When we arrived in the UAE, in October of 2009, I can tell you exactly how long we thought we would stay:

Eighteen months.

Two notions led us to come up with that number.

1. Eighteen months is the minimum amount of time an American must work overseas for his or her income not to be taxed by the IRS. Had to stick it out 18 months or go home and turn over some significant chunk of everything we earned here, in the Nation with No Income Tax.

2. We figured the U.S. economy would be up and purring again, 18 months ahead of October, 2009. (April of 2011, three full years after the economy tanked? Oh, absolutely.) And we would be able to get at least one job that paid a decent salary and had a basic benefits package.

Then a few things happened.

1. The U.S. economy never really came back. It has just laid there, limp. Inert. Seemingly not declining any further, but not coming back, either.

2. The print journalism meltdown slowed but did not abate. And the trend in the industry for preferring young, low-paid help seemed to accelerate.

3. We found that we like working here. And we like working at The National quite a bit. Not only is it daily print journalism, which is what we know and love, we are paid well and have some good benefits, particularly the five annual weeks of vacation.

So, we are beginning Lap 2 of our lives here: The application for another three-year visa.

Much of the process has lost its mystery. We are not natives, by any means, but we didn’t just get off the plane.

A bit less than three years ago, I described at length the process of having blood drawn for an HIV test, and having a chest X-ray (mostly to check for tuberculosis). And the bustle at the medical testing area.

Well, it’s almost exactly as I described it here, written just shy of three years ago. The process has changed almost not at all, and the expense remains the same. And I again paid the extra $27 to “fast track” the process, probably saving 45 minutes or so.

The other change is the tinkering with the National Identity Card after leaving the medical area. That took a few more minutes.

So, we are on our well on our way to obtaining another three-year visa. That 18 months is about to turn into 36, and we are re-upping with the possibility of another three years.

No way we thought that would happen, in October of 2009. But the global economy did not behave as we thought it would. Funny, how that happens.

Will we be in Abu Dhabi in the autumn of 2015? Seems unlikely. But not remotely as unlikely as staying for six years would have seemed back in October of 2009.