Visa mix-up changes Pakistani woman’s identity

Dubai: It’s a case of an inadvertent mix-up, but a Dubai resident who applied for the renewal of her visa last week was shocked to receive it in someone else’s name and with a change in the sponsor’s identity.

Nasim Mahboob, a 47-year-old Pakistani housewife, told XPRESS that the renewed visa bore her photograph correctly but carried the name of a “student” called Angeleigh Symel Laurio Del Campo. “Even the name of my sponsor who is my son was not correct,” she said, adding that the name mentioned on her new visa was Symore Cilbert Callado Del Campo.

Wrong number

She said: “The mix-up occurred because a typing centre in Karama whom I approached committed a mistake in the application.”

She said she didn’t check the typed form in detail and submitted it to the Immigration only to find that her renewed visa was not in order. To get it rectified, Mahboob said she had to first go back to the typing centre. “But it delayed the matter and it took me a week before I could get my visa corrected. I asked the centre to take immediate action as I had to travel urgently. But I was told it would take time to find out how the mix-up happened,” she said.

The officer in charge at the centre told XPRESS: “It was a computer-generated mistake where one digit of the file number went wrong. That was how the names of the applicant and her sponsor changed. The applicant wanted the correction made immediately but we had to first refer it to the authorities.”

He said: “According to procedure, I contacted authorities and the problem was sorted out.”

A relieved Mahboob said she got her visa with the right information on December 18.

“But just imagine the tension I went through. I thank the Immigration for its prompt action. And yes, there’s a lesson in this for everyone: we must thoroughly check what typing centres key into our forms before submitting them to the authorities.”