Filipino expats in lose thousands over fake self-sponsored visas

I came across this today and honestly, it made me think of every Filipino friend here in Kuwait who’s ever been tempted by a Facebook ad promising a quick visa. This particular story is unfolding in the UAE, but it’s the kind of thing that any expat community in the Gulf should pay attention to, because the trick used here could just as easily turn up on your own timeline.

A group of Filipino workers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi say they paid a company called Trip Expert Business and Marketing Solutions thousands of dirhams for self-sponsored visas and related paperwork, only to end up with no visa, no refund, and in some cases, fines that keep climbing by the day.

Several of them have now come forward with receipts, agreements, payment records and WhatsApp chats, asking for a proper investigation.

So what actually happened?

Most of the people who spoke about this said they first heard of Trip Expert through Facebook adverts, Filipino influencers, or a friend’s recommendation. That’s an important detail, because it’s exactly how trust gets built around these schemes – not through official channels, but through familiar faces vouching for a service.

Myra Javier, who has lived in Abu Dhabi for 13 years, paid Dh6,000 for a self-sponsored visa with a trade licence after a well-known vlogger endorsed the company. She says she only realised something was wrong when nobody answered her questions about her visa status, and she later found Facebook posts from other people asking for refunds too.

Mira Mahilum’s story is a bit more complicated. She’d worked in Dubai for three years before her employer closed the business in April over regional concerns, cancelling her visa. She went to Oman for two months, then had to return to the Philippines in June after her father passed away. By August she wanted to come back to Dubai and start supporting her family again, which is when she found Trip Expert through the same kind of influencer endorsement.

She was told by the man she identifies as the founder and CEO, Junie Sorsano, that a two-year self-sponsored visa would cost Dh8,500 and that she’d be presented as a business investor so she wouldn’t be offloaded at Philippine immigration. Before paying, she actually asked a friend in Dubai to visit the company’s Deira office to check it was real. The friend reported the staff seemed professional, so Mahilum went ahead and paid Dh8,100 after a discount. Three days later, Sorsano stopped replying. When her friend went back to the office, it had been abandoned.

Fines that kept climbing

For Guendolyn Cajutol, who has been in Dubai for 11 years, the damage wasn’t just the lost payment – it was the fines. She applied for her visa in March, paid a Dh1,500 deposit through Tabby, and settled the rest in June. Her licence and e-card arrived in August, but the visa itself never did. Meanwhile, overstay fines kept accumulating. By the time she spoke about it, she said her fines had reached almost Dh10,600, with Dh50 more added every day.

Lorena Magpantay, a housemaid who has lived in Dubai for 26 years, said she visited the office in September and found around 86 other Filipinos there with the same complaint. She was eventually told to sign refund papers, promised her money back within a week, then told to come back in a month instead – and when she tried again, the office was already shut. She says she ended up selling her gold to cover what she owed through Tabby.

Charma Bornidor, a salon worker in Dubai for 12 years, had paid Dh7,000 through an agent to get a one-year visa for a friend still in the Philippines. After weeks of being told the application had