Moving to Erbil, wife is still in university?

Hello

I've a job offer in Erbil for a major oil service company, there are a few questions in mind:

- My wife is still in university studying statistics, any way she can finish her degree over there? (We are Arabic/English speakers)
- My wife is also a senior ESL teacher (English as a Second Language), what are the chances of her getting a job over there and what's the pay like?
- Are there nice housing facilities in the city? Places to go and hangout, i.e. cafes, restaurants, parks, malls, activities .. etc?
- How expensive is the city? Please give me examples if possible

Many many thanks :)

Hi,

- Few universities are here with good Standards i heard.
- There is an Cheufat International School, hope you can get a job there for your wife.
- Housing is a bit an issue over here. There are few new constructed villas, most of them are occupied. Rents are very high. Two famouse family malls, Few Restaurants and a Park.
- Cost of living is same as Dubai.

many thanks for ur reply .. i was wondering about the day-to-day life expenses, i've never lived in Dubai but my understanding is that it's quite expensive

How about ESL Schools in the city? and activities?

Is there an online realestate agency in town?

Life is quite expensive here.

There are two good schools, SIBIL (Cheaufat international School - http://www.iscerbil-sabis.net/)
and AIS (American International School - http://www.ais-k.org/) opening this month.
Activities are very limited, but Gymanasiums are available.

I don't think so, there are online realstate agencies. I will check and update you.

Hi Ahmed Benmoussa seems to me Moroccan, my name is Amine am Moroccan also working with US finance company. Am new in Erbil juste two weeks.

I can not answer your questions right now but soon yes if I ask local staff. [email protected]

Good luck ou bonne chance

Actually .. Libyan :)

Many thanks for ur reply .. waiting for other information

Visa is takin forever !!!

Hi Ahmed,

I can't respond regarding your wife finishing her degree here, but there are jobs teaching ESL. Her pay scale would depend on whether or not she has experience, and whether she's a native English speaker. If she were to work in a private language school, she would probably earn between $10 and $20 an hour. To the best of my knowledge, AMIDEAST (an American NGO) pays the best among private language institutes. There are jobs with post-secondary institutes (UKH for example) which pay better, but the conditions are questionable (several law suits have been filed against the school by ex-teachers) & Chouifat has the highest turnover in teaching staff.

Many expats live in Ainkawa (a suburb of Erbil) or in some of the newer gated communities (English Village, Italian Village). The latter tend to be quite expensive. In Ainkawa, you can still rent a small house for $1000 US/month. There are a handful of Western-style cafes (Starbucks-ish)and 2 decent shopping malls with shops from Turkey and Spain. I'm not a huge fan of the parks here, but there are parks nonetheless. There are tennis courts, if that's your thing.

Erbil isn't very expensive. The most expensive thing you'll probably pay for is rent, but since you're in the oil & gas industry, perhaps that's taken care of. Liquor is cheap and food is reasonable. What tends to be more expensive are western products.

I hope this helps :D

Cat

Many thanks , i'm excited and hope all goes well .. hope ur cat is doing fine :)

@ CAT,

"but the conditions are questionable (several law suits have been filed against the school by ex-teachers) & Chouifat has the highest turnover in teaching staff.'
_____________________________________________

I am bit concern about your above comment. As i am putting my kids in to school here.

Appreciate if you can share more information on it.

Abdul

What can I say? I can't comment on the quality of the students'  education (although I do know that many teachers don't have BEd degrees but rather BAs), but I've heard a lot from teachers. Choueifat drives their teachers hard. Google it. The turnover rate is high because teachers are overworked and treated badly. Classes are crammed and teachers are not allowed to discipline their students (lest tuition-paying parents get annoyed). The number I heard from (now) ex Choueifat teachers is that 13 were gone by Xmas. Keys left in the door and teachers long gone.

The problem is, there aren't any decent alternatives for educating your children here - although I've heard the French school is quite good. AIS is supposed to be up and running this fall (http://www.ais-k.org/) but this will be its first year, so I can't comment. Many expats I know home school their kids.

Good luck! Sorry if I've freaked you out.

Cat:(