Just to clarify- I agree. I got the cheque, cashed it, and walked over to Al Rostamani and transferred it home. It took 4 working days to get there I think. Absolutely in most countries your cash needs to get there before you do( to avoid tax implications)- so I didn’t want to “rely” on EK sorting out the transfer via the offshore managers as I had heard some people had to wait 6 weeks for their cash to show up. On another note- the days of having to carry a massive amount of cash to Al Rostamani etc are gone- I set up an account a month before I left and did a small trial transfer, then in my last day of service got the Ek cheque, deposited it my NBD account, then went to Al Rostamani and wrote a personal cheque to them for the entire amount- no problem.