Visa cancellation only as per rules

Employer cannot demand cancellation of expatriate’s visa who is staying away unless the latter stays beyond 6 months - MUSCAT — An official of the Royal Oman Police (ROP)’s Directorate-General of Passports and Residency, has said that expatriates with valid visas who stay away from the Sultanate for six continuous months or eight non-continuous months in one year will lose the validity of their visas, if they cannot provide reasonable excuses as per the law. Visa cancellation also applies to those who stay away from the Sultanate for 18 months in three years, said the official, noting that the above-mentioned durations do not apply to those who accompany the expatriate as long as his/her visa is valid. The official explained that the employer cannot demand the cancellation of his/her expatriate employee who is staying away from the Sultanate unless the latter stays longer than six months. The official pointed out that, once an expatriate gets the visa, he/she has to register it within 30 days, as per the law, which also states that an expatriate’s children aged 15 years and above have to have their visas registered with the Directorate-General of Criminal Investigation where finger printing takes place. Upon the renewal of private sector worker’s residency, the original and a copy of the same have to be submitted along with the Labour Permit form issued by the Ministry of Manpower, in addition to the original copy of the passport, said the official, who warned that in case of a delay fine is applicable. The ROP is working to control fraud and swindling of all kinds. The ROP pointed out that ‘economic crimes’ have been on the rise due to the fraudsters’ application of new deception techniques and partly because the victims often avoid reporting the crimes to avoid embarrassment. Major Abdurrahman bin Amor al Kiyumi, Director of the Economic Crime Control Department at the Directorate-General of Criminal Investigation, cited various cases of fraud that has been doing the rounds, including fake securities portfolios, credit card forgery and swindling via Internet. Al Kiyumi pointed out that swindlers have become very smart of late and started using techniques that sound more plausible for easy victims who dream of making quick money. Crimes involving the use of fake credit cards are among the most serious ones because they incur harm to commercial banks and their customers, said Al Kiyumi. It is also very difficult to track down the criminals who often operate from different countries and are therefore not known to the victims. Al Kiyumi said that, over the past 10 months, more than 50 reports of swindling through the use of fake credit cards were reported. Al Kiyumi said that some of the victims are contacted by unknown persons telling them they won huge prizes and asking them to send money to avail of the prizes, only to discover the fraud later when no response is received. Among the methods being used nowadays, said Al Kiyumi, is the use of chemical solutions to erase layers of black paint from the surface of bank notes to make the victim believe that they can apply the same techniques to any hidden currency. Then, they encourage the victims to buy the solutions at very high prices, only to discover that the laundering experiment was done to real currency, while the bundles of paper that they buy along with the solutions are fake currency. Al Kiyumi added that other ways of swindling involve selling of phone calls to members of the public. 1322238824869110900 Seventeen people were arrested recently on charges of using computers connected to the Internet and mobile phones to sell calls for financial gain, said Al Kiyumi, noting that this is in violation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Law. Those who buy the calls while knowing that the service provider does not have license will also be penalised because the participation of all in such practices affects the revenue of the institutions that are legally authorised to provide the service. The owners of illegal telecommunication services (even if they practise the activity in their homes or shops) can be charged with money laundering, said Al Kiyumi. The ROP also reported recent crimes involving vehicle theft and prostitution in the Wilayat of Seeb.