I think the unfortunate thing is that many people see going abroad as a chance to get away from probation rather than a chance to reform. When I was inside, I knew a guy who had dual nationality but probation were insisting that he stayed in the UK, even though he had a firm job offer from the other country. Luckily for him, he only had to wait 8 months before he could go, but these days more people are serving half-and-half sentences and have longer to wait.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Hi, Thanks for the replies! Im on License from a custodial sentence, I only have to see my probation either once a month or once every 2 months sometimes.

I have a meeting this week so im going to put forward my case as best as possible. Its very frustrating the fact that everyone on license automatically gets the condition not to leave the country, its seems counter-intuitive to me that they can hinder your opportunities of seeking employment based on this condition alone.

The post ref Dubai starting to do crim rec checks might make it tricky, but I was going to offer some hope if you're only on community service / under supervision.  My thinking was that while it'd be expensive, if you only had to see your PO once a month you could fly back for that and travel out there in between  ... ... Not ideal, but you would only have to do it for as long as your supervision lasted and then you could move abroad.  It only took me about 8 weeks to move from weekly to monthly meets with my probation officer, but obviously no idea of your circumstances Rezl

After a bit of online research, I found this, so maybe Dubai wouldn't a straightforward option for much longer. Apparently, they had a very high-profile case last year, so police certificates may well be needed in the near future. Then it's down to what's on the record and what they make of it. 

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

If you're on probation, then it's going to be hard to get permission. If you're on a community order, then it would interfere with your supervision, so it would be easier to wait until the order ends. If you're on licence, then not going abroad without permission will be a standard condition, and permission will be hard to get unless you're actually from the country where you want to go. There is some information about this on the Unlock website here, which includes settling abroad. The relevant Probation Instruction is PI 07/2015, which you can find here. If you read through that, it should show you what they are looking for, so that you can sort out evidence and arguments to convince them. Even so, don't forget that they are starting from a position of saying no, so you'll have some serious convincing to do....

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Ive been given a written job offer to work and live in Dubai. Im currently not employed and eager to accept the offer to start work. My probation are saying that is highly unlikely I will be able to go and ive previously tried to get permission to volunteer abroad but that was declined.

What are the steps best to take to allow me to get permission? As last time it took well over 2 months of multiple phone calls and texts to be refused but with no official response. Im happy to have a solicitor involved and will apply for a judicial review if necessary.

Thank You!