which is something else to bear in mind. I hate to sound negative....I am normally the first to come on here and say it is doable financially when others say it isn't but I would be worried unless you get housing or schooling included. Other costs I had to factor in were hiring a car when back in uk on holiday and also accommodation as I rented my house out. Jumeirah is nice but you are looking at close to a min of 200k to live there... Cheaper areas are Remraam, Layan ( although the two bed "villas" are tiny!!)

Some of the costs depend on the area where you live, ie. areas like Motor City or some towers in the Marina Area, the A/C is not included and I would have to pay a separate bill which was over 700 a month during the summer months, when I had a villa in Jumeirah the DEWA bill would be almost 3,000 AED during the summer. A lot of people have moved to neighbouring Emirates over the years and make a morning commute, the morning traffic has become an absolute nightmare, with people leaving their homes from Ajman at 4:30am and Sharjah 5:30 am. Villas are bigger and much cheaper but that commute arrgggh!!!! You can check these sites to check current prices: www.propertyfinder.ae, www.dubizzle.com When it comes to Satellite TV, there are ways to get around the costs - ie. either invest in a Smart Internet TV, or connect laptop to TV cable and get online tv packages from other countries - If are coming from the UK and have a TV license you can still watch bbc, itv and channel 4 directly from the sites. You can always buy discounted DVDs from the supermarket for the kids. Driving here - you will get used to having to drive quite a bit to get things done around here - petrol is increasing this week - www.thenational.ae/business/energy/uae-petrol-prices-to-rise-more-than-10-per-cent-in-april. Please becareful not to drive on your foreign driving licenses when your visa process starts because you can get yourselves in a legal pickle. When the process begins you will need to drive only on U.A.E licenses. Please please be SUPER careful at getting car loans, so many people got in trouble here because of this. I have found that it is better to buy a second hand car in good condition or ship the one you have in your country of origin, so that you don't have to worry about car payments at the end of the month. As for working part-time as the other ladies pointed out - there is no part time work contracts here, you can either volunteer and do some charity work or need to apply for a special license. There are cheap licenses that you have to renew on an annual basis that will allow you to have a your business and business bank account. A popular method is to go to: www.vz.ae or www.creativezone.ae. Now if you can open a paypal account from where you are before you get here, that can be very useful, as paypal here still has some restrictions at the moment and can only be set up to be used if you have a local credit card in your name. This was a lifesaver for me to make and receive payments. As for beauty treatments - boy have the prices gone up in the last few years, this Hair Academy gives free hair cuts and discounts on hair treatments www.hb-academy.ae, one of the managers there was truly an excellent hairdresser. There are discount deals all over town for beauty, dining and entertainment - you can check out - www.cobone.com, www.kobonaty.com, www.theentertainerme.com Clothes shopping has become expensive here, but I found the sales in the Summer and Winter have been pretty good. There is also an discount/outlet mall www.dubaioutletmall.com, which has been helpful. Another big plus point I found having a UAE visa in my passport is that we are able get our VAT back on shopping in Europe! If you have the patience and the will, there are two markets on the old side of Dubai for fish and vegetables, you can save a lot of money but again traffic and parking....... Good luck!

I would say that a Dewa bill for a family of four could easily top 5000 aed a month in the summer excluding the housing fee - mine certainly does ?. Wow that is huge Nobbles :cry:

I would say that a Dewa bill for a family of four could easily top 5000 aed a month in the summer excluding the housing fee - mine certainly does ?.

We all pay the 5% of annual rent It is applicable for all residential premises I live alone but just to give you an idea One bedroom rent in an nice but not a posh area AED7000 DEWA paid monthly AED500 ( District cooling included) higher in the Summer Salik and Petrol monthly ( My drive to work is 15 minutes) AED500 Internet/Mobile/TV Package AED700 Food shopping weekly around AED400 and I don't shop in Waitrose etc Haircuts/beauty treatments AED500 a month I have left out clothes shopping ( I buy online) toiletries, nights out, holidays, dentist, etc So in all that is almost 10k a month just for the important stuff and there is only me with no kids or school fees to pay If you have a car loan or car hire monthly expect to pay AED2000-2500 a month more.

I don't think that would be enough sorry. That would easily cover your living expenses and school fees, but not your rent. The main thing is housing, if your husbands company can provide housing then you are okay. There is no concept of "part time" work here, not legally anyways, trust me I tried to find something flexible after my daughter was born! If you work freelance they now require something called a "freelance license" which you pay quite a bit for. You'll need to get a job and have to work full hours - I got a temporary contract for 3 months but it still required me to work full hours 8am till 5pm. This would then mean putting your 8 month old in a nursery, which gets expensive for all day care (about 15,000dhs for 3 months) or hiring a full time nanny to watch your child when you are at work which is cheaper but it's really hard to find someone you can trust. If none of the above is possible, you can live in a low rent area like International City and put your 8 year old in a school such as Winchester. It is doable to live on 24,000 but I'm not sure what standard of living you are accustomed to and how much you can adjust. Good luck :)

Hi, First, you should negotiate with your husband's company to include housing on top of his monthly income. Housing here is so expensive especially for a family like yours where you need at least 3 bedrooms. You are looking about 140,000 - 200,000 a year on rent on a villa. I don't think you will be happy trying to make it on 24,000 aed a month here. I have heard that school is also very expensive. If my husband's company did not give us the housing allowance on top of his salary there is no way we would have moved here because housing is just so expensive. We live in motor city, which is really nice and just for a one bedroom it is 85,000 a year. We looked at villas when we moved here but one bedrooms started at 125,000 and we did not want to pay that much. The areas that are nice and not downtown are Silicon Oasis, Mirdif City, Motor City, Arabian Ranches, JVT (new but up and coming). But if you live in these areas then you need a car. But these areas are more family orientated. Food is also expensive here. This includes grocery stores and going out to eat. I feel that living here is much more expensive even than the states, where I am from. You have to watch your money or you will spend it all just to entertain yourself. Part time jobs here are impossible to find. I tried for almost a year and no one wanted part time workers. So I had to work full time and still not making as much as I would like. I just think you should look at your husband's contract again and see if you can get that housing allowance on top of his salary. It will make the move worth it. I hope this helps somewhat.