It was a major step forward to Doha when I received my contract on Sunday. Written in Arabic and English, side by side in two columns. I signed it with my scanned signature and emailed immediately.

A sentence at the foot of the contract tells me not to resign my current post until advised to do so… because my details are now with the Qatari government department that deals with visas.

I am told it can take up to four weeks for the visa process to be completed after which I have to give 2 months’ notice to quit… so all being well I should be out in Qatar by mid September or sooner.

It’s now been three weeks since the police clearance checking process started in Qatar. I can’t find any official online information on what the process entails. They should already have a copy of my British police certificate which says that there is “no trace” that I have a criminal record.

I believe that as well as checking that I have no past criminal activity that the job I have been offered could not be done by a Qatari national. I am pretty confident there will be nobody in Qatar who has 14 years experience managing cultural heritage websites preceded by even longer managing museums and collections.

However reading the various blogs and forums, it appears that I could be in for a long wait.