how many days do you need to open a bank account?

It varies from bank to bank or from case to case depending on I don't know what.

When I arrived here and received my residence permit, one of the first things I had to do was open a salary bank account. There is small branch of a bank near our administrative building. I went there and met the manager. He was very courteous and helpful. He gave me a list of the documents I needed to bring (letter from my employer, copies of my passport and residence permit and original residence permit). The next day when I brought the required documents, he filled out my application form and the account was created within minutes. He said my ATM card would reach my mailbox in a week. Two weeks later I still hadn't received my card. I was planning to see the manager when I received a call from the bank with a request to see them. At the bank I met the manager (a new one, the earlier one was apparently transferred). He handed me the ATM card saying that no one recognized me at the address where the card was mailed to. The helpful manager had given the wrong address in my application form (and I heard from colleagues that it was not the first such case), so I gave them the appropriate address to rectify my records.

Unfortunately, an account in this bank is useless when it comes to paying sundry government fees (eg., visa fees, driving license fee etc.). Every time I need to pay a fee to the government , I have to request a friend holding an account in either of the two banks from which such payments can be made. So I thought it would be convenient to have an account in one of the two banks.

First, I tried to do so at the bank that I heard is government owned. The guy who received my papers took a long look at my residence permit and asked me who had written my name on it. It was a strange question and I replied that there was no way I could know who at the government immigration office was responsible for writing my name in the permit. He left his desk and talked to a senior colleague. He came back to inform me that I needed to get a seal from the immigration office next to my name. I was not amused. I had used the same document to open my first bank account and couldn't understand why I couldn't do so again. I said goodbye and decided to go to the other bank.

The first day there I was told that their system was down, so I had to come back later. I went there again the next day. The person responsible for opening new accounts asked me whether I had opened an account on the Internet. I said I didn't know something like that was required. So I came back and opened an account through the Internet, and took the number generated to the bank on the following day (day 3). This time the guy told me that they had a new system installed and he was still not familiar with it enough to process my application. He advised me to come back after one day. So I went back two days later. This time he opened my account without any further ado. When I asked about my ATM card, he said it was already prayer time so I had to come back half an hour later. I left the place and came back the following day, which was a Thursday, to find that only limited services were available and obtaining an ATM card was not one of them. I needed the card, without which I cannot transfer money to government accounts. So I visited the bank again on Saturday. I was informed that that particular branch had run out of ATM cards but I could get a card from any other branch of the bank. The next day (day 7) I located a different branch of the bank and finally succeeded in getting the coveted card after nearly two hours (including the noon prayer time). Whew!!

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cold is hot, hot is cold

When I arrived in the Kingdom, it was winter and the weather was pleasant. It wasn't too cold, a light jacket was enough to keep you comfortable outside in the evenings. But the water in the bathroom or kitchen was a different matter. Fortunately, there are 'geysers' installed in those places, so I can get running hot water.

Now it is summer, and the sun outside is scorching. The wind blowing in your face seems like a blast from the furnace. And the water from the fawcett is scalding. We can't take a shower during the day, even washing hands requires a get deal of mental strength.

The other day I was relating this problem to some friends, and one of them, an old Saudi hand, gave a simple tip that solved the problem without the need to spend a single halala. This is what he had suggested: turn off the geysers; since the geysers are inside the building, the water in the storage tanks will become cool if the power line is disconnected. Now if you use the cold water tap, you will get hot water from the overhead tank, but use the hot water tap, and you will get colder water from the geyser tank.

That was a nifty solution to what seemed to be an intractable or expensive-to-solve problem. I wish all problems here had such easy solutions.

Photo credit: stock.xchng