It's Megan again, Rupert didn't get to go on this adventure so he can't speak to it.
Marcus's visa is provided by his employer and then he can sponsor his spouse. Lots of things go in to being able to sponsor your spouse here, but before you can start the process, the spouse with the visa has to have a tenancy contract signed, and then an Ejari, which is basically a database of registered tenancy constracts, but to register it, you have to have DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) set up, to set up DEWA, you have to have the signed lease, blah blah blah. Well, we were just able to register our Ejari on Jan 30. Then there is a guy that works for DANS (department of the government that Marcus works for) who processes the visas for spouses. Basically they are nice and do all the paperwork but we still pay. I entered Dubai on Jan 6, and my tourist visa was only good for 30 days, but the guy went of vacation on the 10 and was not going to get back until Feb 7, so since I was only legal until Feb 4, we had to do something. Dubai does give a 10 day grace period, before you have to start paying overstay fees. It was going to be 800 AED to go to the airport and extend it to a 90 day visa, or we could do a visa run.
So on Friday the 5th, we drove to Oman.
It should have been about a two hour drive, but we made a few wrong turns when we first left.
On the road
Cool UAE flag painted on mountain
Mainly the drive is desert, and then some mountains, where there are a lot of quarries. Eventually we got to the border. First you exit the UAE, it was 35 AED each for an exit visa. Then you keep driving a little bit and end up at the building where you go in and get your visa for Oman (US is a country that can get a visa on arrival, no need to apply beforehand). So we filled out the form and went to the window and the guy asked where we were going and Marcus said, just a visa run. So when you say that they stamp your your entry and exit all at the same time. Then when you go back in your car and turn around you don't have to come back into the building and get your exit visa. It was 100 AED total.
I went to Oman
Then you turn around and go back. The line in the UAE border crossing was longer than the one in Oman. From the time we left our house to getting back in the car at the UAE border was about 3 hours. Then we drove back.
I'm legal again now and we will start the process for my residency visa now that the guy at Marcus's work is back.
Love,
Megan
