How convenient is this...

I have just realised that my passport is about to expire in August this year. As most of the countries require the passport to have more than six months validity left it is time to update. It means I have now had it for 10 years and it is showing a lot of wear and tear on it. 

I have actually been looked at suspiciously a few times at border controls as it looks like I have delaminated the front cover and maybe tampered with it. But of course not!

This passport is actually very special as it was issued in Riyadh back in 2000. Not many Ozzie passports can claim that. 

Some wonderful visas in it from all over the world. It was also my second passport. So now I am on Passport No.3 Hardly ever thought that I would fill up one let alone two and start on a third one.

Of course renewal is very easy if you are in Oz. Go to post office fill a form pay X and it will be in your hands in less then a week. Slightly different when you are over here. I contacted our Embassy in Riyadh. It was so refreshing and almost startling to hear proper and understandable English spoken. 

You get used to getting on the phone here and having an almighty linguistic battle to explain even the simplest of things often with hilarious consequences. Here is an example of a dialogue with a taxi driver:

(Speaking very slowly and deliberately)

Us: Ok, we need to go to the Mobily shop on King Abdulaziz Road

Taxi driver: OK

Us: It is the shop near Tulip Hotel on the right as we go towards Corniche.

Taxi driver: Yes sir.

Us: Do you know where it is?

Taxi driver: Yes Sir.

Us: Ok, tell us where we are going.

Taxi driver: Yes Sir.

Us: WTF!!... silence

Anyhow I digress. I got through to the passports section and was told easy. Just get a form from passports.gov.au fill it in, courier it with your old passport and some cash and all done.

I thought that the website was only for downloading forms, but to my pleasant surprise after getting me to fill in some secret personal details up came the form already prefilled with all the necessary information. So just printed it off. Need to add signature and a couple of photos and its all done. And much to my delight this one will also be issued in Riyadh. Collector's items people. 

Finally our tax dollars are achieving some value.

Of course I will have to carry around both of them for a while as my Saudi Visa is still in the old one and they do mot transfer it to the new one so you have to present both at douane. (Look it up, just showing off my incredible vocabulary :)

They have a very good Visa system now in Saudi if you are living here. You can get either a single exit/entry visa for a one off trip or a multiple exit/entry if you want to duck out often. Since we live literally half hour drive from Bahrain me and Jill will be getting a multiple one. Jill already has hers for the trip back.

The visas are actually not stamped in the passport. They are just a piece of paper that states the visa type and validity length. Multiple E/E visas last for 6 months. If you get one but do not use it within 3 months you must pay a fine of SR 1,000. Few people have been caught out like this.

A single visa costs SR 300 whilst the Multiple one is SR 500. Just after we got Jills PMU announced that they will pay for all visas henceforth. Oh well, win some lose some :)