Dubai: The British Embassy in the UAE has launched a social media campaign this week which aims to ensure a smooth and hassle-free departure for British nationals who are giving up their residency in the UAE.
The ‘Checking Out’ campaign, which will continue throughout May on the Embassy’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, provides a checklist of some of the most important tasks which should be carried out before leaving the UAE.
In particular, it advises British nationals to know and adhere to the UAE’s laws and so avoid any unforeseen legal consequences.
The checklist includes — among other tasks — paying debts, cancelling credit cards and bank accounts, requesting gratuity from employers, renting or selling properties, notifying landlords and clearing all utility bills and traffic fines.
“This is the time of the year, as school year ends, when some families and individuals think about relocating back to the UK or moving to another country,” the UK Ambassador to the UAE Philip Parham said, adding: “It is important that British nationals who have such plans settle financial, visa, accommodation and property issues before they leave the UAE. Non-payment of a debt is a criminal offence and could result in an individual not being able to leave the country, or being stopped and arrested if they try to come back, or even transit through, the UAE.”
The campaign also urges British nationals to ensure the validity of their passports ahead of any travel plans, and calls for families with children in schools here to give sufficient notice in accordance with the schools’ admission policies to prepare transfer letters and certificates for schools at the new destination.
Web content manager Gareth Butler, 34, moved to Montreal, Canada, in March with wife, Erin, 36, and two-year-old daughter, Mabel.
He said: “This sounds like a good idea, because the amount of paperwork you have to do when leaving the country is ridiculous.
“We consider ourselves an organised family, but at times it felt like there was a mountain of red tape in our way before we left.
“Particularly when settling accounts of public utilities, you were often told one thing on the phone and then something entirely different when you arrived in person at the service centres.
“We were determined to make sure everything was tied up before we left, but still had to ask friends to go and pay things off for us.
“Surely in the digital age all this could be moved online and done at the press of a button?”
Susie Brough, 27, social media manager, living in the UAE, said: “I think the campaign is a great idea — leaving without any hidden, lingering debts is something that often concerns me when I consider departing Dubai for good. That said, I don’t think it’s the lack of checklists that causes people problems, but the absolute lack of a logical process for cancelling contracts for internet, phones, TV and so on before leaving the country.
“Then there are the freak, third-party incompetencies that are even more impossible to legislate for,” she said. “A couple of years ago, I spent 12 hours in Rashidiya police station with an expat friend who flew in [to Dubai] for a weekend break, only to be detained at passport control and told that there was a case against her for an unpaid speeding ticket that her old car hire company had failed to mention or charge her for when she returned the vehicle. A full year after she left, they opened a case with Dubai Police. How do you plan for that?
