Canadians in Oman

This is a post for the Canadians out there, whether you read this blog occasionally, or if you found me through Google (probably most of you).

There is a new facebook group called Canadians in Oman which has been setup so that there is a way for Canadians in Oman to connect and support each other while living, moving and traveling to and from Oman. It is not the place to ask questions about immigration or travel visa's to Canada. If you're Canadian and reading this, feel free to join the group if you are living, moving or traveling to or from Oman :)

Oman and Canada have good relations, but there are a few pieces of basic information worth sharing for any Canadians visiting (or thinking about living in) Oman.

There is no Canadian embassy here in Oman, the nearest embassy is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their contact details are:

Street Address
Embassy of Canada
Diplomatic Quarter
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Postal Address
Embassy of Canada
P.O. Box 94321
Riyadh, 11693, Saudi Arabia

Telephone: +966 11 488 2288
Fax: +966 11 482 5670
Email: ryadh@international.gc.ca
Hours of operation: Sunday to Thursday: 08:00 – 16:00

The reason why there is a Street address and a Postal address is that in Saudi (and Oman for that matter) there is no postal deliveries to addresses, they are delivered to PO boxes - there's no equivalent of Canada Post's house deliveries here. You can visit the embassy website by clicking here.

While there is no embassy here, there is a Consulate in Ruwi (part of Muscat) that can assist with a number of services. The Consulate is located on the 7th Floor, Getco Tower, CBD, Ruwi. They are open from 8:00 until 14:00 Sunday to Thursday. Below is a map to the Consulate office:

Their postal address is:

Canadian Consulate, PO Box 84, Muscat, PC 100

Their phone number is +968 2479 4928

The Consulate is only able to assist with the following services:

Passport Application, Passport Renewal, Canadian Citizenship applications for newborns and Document attestation. 

If you are moving to Oman, your Canadian driving license will be accepted by the Royal Oman Police here, all you will need to do is show it when applying for an Omani license, and take an eye test, et voila: You'll get a 10 year Omani license (you don't need to surrender your Canadian license). One important piece of information to note though; your Canadian license must be at least one year old - so if you just got married and you changed your name and got a new drivers licensed issued... you'll have to wait out 12 months before you can get your Omani drivers license. The fees at the time of writing were RO 20 for a 10 year car license, RO 15 for a 10 year motorbike license or RO 40 for a permanent driving license.

There are no direct flights between Oman and Canada, you have to take a connecting flight, most people either fly direct to Doha, Abu Dhabi or Dubai on Qatar Airways, Etihad or Emirates and then connect here on a local flight. The alternative is flying into Europe and changing there for a flight to Muscat; British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM and Turkish Airways are the 4 most popular European stop-overs, although I understand flights through Cairo on Egpyt Air are quite cheap at the moment. Obviously everything changes all the time though.

Thats all!

le fin.