Thirty-day grace period after visa cancellation

I am from Nepal and have been living and working in the UAE for a few years. How do I know if my visa has been cancelled properly by my employer after I stopped working for the company? My Emirates ID card expires on June 8, but can I live in the UAE afte

It is usual practice that a passport is taken to a government office at the time of a residency visa being cancelled and the visa is officially stamped “cancelled”. This process should be undertaken by the employer, or their PRO, although personal sponsors may have to cancel the visas of family members themselves. The cancellation paperwork is signed by both the employee and the sponsor and at the time the Emirates Identity Card must also be handed over, as the two are linked. The passport should be given back to the individual once the visa has been cancelled but some employers will expect the person to leave the country straight away if they are not going to a new job. Once the visa has been cancelled, a person has a 30-day grace period and must exit the UAE before this expires to avoid fines for illegally overstaying. I have been working in Dubai since 2008. I now have an issue with a credit card and need advice. This card was used by my friend although it is in my name. I helped him by allowing him to use this card when he wanted some money to get married. He was paying the interest until last February but then he stopped paying even the minimum monthly payment and now does not answer my calls. The bank keeps calling me and has started asking me to repay the whole outstanding amount. I am not able to pay this huge amount now and I don’t know what to do. I am still here in Dubai. The bank has submitted my security cheque to my own bank and it bounced back because of insufficient balance. Can you please advise whether the bank has filed a case against me now, or what I can do to overcome this issue? SS, Dubai When a credit card is issued to someone it is for their personal use only, or for a joint cardholder if there is one. Credit cards should never be passed to any third party to use, not even to family members. This is set out in the terms and conditions from any bank or finance house and the person whose name the card is in is wholly responsible for making repayments. This is part of the credit agreement that is signed by both parties and the signing of this to get the card is taken as an understanding that the individual accepts the terms. If therefore, as is the case here, the minimum payments are not made, as agreed, the person whose name is on the card is solely liable.

By allowing an unauthorised third party to use a credit card in this way, SS has broken the terms of the credit agreement and in most cases this means the lender has the right to request immediate repayment of the balance in full.

As it appears that he has not made any payments for some time, bearing in mind this is his sole responsibility, he has defaulted on the agreement so that is why the bank has been calling him and as no payments have been made, not even of the minimum amount, it is now calling in the debt. If a security cheque has been rejected by his bank, this is now a criminal matter and the bank is within its rights to register a police case for debt. This newspaper is not able to find out if a police case has been registered, so an individual must do this themselves.

The obvious course of action would be to contact the credit card provider immediately and ask them. To try to stop the matter from escalating, even if he is not able to repay the full amount he owes, SS can offer to make the regular monthly payments, and to cover the outstanding payments, to try to get back on a more stable footing. As he is unlikely to make any payments if he goes to jail, the lender may accept another arrangement if they can see that a partial payment is made and maintained. SS must contact the credit card issuer without delay and show willing to make payments.

Ignoring a bank is never a good strategy. The lesson here is that people should never let anyone, even family members, use their credit cards and that the responsibility for repayment lies with the person who took out the card.