Computer mixup turns Pakistani woman into Pinay student

No thanks to a visa mix-up, a Pakistani woman in the United Arab Emirates now has a Filipino student's identity, a UAE-based news site reported.

 

A report on the Gulf News website said the the glitch involved a one-digit error in the file number of the Pakistani woman's records.

 

“Even the name of my sponsor who is my son was not correct,” said Pakistani Nasim Mahboob, 47, a Dubai resident who applied for the renewal of her visa last week but was shocked to see her visa in the name of “student” Angeleigh Symel Laurio Del Campo.

 

She said the mix-up occurred because a typing center in Karama who she approached may have "committed a mistake in the application."

 

After the typing center contacted authorities, Mahboob eventually got her visa with the right information on December 18.

 

“But just imagine the tension I went through. I thank the Immigration for its prompt action. And yes, there’s a lesson in this for everyone: we must thoroughly check what typing centres key into our forms before submitting them to the authorities,” she said.

 

Mahboob said she did not check the typed form when she submitted it to the Immigration authorities.

 

She said she had to first go back to the typing center but "it delayed the matter and it took me a week before I could get my visa corrected."

 

"I asked the centre to take immediate action as I had to travel urgently. But I was told it would take time to find out how the mix-up happened,” she said.

 

Gulf News quoted the officer in charge at the center as saying iIt was a computer-generated mistake where one digit of the file number went wrong.

 

“According to procedure, I contacted authorities and the problem was sorted out,” he said. — TJD, GMA News