Report a visa or travel agency dispute
Applications that were never submitted, charges that appeared after payment, refunds that never came. The strongest thing you can do is establish independently whether an application exists at all.
Check your application status directly with the destination country's immigration authority — not through the agency. Official confirmation that no application exists is the single strongest piece of evidence in this kind of dispute.
Free route first
Our visa self-help page is free and includes a complaint template you can send yourself. Many disputes are resolved without paying anyone.
What to do now
- Verify your status on the immigration authority's own portal, and capture the result with the date.
- Ask the agency in writing for the official application reference number issued by the authority, not their internal file number.
- Gather the quote, invoice, receipt and the full message history exported rather than screenshotted.
- Note the company's trade licence number if you were ever given one — it decides which regulator applies.
- If you paid by card, raise a dispute for services not provided.
What actually decides the outcome
These are the factors our assessment weighs. Two of them cannot be changed after the fact, which is why the honest answer is sometimes that little can be done.
- Whether an application genuinely exists — this is the fact the whole case turns on.
- Whether you paid by card, which is the only method with a real dispute mechanism.
- Whether the company is licensed, and whether the account you paid matches the licensed name.
- What you were told in writing before paying, compared with what happened.
What we do
- Help you establish and document whether an application was ever filed.
- Prepare the complaint for the licensing authority, which for a UAE company means the relevant Emirate's economic department or free-zone authority.
- Build the card dispute pack, where the claim is straightforward: you paid for a submission that was not made.
- Assess whether the charges added after payment are challengeable, and on what basis.
We are a private company, not the police or a law firm. We do not guarantee recovery, and we will tell you when your outlook is poor rather than selling you hope. See our legal and verification page.
Questions people ask
The agency sent me a screenshot showing my application is in progress.
Treat it as a claim rather than evidence. Images of portals are easy to construct. If it shows a reference number, verify that number with the immigration authority yourself.
They say the fee is non-refundable.
A non-refundable clause is much weaker where the service was never performed. In most consumer regimes a business cannot keep payment for work it did not do.
Will you name the company publicly?
No. We do not publish accusations against named businesses. Unproven allegations expose both you and us, and it is not how a case gets resolved.