The Residency Permit (Part Two)

The Medical Commission...Prepare to be Probed.

The visa provided by the employers was the first step, so the road to Residency begins before one arrives.  A couple weeks after arrival, an examination at the Medical Commission is next.  There, one must give a blood sample (to check for communicable diseases, such as Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, etc.) and submit to a chest x-ray (primarily to check for signs of tuberculosis).  If in good health, that's it.
Afterwards, at any local clinic, a card indicating one's blood type will be acquired.

Sounds so easy.

Actually enduring it all is a different matter.

About two weeks after my arrival in Doha, the College made an appointment for me and two other new instructors at the Medical Commission.  Like most facilities of this type, it is split into separate sides for men and women.  Our driver dropped the two ladies off first, and the place looked pretty sedate.  Then, around the corner was the men's side and what looked like a mix of carnival and stockyard.  The male-to-female ratio in Qatar is something like two men for every one woman (an unfortunate fact for single men like me), meaning that there were at least a thousand other men trying to get in for the same exam.  It was a wild scene.

Then there's the issue of where to go first.  Ask someone ahead of the trip because nothing is marked.  There were several lines going into many different doors, and a couple different buildings.  Then, it's difficult to know who's in charge; ask anyone who looks official what to do (be prepared to feel stupid for asking two or three random people before finding the right person).  Because of my position, once I found the right person he ushered me past one of the endless lines and into the building to the main reception area.

Once again, by virtue of my status (or in this case by dumb luck), I bypassed the lengthy rows of seats for those waiting and got right up to the window.  Unfortunately for me, someone somewhere had made an error and my photograph had not been loaded into the system, and the clerk said I would have to come back another time.  That, of course, made me anxious -- who knew how long it would take to return, would I get my residency completed in time, and so on.  I waited in a long line to speak with another attendant and received the same reply.  I then waited in the car for an hour or two while the two ladies did their exams.  Interestingly, their photos had not been in the database either, but they found a way through anyhow.

About a week later I went back.  The great consolation the second time around was that I knew where to go and who to speak to.  My initial wait was a bit longer, maybe twenty or thirty minutes; but the rest went (almost disturbingly) smoothly.

Once registered, the next stop is the blood draw.  After a brief wait of perhaps ten minutes, a group was shown the the phlebotomists.  The men who took my blood was a nice Egyptian.  I figure there are occasional faintings because he kept trying to distract me from what was going on.  Five minutes and I was on to the next stage.

Following perhaps a ten minute wait, a group was taken into a room with changing stalls.  Though no official instructed, everyone there followed what the last group did and removed their shirts for the x-ray.  Personally, it was a little awkward standing in line with a bunch of other topless strangers, but that's life.  Within five minutes I was gruffly brought into the x-ray room where they took an image and tossed me right back out.

And that was it.  It had all gone so fast it convinced me that something was missing.  I asked around to be sure, and finally one of the official doctors said I was done.  I was in an out in about an hour.

So be ready for an uncomfortable, and possibly frustrating, experience.  But once it's done, it's done.

The next post will take a look at the last steps in the Residency process.