Over 100 UAE visa applications forged...

A public relation officer (PRO), an officer of Dubai Residency and Foreigners Affairs and two brothers working at typing centres allegedly issued family residence visas to residents who were ineligible to sponsor their families by forging the residency contracts, the Dubai Criminal Court was told in a hearing on Wednesday.

The PRO, ZH, 46, is accused of collecting Dh900,000 over three months as bribes from the two typing centres’ employees who supplied her with the applications.

The PRO has a sister who works for the department. She agreed through her sister’s colleague AH, 42, a sergeant who works for the typing centre branch, to issue residence visas to families of expatriates who were illegible to sponsor their families.

The officer exploited her position in the department and issued 127 illegal residence visas. She was also charged for failing to collect Dh220 per transactions as department’s fees for opening a file.

The two employees who worked at different tying centres were brothers. They agreed with the PRO and the officer to issue residence visas by forging tenancy contracts for applicants who do not have one.

A tip-off was made to the security department about the PRO who had submitted illegal applications for family visas.

Upon checking the information, the department found out that there were residency sponsorship applications made by low-paid expats.

During the investigation, officers did not find any supporting documents attached to those transactions, hence raising suspicion that the applicant was illegible to sponsor his family.

On checking with the officer who approved applications, she admitted to processing them without checking the originals.

“I trust the PRO, ZH, whose sister works with us, so I did not check transactions she submitted. I left the copies with ZH for her to pay fees through the bank, believing that she would submit them back to me later,” she excused.

Investigators testified that the transactions timings in the system proved that she did not even take a look at the documents as the gap between each transaction was barely a few seconds.

The PRO admitted that she had submitted documents on daily basis on behalf of people although she was not authorised to do so. She was a PRO on behalf of companies – not individuals.

Although she was not authorised, the officer accepted applications from her.

The typing centres employees admitted forging documents. But the officer of the Department of Foreigners Affairs denied taking bribe.

A type centre’s computer operator admitted paying Dh65,000-70,000 to the PRO for the illegal applications. The typist admitted that his brother, SA, who worked in a nieghbouring typing centre managed to forge leases for illegible applicants to be enclosed with residency sponsorship applications

The court will reconvene on May 31.

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