7 days

 

What should have been a period of peaceful contemplation has, in typical Saudi style, been super stressful. Naively, I thought I’d just be checking CNN Philippines for travel updates and waiting for an EOSB bank transfer. Instead, a potential showstopper came out of nowhere: my final exit visa wouldn’t issue as it showed I had two visitors left in KSA. Suddenly, the fact my company hadn’t even bothered to pay me hardly mattered at all, especially when the local HR contact abruptly informed that me my wife and son would have to leave the Kingdom ahead of me and there were no alternatives. 

In normal times, this issue would have proven only mildly inconvenient. I would have booked a flight to Dubai for my wife and son, and they would have waited for me there before flying in together to the Philippines. But these are far from normal times. First, any passenger coming from UAE is currently red listed for onward travel to the Philippines. Second, all flights into the Philippines are sky high ($2,000 one-way or more) so rearranging flights out of Turkey or Cairo would be super expensive. Third, going anywhere involves multiple tests. Finally, I can’t even go to the Philippines unless I travel with my wife. Therefore, in my mind, our already booked Emirates flight to Cebu is the only sane way to leave KSA. 

Given HR’s refusal to offer alternatives, and their insistence EOSB would be paid ASAP without any confirmed date, I felt it was time to call in the cavalry. During a casual call with my brother, he mentioned an old contact in Riyadh’s ministry from his days as Saudi’s passport designer. I asked him to contact him and, unbelievably, the next day he called my company. Within two hours, my EOSB was transferred in full and my manager confirmed they were now looking at solutions for me.

Yesterday, my company agreed to a workaround suggested by me a few days back: they’ll issue a single exit re-entry visa and I can leave together with my family. Then, as soon as I leave the Kingdom, they’ll cancel the visa, which will result in a three-year ban on me returning to Saudi - a small price to pay for a bit of peace in my final 7 days. Their only alternative was a risky suggestion of my wife and son going through immigration first and then processing final exit, but they admitted the system might not update in time. I’ve learnt across the years to never rely on people indifferent to your fate. 

Maybe the next seven days will be the beginning of the end of a super stressful period in my life. I desperately need to get out of this country to start a new life. Anymore new, unexpected showstoppers cropping up between now and then might spell the end, or seriously delay, the Siargao dream. Of course, I’m hoping and praying that nothing can stop us boarding that flight out of here seven short days away.