Expat Working and Living in Saudi Arabia

Expat Living in Saudi Arabia

This website (Living in Saudi Arabia) is dedicated to all of those expatriates working and living in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A land of many opportunities and at the same time many disappointments.

Living in Saudi ArabiaWhy work in Saudi Arabia? Most of us expats have come to Saudi Arabia for one reason, Money, the root of all evil as some would say, and something that some would say the Saudi’s have more than their fair share of due to the Oil found beneath their sands.

But this wealth has led to an opportunity for many of us to come and work in this ultra-religious and very private society. For some this is an adventure and a chance to mix with people with a very different background and culture whilst for others it is a chore of immense proportions.

Life in Saudi Arabia

If you are living in Saudi Arabia and from the west then you are probably living in a comfortable villa on a western compound with the facilities that would normally be found on a small holiday camp in the Costa Del Sol. You probably have a salary that you would have only dreamed of if you were back home and to cap it all you have zero tax to pay and are enjoying free accommodation and schooling also as part of your package.

Living in KSA

Is that the whitehouse?

At the other end of the scale you could be from a poor part of India and have managed to scrape together and borrow enough to get yourself a job in Saudi Arabia as a domestic in some large subcontracting company in KSA. You may have found yourself thrown into an untidy and overcrowded dormitory where you are  locked away at night to protect yourself from yourself, woken in the morning to be bused to work and escorted everywhere you go. Your salary although large for back home is totally inadequate for you to do anything beyond your dormitory and at times your salary may be months late!

You may also be a maid working for a wealth family in Saudi Arabia with spacious living quarters, a friendly and helpful family who value you and treat you with respect, conversely you may have to share a room akin to a cupboard with another maid, sexually abused and threatened that you will be arrested if you try to run away and your family will cease to get your valuable wages that they rely on to survive!

Working in Saudi Arabia can be a real gamble if you are not familiar with who you are going to work for, less so for people from the west, but those from less affluent countries can find themselves in a situation akin to being in prison!How expats are treated in Saudi Arabia very much depends on where they have come from in the world, if you look Asian rather than western you will be treated fairly poorly as most Saudis will think you are the tea boy or the driver.

Westerners who come to live in KSA have a number of different attitudes, there are those who wish to explore the local culture and try to mix with the locals and visit historical sites (those that are open to non-Muslims), and there are others like a couple of American friends of mine who refuse to leave the safety of their compound!

Expat in Saudi ArabiaI am one of those that likes to mix and explore where ever I go, I have spent about half of my time in the kingdom living on compound and the other half living in apartments as if I were a local (something that I have been advised is not strictly allowed for a foreigner from the west – but what the hell)  During my time I have been threatened with violence as a “victim” of road rage and have been verbally abused by youths and once spat at, incidents that on reflection were just as likely (if not more so) to have happened at home – and certainly would be far worst if I were an Arab back home! In general living in Saudi Arabia I have felt safer on the streets than in any other country I have lived in or visited.

Getting to Saudi Arabia

Finding work in Saudi Arabia is not too difficult, getting your Saudi Visa however may be a bit of a chore. I have had both a Saudi Business Visa and a Work Visa for Saudi, each has given me problems, even to the point where I was thrown out of the Saudi Embassy in the UK and even worse I had to risk paying someone to help me leave Saudi Arabia illegally as my visa had expired.

 Women living in Saudi Arabia

Life in Saudi ArabiaHowever If I were a woman working in Saudi Arabia; the story I am sure would be totally different, freedoms for women are severely restricted. A woman cannot drive, they must wear an Abaya in public, cannot mix with men unless they are married to them or a direct blood relative. Being alone on the street would leave them in danger of being stopped as a prostitute! It is also not safe to walk alone as a woman, I often see  cars stop to harass women walking alone in the hope that the woman may be a prostitute (some are) and at times the men can be overly forceful and abduct and rape women – something the woman is unlikely to be able to complain about if they are not a Saudi woman! My wife has been dragged into a car and had to use a knife to escape, a friend was grabbed outside our building (a nice neighborhood) by a man who tried to drag her into his car causing severe bruising before she managed to escape; the police did nothing because she was a Filipina!

Living by the Rules in KSA

Women in Saudi ArabiaIf you are living within Saudi Arabia you will be aware of the many rules that you have to abide by, restrictions that would be challenged in any court in the west. But this is Saudi Arabia, the birth place of the Muslim religion and the Saudi interpretation of the rules is extreme. Prayers are observed 5 times per day and everything stops, I mean everything; stores close, businesses stop and everyone goes to pray in the mosque, in the office or even in the street. If you time your visit to the supermarket wrongly you will find yourself with a full trolley and a 30 to 40 minute wait before the checkout staff return.

But despite the rules, the heat (sometimes 50 degrees), Saudi working practices and  the frequent encounters with people you want to strangle; I have found living in Saudi Arabia to be one of the best experiences of my life (after all I met my wife here!)

9 comments for “Expat Working and Living in Saudi Arabia

  1. May 19, 2012 at 9:07 am

    Hello my name is Marcel and I was wondering if you could provide me info to help my fiance, who is a Tanzanian citizen, escape Saudi Arabia. I read over your article about expats escaping Saudi Arabia and I was very intrigued to know more is possible. Please email me at the address provided about so I can discuss this matter in further detail. Thank you very much for you time!

