The six-month jobseeker visa offered to expats with overstaying cases who wish to seek for employment opportunities in the UAE to legalize their status is no longer available.
Several officials in Amer and General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA) centres clarified that the visa scheme ended when the amnesty program ended on December 31, reported Khaleej Times.
The visa was introduced following reports that most of the amnesty grantees entered the country with a visit or tourist visa with the intention of seeking jobs. Their visit or tourist visa eventually expired without a work visa on hand causing them to overstay.
Through the jobseeker visa, expats with overstaying cases were allowed to extend their stay in the UAE for six months to secure jobs. Once the visa expires and they were unable to secure jobs that would legalize their stay in the country, they need to leave the country.
Maj. Gen. Mohamad Al Marri, GDRFA chief, told The Filipino Times during a meeting at his office, Jan. 7, that jobseeker visa holders, who were not able to secure employment during the grace period, should turn themselves in when their legal status expires so that they can be issued exit passes and close the book on their case.
Al Marri said this will allow them to start clean should they decide to come back to the UAE.
Over 5,000 Filipino overstayers, who had availed of the amnesty, chose to get six-month jobseeker visas, Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes told TFT.
