You can report visa or job fraud to the Federal Investigation Agency and, where a promoter is involved, to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment. Go with papers. A story without a receipt is harder to act on, and neither office can promise that you will get the money back. Apna Ghar will not invent a helpline number. Use the contacts published on fia.gov.pk and beoe.gov.pk. Copycat complaint sites use similar names and ask for a fee to “file”. The official sites do not need a middleman.
What to take, and which door
- Your CNIC, and copies of the passport if you still hold it. If they kept the passport, say so in the first paragraph.
- Receipts, bank or wallet transfer records, the account title, and the date of each payment.
- The chat, email, and voice notes. Export them before you block the number, so the export still exists.
- The offer letter, the fake visa PDF, and a screenshot of the official enquiry that does not show that visa.
- The agent’s full name, shop address, phone number, and any licence number they claimed. Photograph the shop front.
- A short timeline: when you paid, how much, and what they promised would happen next.
- FIA for criminal deception, including online payments. Use only the form or address on fia.gov.pk.
- The Bureau of Emigration if the person acted as an Overseas Employment Promoter or used a fake OEP licence. Use beoe.gov.pk.
- A local police report if the FIA desk in your city asks for one. Ask them. Do not invent the sequence.
How to describe it in one page
Write like a witness, not like a speech. Start with your name and CNIC. Then one sentence on what they promised: a work visa for a named country and a named job. Then the dates and the amounts. Then what you asked to see and did not see: no licence on the Bureau list, no visa on the official enquiry. Then what you want recorded: the complaint, the passport if it is held, and the documents you handed over. Attach the folder. Do not attach only a link to a Facebook video. Officers cannot build a file from a video that disappears.
Read the scam patterns so you can name what happened in plain sentences, and fake Dubai offers or the Saudi visa check if that was the document. If the loss is still only a deposit and the passport is with you, do not send more money while you wait for a reply. A waiting complaint is not a reason to pay the “last embassy fee”. There is no last fee on a file that does not exist.
What a complaint will not do
It will not automatically reverse a wallet transfer. It will not create a Gulf visa. It will not punish a foreign employer who never heard of you, if the entire fiction was in Pakistan. It may still be the right record, especially if the same shop is taking fees from other people. Keep your expectation accurate when you talk to your family, because a second scammer sells “recovery” to people who were promised a refund the state never offered. Nobody official will ask you to pay a percentage to release your complaint. That sentence is another fraud.
If you are already in the Gulf on a bad visa, the Pakistan complaint does not replace local help. Speak to the Pakistani embassy or consulate, and for labour issues use the host ministry: MOHRE in the UAE, the Ministry of Human Resources in Saudi Arabia, and the labour authority in the country you are actually in. Keep copies of everything you signed, including a contract you regret. Do not give your passport to a camp broker who says he will “fix the complaint”. If you are in danger, the consulate is the call, not a forum. The salary you were promised can still be written down for the labour case. Use the salary converter only to explain a real written wage, not to invent the wage the scammer spoke.
Take a patient person with you if forms are hard, but do not hand them your only copies. Sit with the officer’s questions. If they ask for something you do not have, write down the missing item and the date, and bring it next time. Do not invent a document to fill the gap. A forged receipt makes a true complaint look false. The OEP licence check is part of the story when a promoter was involved. Say whether you searched beoe.gov.pk, and attach the screenshot. That one page is often clearer than an hour of explanation.
Fees, fines and salary thresholds change. If a number is not written on the official page linked below, treat a WhatsApp figure as unchecked.