  2. abu
    October 16, 2015 at 8:45 pm

    Marcel Wrong you must know that People from all continents flock to Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries willingly and preferably, on their own for business, livelihood, peace and prosperity. You keep on barking against Noble Livings there under Controlled Freedom which is yet Complete Freedom, in fact no one is interested in ‘escaping’ except one or two whom people like you tip to bring media attention on calculated strategies. Mr. Wrong you should better Discover, Recognise, Thank & Worship the RealGod “ALLAH”, before your eyes are shut forever, and save yourself from Hellfire reserved for those who fail to recognise the RealGod in their lifetime !

    • admin
      October 18, 2015 at 6:43 pm

      Hi Abu,
      Yes many people do come there looking for money very willingly. But when they get there many find themselves being paid a fraction of their promised wages, not getting vacations, not being allowed to leave, locked up against their will, abused verbally and physically, raped, and a host of other issues that I receive emails about or comments about every day. The one or two that want to leave make up sizable crowds in Jeddah under the bridge and outside various embassies. While many have no problems a sizable minority do have some pretty serious issues that cannot be denied.

    • Izabella
      September 15, 2016 at 5:11 am

      Abu if you were born for exsample in Europe you will have a diferent frame of mind and ypu will not think as ypu think now. Also the God is only one and can be called many diferent names…But o ly good people will be saved, not those who rape and disrespect the woman for sure….

  3. Amy
    May 16, 2016 at 12:45 pm

    I was shocked when I arrived in Saudi arabia actually i was so scared at the plane when I arrived to Jeddah it was the worst i felt like i was in india or bangaladish “no offense” but my point was: is this the money country? The airport was so old and I didn’t have abaya on and i was dressed kinda of revealing and i was thinking akkkh im going to be a rape victim in a few minutes but NAAH nothing happened i was overthinking the whole trip which made it worse everyone looked so hurry and rude but when i ask for something they switche to a big smile and saying welcome to saudi i was like hmmm never expected that lol and then i walked out of the airport and took a taxi and then the local driver he was well spoken i felt so stupid because i was slowly talking and screaming and explaining to him a “hotel” with my hands he looked at me like what’s your problem and he said i know relax miss and ooh i was embarrassed but he was so nice super friendly and he was telling me about the new big airport that they are building right now , at that moment i start to convent my self that its a way better than what i was expected and when we got to the highway i was littery shocked when i saw this big street and luxury cars all passing us none stop the oldest car i gotta say it was Toyota corrola 2010 like the one i got back home lol and then we went to this street like iv never thought a street will take my breath right away there was a flash lights on the same streets!! fancy walking sides lighting palms women jogging wearing abaya as a jacket lambos & Ferrari as Honda Civic back at home big building beautiful towers a western restaurants and malls Starbucks on every street i was Sooo exciting to go out that night to explore the city and it was like 11:30pm and the city was full of people doing their normal activities like they got nothing to do at the morning and i was overwhelmed when i saw nearly half of the women’s were without hijab back at home i saw the Saudi womens pictures covering everything but their eyes and hands I remember that night I cried and I don’t know why i was happy with this step in my life 2 months later iv gained at least over a 50 good friends locals and from all iver the world like mens woman’s gays and lesbians who said you cant be a friend or talk with a male in public maybe that was in the 1990s or somewhere else but now its 2016 and everything has changed, I don’t know about other places in Saudi but if you were a woman who’s thinking to work in saudi I recommend you to come to Jeddah the people here are so friendly and so open minded like we don’t see a lot of typical saudi family like a man wearing the white dress and the women covering her face NO way i mean iv seen that a few times and probably they are not from Jeddah. I have to admit something that my contract will end in 8 months and I don’t wanna go back home I really felt in love with Jeddah thats why I googled it and found this incredible website.

  4. Faisal
    May 24, 2016 at 10:40 pm

    Hey readers,

    I’m Saudi. Not very happy about many things in KSA. BUT, what you read here is completely & uttey exaggerated.

    Many expats of different nationalities & from both genders work happily here!

    It is up to you but don’t believe everything you read

  5. Pradikshan
    May 27, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    Hi.
    I am an experienced Indian Software Engineer(married) waiting to accept a job offer(with good package and 1-year contract) from a Government medical institution in Riyadh, KSA. After reading all the posts in the blog, I am a bit nervous to take up the job now. Could you please tell me if the situation will be unwelcoming or unpleasant for me to live and work there!!
    Kindly advice.
    Thank you.

  6. June 26, 2016 at 4:43 pm

    I am one of that people who liveing in saudi arabia as my country as citizen.
    So I can tell you about it :
    It considered as home of last religion (ISLAM)
    Last Holy book (Quran)
    Last Prophet
    and home of Arabic language.
    So our roles ,life style ,view are related to these points .

  7. Namale Josephine
    October 1, 2016 at 3:30 am

    Iam working as amaid in one family in Saudiarabia(Riyadh) and being paid little money 800 so lm looking for another sponsor .lm ready to abide with rules and regulations if given chance.

Leave a Reply to Pradikshan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*