Skip to main content

Ask a Lawyer·Immigration

ImmigrationAnswered

Can a travel agency really file an absconding case over my visit visa?

Asked by Anonymous·Jun 10, 2026·1 answers
The agency that arranged my visit visa is demanding extra money and threatening to report me as absconded if I don't pay before my exit date. From what I understood, absconding reports are something employers file against workers, not something travel agents can do to tourists. Do they actually have that power, and should I be reporting the threat somewhere instead?

This answer is AI-generated by LEXAI. It is general legal information, not legal advice — verify anything you act on with a licensed UAE lawyer. How LEXAI uses AI

1 answers

Best answer
L
LEXAI

AI-generated answer

Jun 11, 2026
Your instinct is largely right — absconding cases in the employment sense are filed by employers against their sponsored workers through MOHRE, and a travel agency that arranged a visit visa has no such power over a tourist. What a visa sponsor or host can legitimately do is report a genuine overstay, meaning a visitor who remains in the country after the visa expires. If you leave on or before your exit date, there is nothing real for them to report, and a threat to file something anyway is empty. What the agency is doing, however, is not empty in another sense: demanding extra money under threat of an official report is extortion, and that is a matter for the police, not something to negotiate. Keep every message, voice note and payment demand. Do not pay. Report the threats to the police in the emirate where the agency operates, and consider reporting the agency's conduct to the authority that licenses it — travel agencies have regulators, and shaking down visa clients is licence-threatening behaviour. Then make sure your own side is clean: exit before the visa expires and keep proof of departure. If the agency escalates or you discover anything was actually filed against you, a lawyer can deal with it and advise on reporting the agency formally.
Helpful (0)

Facing something similar?

Describe your own situation below. Your details go to our team, and a suitable lawyer in the LEXAI directory may receive them so they can contact you about it.

Pick your situation so your enquiry can reach a suitable lawyer in the LEXAI directory who works in that area.

Your details stay private and are used only to handle your enquiry. We may offer your enquiry automatically to a suitable lawyer in the LEXAI directory. If a lawyer declines it, or does not reply, we may offer it to another suitable lawyer. Only a lawyer who accepts it receives your name, contact details and what you wrote, so they can contact you about it. You can ask LEXAI to delete your enquiry at any time. Privacy policy

Related Questions

Underlying law

Keep reading

Immigration

Freelance Permit and Freelance Visa in the UAE: Routes, Requirements and Limits

A freelance permit lets you work for yourself; a freelance visa lets you live here. How the MOHRE permit, free-zone permits and the Abu Dhabi freelancer licence differ, the green visa income test, what a permit does not allow, and what the published prices are.

5 min read

Immigration

UAE Visa Medical Test: What Is Checked, Where, and What Happens If You Fail

Who has to take the residence visa medical, which blood tests and X-ray apply to your job category, where to go in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the other emirates, what it costs, how long the certificate lasts, and what each positive result means for your visa.

5 min read

Immigration

Lost Emirates ID? How to Report It and Get a Replacement

Who you must tell and by when, whether you need a police report, what the ICP replacement service asks for and costs, and when renewal rather than replacement may be the right application.

5 min read