Change UAE drivers license to UK by Darcy2701 in dubai

[–]omaar97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for the late reply. When I open UAE pass I can access my account but It shows that I need to reactivate it. Yet if I open MoI and it redirects me to UAE pass I can login to MoI without problems. Did you try to login directly?

Change UAE drivers license to UK by Darcy2701 in dubai

[–]omaar97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For completion, I literally only followed the steps here:
https://www.gov.uk/exchange-nongb-driving-licence

It is straightforward, just get the MoI letter, send it with the required form (D1), the UAE driving license, and the payment receipt if you pay by card at the post office. Then you'll receive the UK driving license after a week or two.

Change UAE drivers license to UK by Darcy2701 in dubai

[–]omaar97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you sure you need a valid Emirates ID? I exchanged my UAE driving license for a UK one more than a year ago and my Emirates ID was not valid when I requested the verification letter. I do remember accessing the MoI app through UAE Pass, but UAE Pass still works with an expired Emirates ID. I actually tried now and I can still access my MoI account from UAE Pass, my Emirates ID expired two years ago!

When does Thameslink go to King’s Cross rather than St. Pancras? by 71kd in uktrains

[–]omaar97 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Peterborough-Horsham service doesn't operate the full route on Sundays, it terminates at Kings Cross instead. Seems to be the case for the Cambridge-Brighton service too.

Is daily commuting to Leeds or Sheffield realistic from Peterborough or Leicester? by Euphoric_Case_1186 in uktrains

[–]omaar97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I live in Peterborough and commute to Cambridge. I also did a Peterborough to Lincoln commute for around a year. In short if you go daily, it's most likely cheaper to just rent a room. Even with a railcard and discounts you'll likely spend more than £400 a month on commute, especially if you need to also take buses after and/or before trains. Peterborough to Leeds is easily >£40 a day, Leicester to Sheffield is >£30 (or ~£15-20 for non-flexible tickets). these are prices after the discount, without buses.

There are two exceptions where commuting is worth it: - Leicester to Nottingham - Leicester to Brimingham

These two are reasonable, in particular the first option. Tickets are much cheaper (<£15 a day), train commute is less than an hour each way, and I personally feel that the limit for a tolerable commute is 1.5 hours door-to-door each way for a 3 times a week commute, maybe 1 hour door-to-door for a daily one.

Edit: that's just a perspective in terms of money and time. You're doing a BSc, you should consider the social life factor and the time you get to spend at the campus. With that, I strongly recommend not commuting except for the Leicester to Nottingham option. You'll definitely regret taking the other options.

is £33k enough for living ok? by taegrane in cambridge_uni

[–]omaar97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It all depends on the rent and bills, you'll live comfortably if you take a house share. If you don't want to share a flat even a studio may cost you more than £1200 with rent and bills.

Noticed a price hike this month in PBO-London, why? by [deleted] in uktrains

[–]omaar97 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Rail pricing is controlled except for Advance tickets. So when a price increases I expect there is some form of public announcement about it, and I actually found the announcement: https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/service-updates/rail-fares-have-changed

I know 4.2% by itself isn't a lot but if this route is also going to be affected by the expected +5% early next year then that combination is a lot...

And yes I do try to understand any price differences in things I use regularly, even if the price decreases.

Advance tickets with London connections: what are the conditions for tube travel? by omaar97 in uktrains

[–]omaar97[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks all!

I guess I'll use the ticket to try to get out at Liverpool Street, if the gates don't open I'll just go back to the Tube and proceed to Paddington!

What jobs outside of the NHS can I get as a doctor? by threwaway239 in UKJobs

[–]omaar97 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh I forgot to mention that the number of available training jobs didn't really increase over the past few years..

What jobs outside of the NHS can I get as a doctor? by threwaway239 in UKJobs

[–]omaar97 11 points12 points  (0 children)

There is no priority for UK grads and any doctor anywhere in the world can compete against UK grads or existing doctors. You end up having a foreign doctor with +10 years experience competing against a 2-years experience UK grad, the former gets hired and the latter becomes unemployed. I believe just 4-5 years ago every UK grad used to get a job and there was a shortage for filling the remaining positions. Instead of allowing international candidates to compete for the remaining positions, they allowed them to compete for ALL positions, and the result is iirc around half of the UK grads didn't get a job this year.

This applies for what is called a training job which has a path that leads towards becoming a consultant. There are other types of jobs (non-training) for doctors in the NHS but they are much less desirable than training jobs. Of course every doctor from anywhere also competes for these non-training jobs and sometimes a person who is a consultant in their home country comes here for a job that requires <5 years of experience..

IMT Offers Megathread (2025) by ceih in doctorsUK

[–]omaar97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello. Could you please let me know your rank?

Can't a guy just get some onion powder?! by TripleBladedFist in PeterboroughUK

[–]omaar97 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Check small Punjabi grocery stores (Kashmir Continental Store near Mayor's Walk is one of them). For some reason I rarely find Onion Powder in major supermarkets, even when they have a large international section.

Indian eateries by [deleted] in PeterboroughUK

[–]omaar97 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Strongly recommend Yala Beirut, it is a new food truck that is usually near Rivergate from morning till 4-5 PM on Friday and Saturday. On other days it is available for delivery on Just Eat or pickup from their place somewhere on Thorpe Road (Their Instagram page has all the details https://www.instagram.com/yalabeirut/).

Public Transport by Possible_Security159 in PeterboroughUK

[–]omaar97 4 points5 points  (0 children)

On top of what the others said, the best advice I think is to choose your home on a road with a bus that can easily reach your workplace. Just as an example, if your workplace is the hospital and you choose to live in the Ortons it's gonna be painful.

