Criminal Record to U.A.E.

K911 · #1 (**permalink**) 26th April 2012, 07:47 AM

Hello everyone. I'm a Lebanese citizen who lived in the United States for more than 15 years. As a teenager, I screwed up in the States and picked up 2 drug use felonies. I decided to leave the United States for good and go back to Lebanon which violated my probation. Now I'm in Lebanon and I've been visiting the U.A.E. quite often to find work and I enter the U.A.E. via a tourist visa. I was recently offered a very good position in Dubai and I'm concerned if my criminal background will be detected while undergoing the fingerprinting process. I would hate to prep myself to make the move to Dubai and be denied residency based on my U.S. prior convictions. Please advise if my concerns are correct or whether they might even prosecute me if they find out.
Your input will be well appreciated.

BedouGirl · #2 (**permalink**) 26th April 2012, 02:54 PM

As far as I am aware, fingerprinting is only conducted for the UAE ID card, it does not relate to an employment visa. I do not think the records fingerprinting for the ID card are linked to any other system, such as Interpol, but someone else may know better. As this is for Dubai, you may be better to post on the Dubai forum to get more replies.

JusAdy_Glasgow · #3 (**permalink**) 16th May 2012, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K911

Hello everyone. I'm a Lebanese citizen who lived in the United States for more than 15 years. As a teenager, I screwed up in the States and picked up 2 drug use felonies. I decided to leave the United States for good and go back to Lebanon which violated my probation. Now I'm in Lebanon and I've been visiting the U.A.E. quite often to find work and I enter the U.A.E. via a tourist visa. I was recently offered a very good position in Dubai and I'm concerned if my criminal background will be detected while undergoing the fingerprinting process. I would hate to prep myself to make the move to Dubai and be denied residency based on my U.S. prior convictions. Please advise if my concerns are correct or whether they might even prosecute me if they find out.
Your input will be well appreciated.

Just seen your post. As far as I'm aware they don't do international criminal checks on anyone as as was stated before fingerprinting etc is only for ID purposes. You should be fine with the job.

Thinkinghat · #4 (**permalink**) 11th July 2012, 05:14 AM

If your job is with the private company, you will be fine. For government or quasi-government jobs, employers need to run security and CID checks and could be a deal breaker in your case.

AlexDhabi · #5 (**permalink**) 25th August 2012, 08:52 AM

Sorry to say this but where I work in Abu Dhabi (quasi-government) you would definitely be turned down for having a criminal record. I think the rules are pretty similar in Dubai as it is all UAE.
On the comment about finger printing I had my fingerprints done for my resident's visa, but I think that was probably because I was already here on a visit visa. I don't think that relates to security and background checks.

AlexDhabi · #6 (**permalink**) 28th August 2012, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JusAdy_Glasgow

Just seen your post. As far as I'm aware they don't do international criminal checks on anyone as as was stated before fingerprinting etc is only for ID purposes. You should be fine with the job.

Sorry to contradict you, but I am sure my employer in Abu Dhabi is not the only one in UAE that definitely does extensive international criminal checks.

manabroad · #7 (**permalink**) 30th August 2012, 05:29 AM

Most definitely they will do it if you go to work for the government here as I do. They will contact the US state dept to get information on you, which will more than likely result in information being supplied by the US justice dept as well. I have a security clearance so I would think almost any job that requires you to have one will do an extensive background (criminal, financial as a minimum) check.