The US Education

I have a BS and MS degree from the US. I don’t like to brag about it a lot, as I know it’s not a big deal these days, but I have always found myself adjusting to situations faster and picking up things easier than most of my coworkers. I don’t know if that has anything to do with my educational background, as it just might be a natural tendency, but I have always been on the top of my game without much struggle. Most of the time I procrastinate just because the tasks in my to-do list are so easy I feel they are not even worth my time. Not a good approach, I know. I do finish the tasks well within the deadline, and this has been working for me for many years now.

So what does that have to do with Dubai, you ask? Well, not much. This is just something I wanted to get off my chest.

One of the requirements for getting a UAE employment visa is that your educational certificate has to be attested by the UAE consulate in the country where the certificate is issued.

Since I was in Pakistan when I received the employment offer from Dubai, I couldn’t get my US degree attested anywhere in Pakistan. UAE consulate wouldn’t attest the document unless it is attested by HEC, and HEC only attests certifications issued in Pakistan. I tried US consulate in Karachi but they didn’t attest educational documents. I was out of options.

I was advised by my employer to come to UAE on a visit visa and then we will figure out how to resolve this issue. I followed the instructions.

Upon joining the office, it was reaffirmed that without attestation the application for UAE resident visa will be rejected. This was specially true if your employer was in a free zone. I tried hard to get away with an uncertified degree but it didn’t work. I had to get my degree attested.

So I started my research and found out that I will have to send my degree to the US in order to get it attested. Now that was a huge thing. Fortunately, there were a few companies who offered this service for a fee. One of them was Emirates Post.

Emirates Post refused to offer me this service, and I still don’t know why. In short, I couldn’t use Emirates Post to get my certificate attested from the US. This was a big blow because they were the least expensive.

So I had no option but to use a service that was three times as expensive and 1 week slower.

1500 Dirhams and 4 weeks later, I received my degree fully attested and certified from all the related offices in the US, and my employer was finally able to apply for my resident visa. Due to this delay, I couldn’t apply for driver’s license, or a phone connection at my apartment, or cable TV, or DSL internet, because all of them required a proof of residence which I didn’t have. I had to wait until my visa was processed.

There were times that left me wondering, if I had a degree from an institute in Pakistan, none of that would have happened. What advantage do I have for getting a US education?