British woman moving to Riyadh - not on compound

If you dosent live in compound, dosent mean you cannot meet people. You can find many western women living in compound and they can invite you into their compound. so dont worry about that, upto you how u make friends. For your exit visa your sponsor can only provide it, if not you cant leave this country. In some cases if he dosent get you, there are other ways to get them but it would cost few thousand riyals. As per my experience i have seen everything is possible in saudi, if you have money. I dont know what others would advice, but i have seen people getting their things done with money.

Read the threads linked within the thread below.  They are highly relevant to your future employment scenario.

http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=324088

Thanks, will have a read.

Hi Zaah,

I have just rented a flat off compound and find life quite easy and stress free, however, I am a bloke!!

I am sure your new employer wil have a driver that will be able to take you wherever you need on your time off.

As for socialising, look on this forum and ladies tend to have a few get togethers, this has to be your first port of call for socialising with likeminded women, this in turn, will get you invited to some western compounds.

I wish you all the very best, and be sure to keep keep us up to date with how things are going.

Best wishes

Tony

suribhai wrote:

You can find many western women living in compound and they can invite you into their compound.

Ummmmmm.... didn't you skip a step??  Like, how to 'find' those Western women to begin with?  Life here is NOT easy for a single woman and friendship can be difficult to find for many reasons. 

For one, expats tend to hang with their national groups (for example, notice all the Filipino women out shopping in groups and note how many Westerners you see in that group).

For another, married women (trailing spouses) tend to associate with other married women because they have the same free time (which is during the day; if you are single, you're in KSA working during their free hours).

For a third, compound people have their own social groups, plenty of associates, and there is no need to include more, especially single women (get my drift?).

It goes on and on.  Not meant to discourage you, Zaah.  Just it's going to take a bit of work and lots of persistence to establish a social life here.

Best of luck!

Hey!

Here in Saudi, its worth spending a year or maybe two (depending on your level of patience) just to get the feel of being in real Kingdom.

As for socialising you will find ladies on EB who would want to meet new people. I am sure you can make use of those threads.

As for information about living in Saudi, Alliecat is very well versed with what goes on here for expats. So do listen to the lady.

Hope all goes well for you.

Sorry Ms Zaah, forgot to mention, you need to catchup with Ms Allicat, she can help you a lot with all your questions. As she is one of the most active member of this blog. As for me i can just give you suggestions but hard to find sources, coz am not from western countries, i dont have any western friends yet.

suribhai wrote:

Sorry Ms Zaah, forgot to mention, you need to catchup with Ms Allicat, she can help you a lot with all your questions. As she is one of the most active member of this blog. As for me i can just give you suggestions but hard to find sources, coz am not from western countries, i dont have any western friends yet.

We all have our areas of expertise, suribhai.  You have yours, too   Notice I never comment on Indian stuff?  It's cause I don't know--but YOU do.

Have a lovely afternoon!

Thank you for all your replies, really appreciate it. I am preparing myself for it to be very difficult to make friends but not impossible. I will keep an eye out on this site for any expats arranging social things.

Alliecat - you seem to be a person in the 'know' so I look forward to any future advice you may have for a single woman moving to Riyadh. I'm sure I will be posting more questions before February.

Thanks