Here's my illegal alien experience. I was working in Saudi with a 6-month multiple entry visa. About 4 months into my stay, I decided to take a long weekend in Dubai, purchased a ticket and went to the airport. At passport control, they told me I had overstayed my visa by 3 months and was therefore in the country illegally, technically as an absconder. I had not understood that my multiple entry visa only allowed me one month per entry, i.e. though it was good for 6 months, I was supposed to exit and re-enter the country every month. Whereupon they instructed me to leave the airport and first thing after the weekend, go into work and report to my manager who would deal with Immigration on my behalf. And that's what happened. No handcuffs, jail cells, beatings. I had to pay a small fine of about 200 Riyalls (about £40) except the manager refunded me because "We should have explained the visa requirements when you first arrived".
PARAPLEXED
A blog that used to be called Helga's Chickens. Few remember why.
20 January 2026
14 January 2026
All lies and jest
Still, a man sees what he wants to see
and disregards the rest.
We see you, Trump, Noem, ICE
24 December 2025
27 November 2025
Silent Movie with mystery strobe
I have no idea what this device is for. Clearly it is a strobe with a fixed frequency of around 5Hz. There are no markings of any sort on the cylinder or its lid. If you know why it exists, please tell me.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
featured post:
Tom Lehrer's Hunting Song
The Hunting Song is one of Tom Lehrer's lighter offerings. That is, unless one takes it literally, in which case it is surreal and more ...
these you have loved:
-
Washing Feet in the Sink is Prohibited. This notice, stuck on the wall in the gent's lavatory in the Doha Stufital's 2nd floor club ...
-
The good thing about being an occasional visitor to Dubai is that the changes are more in evidence than perhaps they are for those living w...
-
Bad news: thanks to Qatar's new visa regulations, from 1st May, visit visas will no longer be issued on entry at the airport. Good news...
