Visa expired and employer license not renewed Fujairah

[aadi]

Hello Team,

My husband joined a new company after he was handed a pink slip from the former company due to recession. The visa was also tranferred to the new company which too is under the freezone area. But now he got a better oppurtunity as the older one is out of business. The company's license had expired and my husband's resident visa too expired. The company is not renewing my husband's visa as well as their visa since it needs money. He wants to transfer his visa to the new company which has offered the employment to him and the older company also gave an NOC. BUt the problem is that since the company's license is expired, Tecom says they cant cancel his visa here before either renewing their license or filing a dispute. My husband has the offer letter and NOC for joining the new company.

The new company which has offered the job is at fujairah media city. Transfer of my husband's visa to that is also not possible as its expired. We enquired about filing the dispute but they said my husband's passport will be held till the dispute is settled. Is it true that passport will be held for company's mistake and we cant move from dubai till the company chooses to settle?

We need to travel too after taking the new visa from Fujairah media city. Pls help what can be done so that this problem is solved and the passport is handed back even if we file the dispute.

Regards
Aadi

[shawarma]

Hello aadi and welcome to the Dubai visa forum .

Sorry to hear about your difficulties. There are generally 4 ways to solve visa and sponsorship related issues in the UAE.

1. The sponsor / employer sorts it out with the UAE labour department and/or UAE residence department.

2. The employee files a complaint with the UAE Ministry of Labour, and/or asks for help. In your case, that might be the best option although as you are moving from Tecom to Fujairah Media City which are both UAE free zones, they might redirect you to the respective free zone authorities.

3. Find a lawyer and file a court case against the employer, although as the problem seems to be related to the employer no longer being licensed, there may not be much the courts can do. You could investigate filing a case against Tecom for stalling but you'd have to talk to a lawyer first to see if that's even possible. I'm afraid I'm not a lawyer so I don't know.

4. Find someone with wasta who can influence things at Tecom.

With respect to your passport, check with your embassy to see if it is being withheld legally.

Sorry I'm not giving you an easy solution, but I don't think there is one. It is the nature of bureaucratic departments to keep passing the buck so to speak whenever a complicated situation arises, especially in the UAE it seems. I can only suggest you keep trying to talk to different people at the respective organisations in the hope that eventually you find someone who will actually try to help resolve the situation.