Planning to move middle east for saving money!

[zahidatcanuchabroad]

I am a Canadian citizen. Professionally, I am an electrical engineer having Canadian master’s degree and also licensed professional engineer (P.Eng.) of Ontario, working for an international company with 80K CAD salary. My intention is to work in Middle East, let’s say for couple of years, and get ride of my Canadian government and Canadian bank student loans. My enquiries would be to you are:

1. Having these student loans, can I be a non-resident so Middle East tax free salary can be enjoyed? I will be paying back these loans on monthly basis as I do now.
2. Can someone suggest web sites for job, salary, company related to electric power systems field?
3. What would be an average living cost in Middle East countries such as in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi etc? You may compare a Canadian couple husband and wife are living in a decent apartment and maintaining a single car.
4. Any other facts and suggestions?

Highly appreciated your help and generosity.

[racdn]

Hi, I can help you and may be you can help me. I am in a very similar position but just the reverse, I want to go to Canada from UAE as I got immigration visa. I am also electrical engineer!!! Rest after your reply. You can write me on optraj-98@yahoo.co.in
Rajeev

[monymoe]

Zahid:

You have your P.Eng yet you still have student loans so i am assuming you are between 4-6 years out of school correct? What you will make in the middle east will depend entirely on how much experience you have and how well you can talk your way through the interview. Ive worked for 2 international engineering consultancy firms and the offers for someone in your status, citizenship and experienced ranged between (all figures in AED) 25k + apartment + car + med insurance + furniture + air travel + more to 40k all inclusive.

1) I cannot help you with the non resident tax question thing; but i will help you with the other stuff:

2) websites - I can only help you with the UAE; there is Abu Dhabi's ADWEA (Abu dhabi Water & Electricity Authority), and Dubai's DEWA. Those are the two major 'clients' for electrical works in the country. Of course you can go to a bunch of consultancy firms such as ramboll, atkins, parsons, tibudin, dorsche group, and others; you can even try to apply at oil companies such as ADNOC Group, Haliburton.. Last but not least you can check out some websites such as gulftalent dot com, bayt dot com, and naukrigulf dot com.

3) Housing will be your most expense, in abu dhabi a one bedroom apartment can be found for about 120K a year; in Dubai you can find them starting for 60K a year on Sheikh Zayed Road. Some decent websites to check out are dubizzle dot com and uae2let dot com . Other than that, a decent SUV (toyota Prado) will set you back 100-130k, while going out, groceries, entertainment and other expenses should cost no more than 4-5k a month.

[zahidatcanuchabroad]

Thanks a lot. Big helps. Really appreciated your help. Actually I am out of school 3 years and I did have another master degree from Russia with additional 5 years post-graduate research experience. I am just wondering can you little bit break down the average amount for (1) appartment/housing (2) transportation/car paid by employer, want to know how much I need to pay from base salary. Once again thank you very much.

[monymoe]

check your PM for more info; but to help those who are in your same situation, i wanna clarify that the separation between basic salary and allowances only exists so that your end of service benefits (which you receive after you finish employment) are lesser. There is no law stopping you from receiving a full basic salary of 45k instead of it being divided into 20k basic, 23k for housing and 2 for transport. Companies divide the salaries so that you only get a portion of your overall salary when you leave them. (of course, not all companies do that, only the bastardly ones. try going for a branch of an international firm like Ellis Don or Stanley or Ramboll or Parsons for a better treatment)

[shailendra]

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