Guide
We paid an agent for a visa or a job
and got nothing
A relative in Pakistan pays an agent for a job abroad, a visa, a ticket. The agent disappears, or delivers a paper that is false. The money was often borrowed. This page shows which office takes such complaints, what to keep, and what an advocate does for a family that wants the money back and the agent stopped.
Where this applies This page covers money paid in Pakistan to an agent or a promoter for work or travel abroad. What happened at the border of another country, or with a false paper there, is that country’s matter.
What this is about
Sending workers abroad is a licensed trade in Pakistan. An agent without a licence, or one who takes money for a job that does not exist, commits a crime, and the federal agency that deals with such cases takes complaints about it. Alongside the criminal complaint there is a civil claim for the money, and the two run together.
Most families lose because they have nothing in writing. The money went in cash, the promise was spoken, the agent’s name was a first name. What can be gathered afterwards, messages, a receipt, the names of others who paid the same agent, is what an advocate builds the case from.
What has to be in place
What has to be clear.
Who the agent is: the full name, the office, the licence if there was one.
What was paid, how, and to whom. Cash, transfer, or through someone else.
What was promised, and what was delivered: a false visa, a wrong job, nothing.
Note Your advocate confirms which of these apply to your case.
The documents you will be asked for
The papers that help.
- Any receipt, agreement, or message with the agent.
- Bank records of the money, or the names of those who saw cash handed over.
- The papers the agent delivered, if any.
- Identity documents of the person who paid.
How an advocate helps from where you are
What an advocate does.
- Files the complaint with the federal agency and follows it, so that it is investigated.
- Files the claim for the money, and asks for the agent’s property to be frozen where the law allows.
- Finds other victims of the same agent, which makes both cases stronger.
- Tells the family plainly what can be recovered and what cannot.
What to ask before you agree
- Which agency takes this complaint, and will you follow it after filing?
- Can the agent’s property be frozen, and how soon?
- Are there other victims of the same agent, and can their cases be joined?
- What do you need from me, and by when?
- What is your fee, and what is not included in it?
More in Money
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A cheque bounced, or my bank account is stuckMoney
I paid for something in Pakistan and did not get what I paid forMoney
Also relevant
Words you will meet
- agent
- A person who takes money to arrange work or travel abroad. Licensed, or not.
- federal agency
- The agency that takes complaints about illegal agents.
- emigration office
- The office that licenses agents who send workers abroad.
Written
11 September 2026
Pakistan.