A Filipino has had a very rough experience after overstaying in the UAE for 6 years. The trauma of it all is now over. The family has only one advice to share with all those who are going through the same situation in their lives – never resolve to fixers.

The family consisted of 4 members – Anne K.M., a housewife, her daughter, 7, and two sons, aged 5 and 2. This Sunday they had boarded the plane and had head straight to their home country, Philippines, after 6 long years of waiting for their residency status within the UAE to get legalized.

Anne and her kids had to pay a staggering amount in overstay fines that mounted up eventually up to AED 712, 400. The exact amount each one had to pay were AED 178, 100.

Before boarding the flight on Sunday, Anne told the local news sobbing, “I have in my hands now our out pass. We’re flying to the Philippines today. I can’t be any happier. Finally, the long wait is over.”

The rough ordeal happened in 2012 when Anne’s husband, Joseph, had changed his job. At that point in time, his family’s visas had to be cancelled. Joseph’s new visa had been released but it had taken months all together for the company that he had newly started working to process his wife and his kid’s visas.

A PRO was then recommended by one of Joseph’s friends. Anne later tells, “A friend recommended a PRO who had helped them previously. It was all based on trust. We paid him Dh24,000 in cash and gave him all our documents.”

But each time they reached the PRO he would give all sorts of excuses and then finally one day he had stopped answering all their calls and there was no response from him. He had taken all their passports and the money with him. They lodged for a complaint in court and had lodged a case against the man. Their case was heard in court. This man had duped similarly many other people using the same tactics.

Anne says, “It cost us a lot of money. In between, I got pregnant twice and had to deliver without insurance. We had to pay for everything out of pocket, even for my son’s vaccinations. We couldn’t send our kids to school. I’ve been homeschooling them on my own. My daughter keeps asking me when she can go to school. She’d say, ‘Mum, you promised last year.’ But the next year came and still, we couldn’t send her to school.”

Finally, the couple sought help from Attorney Barney Almazar, director at Gulf Law who guided them on the processes that were important to have their status legalized in the UAE. Their fines were then finally reduced to AED 4,000 per person.

Anne tells the government of UAE, “I am grateful for the UAE government’s forgiving spirit. We felt as if a heavy load was removed from our shoulders. There’s still hope.”