An Overseas Employment Promoter is allowed to recruit Pakistanis for jobs abroad only if the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment has licensed them. You check that licence on beoe.gov.pk. A shop sign that says “OEP”, a Facebook page with a flag, and a laminated certificate on the wall are not the licence. Apna Ghar will not tell you a reasonable fee in rupees, because the Bureau’s notified charges are the ones on its site and on its receipt, and a promoter’s own service charge is something you must see written in their name before you pay. Search the official list first. Pay second, if you pay at all.
How to search the Bureau’s list
Do this on your own phone, not on the agent’s laptop. Open beoe.gov.pk. Use the site’s search or the published list of licensed Overseas Employment Promoters. The menu wording moves when the site is redesigned, so do not trust a blog that says “click the third button”. If you cannot see the list immediately, use the Bureau’s own search for “Overseas Employment Promoter” and ignore third-party directories that sell “verification”. Type the licence number the agent gave you. Then type the exact business name. Both should land on the same record. Match the city. Match the validity. An expired number is not a small detail and it is not “under renewal” because the agent says so. Renewal, if it is real, is visible on the Bureau’s record, not in a voice note.
- Ask for the promoter’s licence number, the exact business name, and the city of the office. Write them down. Do not accept “we are on the website” without the number.
- Open beoe.gov.pk yourself. Search the licensed-promoter list by that number and again by the business name.
- Read the status and the validity dates. If the record is missing, suspended, or expired, stop.
- Match the city and the office address with the shop you are standing in. A licence for a different city is not this shop’s licence.
- Photograph the Bureau page, including the date on your phone. A later argument needs that picture.
- Pay only against a receipt in that same business name. Cash without a receipt is not a payment you can complain about.
- Keep the Protector fee separate. It is the charge on the BEOE receipt, described in the Protector guide. It is not a line the promoter may inflate and call official.
- If the name is not on the list, do not pay. Read visa agent scams and leave.
What is not a licence
A travel agent who sells tickets is not an Overseas Employment Promoter unless the Bureau list says that same business holds the promoter licence. A typing centre is not an OEP. A relative who “has a man in the Gulf” is not an OEP. A sub-agent who works out of a mobile-phone shop and says the real licence is with his boss in another city is asking you to skip the only check that matters. Ask for the boss’s number and search that name too. If the person taking your money is not the licensee, your receipt should still show the licensed name, and you should know why a different person is holding the cash. If you cannot explain it in one sentence, do not pay.
The Bureau site can be slow. Try again, or use the contact number published on beoe.gov.pk. Do not accept a photograph of a certificate as the only proof, because certificates can be old or edited. Do not accept a WhatsApp forward of someone else’s search. Search again. A licensed promoter can still cheat. The licence means they are registered and can be complained about. It does not mean the foreign employer is real, the wage is the wage in the voice note, or your visa will be issued. You still verify the Gulf visa on that country’s official enquiry, and you still read basic salary and allowances on a contract. The salary converter is for the wage. The Bureau list is for the agent. They answer different questions.
If the licence is fake or the job is not the job
Keep the receipt, the chat, the licence number they claimed, the photograph of the shop, and the Bureau search that shows the name missing or expired. Complain to the Bureau of Emigration through the channel on its site. If money was taken by deception, complain to the FIA as well. The paperwork for that is in how to report visa fraud. A complaint is not a refund. It is the door that exists. Do not pay a second person who says they can get the first person’s licence cancelled and your money back for a new fee. That is the same story in a different chair.
Before you sign a foreign service agreement, read the employer’s name aloud and compare it with the visa. A licensed OEP processing a vague “various companies” file is still a vague file. Ask which country, which job title, and which basic wage. If those three are not known, you are paying for a hope. Hopes do not need a licence. Jobs do.
Fees, fines and salary thresholds change. If a number is not written on the official page linked below, treat a WhatsApp figure as unchecked.