A funny story of how not to do a visa run in UAE

We were chased down by the police through the Omani Desert

We had been living in the UAE for about eight months, having come to build a University for the local Arabs. Life thus far had been challenging, exciting and at times downright difficult.

The ‘red tape’ and bureaucracy in the ‘land of sand’ was ubiquitous. The husband (TH) had, after months of frustration dealing with the Department of Residency and Naturalisation, attained residency. This achievement allowed us to purchase a car.

As my visit visa was due to expire prior to our impending trip to Thailand we decided to take the new car on a border run into Oman.

Previously, we had successfully executed this procedure a number of times. Border runs are a normal part of expat life. Initial spousal residency visas can take months to finalize and are renewable every two years. We were supremely confident in our endeavours as we set off to the border post on a Saturday morning.

The Oman border is only about 300 metres from the UAE border. All that is required is exit UAE, enter Oman, u-turn, exit Oman and re-enter the UAE. Simple we thought.

As we finalized the process at the Oman border TH said.

“Why don’t we drive to Al Buraimi and re-enter UAE there? It will be fun to drive through the desert. Say hi to a few camels and the like”.

Al Buraimi is an area of Oman adjacent to Al Ain which has an open border. Many people working in Al Ain live there due to cheaper rents. Anyway, we had not been there before so we thought, “why not”? It will be like a ‘Sunday Drive’!

So it was that we set off driving through the Oman desert towards Al Buraimi about 40kms away. The landscape was typical desert and we were enjoying the ride photographing camels in the wild as we went.

About 20kms from the entry post into Oman we suddenly came upon what looked like a derelict, forgotten border post. It was a rundown shanty, totally devoid of any signage. Why would there have been a border post here in the middle of nowhere?

As we drove on TH glanced. in his rear vision mirror and said.

Related posts:

Coffee is an amazing drink, and it’s been found to boost cognitive function, mood, and (obviously) energy. Most of us casually enjoy a cup in the morning or afternoon, but did you know that coffee…

Bagi sebagian orang pencitraan merupakan sebuah tindakan yang “berpura-pura” hal ini yang kerap di sangkutpautkan dengan mencitrakan diri. Jelas terdapat perbedaan dari sudut pandang saya…

Alguna vez en tu vida, te has preguntado como le hacen las demás personas para llegar al lugar que tanto tu has querido llegar o algunas otras veces te has preguntado que hacen esas personas que no…