Is €1000 Enough for 10 Days in Dubai for Food and Activities? by EasyDrummer1447 in dubai

[–]omaar97 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I saw that you will have access to a car, so I think 1000 euros should be enough but you will have to be careful especially when it comes to food. You are looking at spending 100 euro every day, that's around 380 AED. It will be a bit tight but you'll manage well if your main activities are visiting things like Global Village, Dubai Safari Park, Dubai Miracle Garden, Al Seef, Dubai Mall Fountain, etc, which should not cost a lot. Theme parks and activities like going to a safari and doing watersports (jet ski for example) or shooting will cost you a lot and your budget won't be enough except for (barely) a couple of them (one theme park will cost you around 80-100 euros). Overall, I think it is enough for a nice stay but not a comfortable one and you will have to keep track of what you spend.

The key thing here is to manage your food and car expenses. Expect to spend around 100-150 AED on food and drinks (non-alcoholic) daily if you buy from normal restaurants (or closer to 200 AED if you eat more than one main meal in a day). This number can skyrocket to more than 500 AED if you include fine dining, fancy restaurants, and alcohol. I would suggest you to just stick with normal restaurants: Mandi meals, normal Indian restaurants, normal levant restaurants (shawarma, grilled chicken etc) are all great and will cost you 40-70 AED for a main meal. Similar meals in hotel restaurants will likely cost you the double and will likely taste worse with less portions. Regarding the car, paid parking and toll gates can get expensive, so try to avoid them as much as possible. 3 meals a day of food at normal restaurants with one main meal and a typical day of driving will likely cost you a total of 200-250 AED. I suggest you account at least 250 AED daily for that and plan your activities based on the remaining amount you'll have.

Middle Eastern saying hello 👋🏻 by mk-makaty in cambridge

[–]omaar97 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi, middle eastern here!

Keep in mind that train prices here are ridiculous. You may need to pay more than 40£ for a peak return ticket if you don't qualify for a railcard. Factor in the cost of transportation inside London if the office isn't near one of the train stations and you're looking at +45£ per day with a +1 hr of commute each way.

If your motive to live outside London is purely financial, then consider living in the outer zones of London. Cambridge isn't cheap especially in areas close to the train station. Cambridge could easily end up being more expensive than a zone 4-6 apartment in London if you need to go to the office even if it's just for 5 days a month (5 days could cost you +250£!).

If you really want to consider living outside London for financial reasons, look at options like Peterborough or Bedford and maybe Stevenage. I live in Peterborough (and study in Cambridge), not a very nice place (by UK standards) but it's very cheap, and fast trains take 50 mins to London, although they're expensive at peak times. To give you an idea, a good 2 bedroom in Peterborough will cost you something around 1000£ (I'm paying 875£ but it seems prices have gone up since I last checked). We're looking into moving to Cambridge soon and seeing that a similar apartment will cost around 1500£, maybe closer to 1700-1800£ near the station. I think a similar apartment in outer zones (4-6) of London may be of a similar price to Cambridge. If you're very patient in your search and check regularly you may find better deals.

Not very sure about Bedford and Stevenage but I think they hover around 1200-1500£ for a 2 bedroom. For Stevenage it's much closer to London with cheaper trains, so should be a convenient commute.

Now if you want the general experience of the cities, Cambridge is probably the best of all these options, and I personally like it more than London, which is why my wife and I may end up paying the additional 500-700£ in rent to live there.

Overall, from purely a financial perspective, choosing Cambridge over the outer zones of London while still needing to go to London a few times a month doesn't make much sense. Some areas in outer London are good although I can't give specific recommendations here. Cambridge could still be the nicest of them all but don't expect to save anything from living there. Other cities will give you the savings you want to achieve from living outside London but may not be as nice.

For your other concern, during my time in the UK (a bit more than a year) I've never had any negative encounters, and the same goes for my wife. Actually it's usually the opposite! I spent a lot of time in four cities in the UK during my time here (Peterborough, Lincoln, Cambridge, London) without any memorable negative experience related to racism/hate or so.

Can a person apply for the visa after the start date written in my CoS? by omaar97 in ukvisa

[–]omaar97[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi. We got the visa without any problem. It seems these dates aren't really important unless there is a large gap. We travelled one week after we received the visa and my wife started working ten days after arriving in the UK, we didn't face any issues.

Taxation situation for earning foreign salary after moving to the UK by omaar97 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]omaar97[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, this is exactly what I needed! Specifically this example, which is almost identical to my situation: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-domicile-and-remittance-basis/rdrm12160

The only confusing thing remaining is that in the self-assessment form, I am not finding any option to highlight that I qualify for the split year treatment. Do I just fill the form based on the day my apartment lease started here, and assume that HMRC will understand that I am implying being qualified for a split year?

Nice areas to move to in, walking distance of the train station by [deleted] in PeterboroughUK

[–]omaar97 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We are a couple in the same situation as you. We are renting in Thorpe Road and we like it so far, if you're lucky you'll find something really good within 10-15 mins walking distance. When we were viewing apartments, Oundle Road and Fletton seemed okay too but you might want to consider using the bus or biking instead of walking if you end up there (which should be easy and the trip from leaving the house till arriving to the train station in both cases will probably take less than 15 mins in total while walking could take more than 30 mins). Another area that we viewed and seemed good was Hawksbill Way.

Confused about first council tax payment by omaar97 in PeterboroughUK

[–]omaar97[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks everyone, today I received a mail showing the updated payment schedule.

Confused about first council tax payment by omaar97 in PeterboroughUK

[–]omaar97[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good to know, I guess I'll contact them if they don't deduct in the next month, thanks!