The couple desperately wants to travel back to India to get their 8-year-old son - who suffers from cerebral palsy - stem cell treatment.
Dubai - Indian expatriate Yasin Sharif gets medical attendance visa for his Pakistani wife.
Published: Mon 21 Nov 2016, 12:57 PM
Updated: Mon 21 Nov 2016, 8:28 PM
"Great news! We got the visa." These were the words Indian expatriate Yasin Sharif relayed to Khaleej Times on Monday after waiting nearly 80 days for a medical attendance visa for his Pakistani wife.
The good news came just weeks after India's Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, took to her 6.5 million followers on Twitter to urge the Indian Consulate in Dubai to help expedite the couple's visa process.
"As soon as I received the call from the Indian Consulate saying that we got the visa, I knew I had to retweet Sushma and give her all my thanks," Dubai-based Sharif told Khaleej Times.
He said of the "thousands of requests she gets every week", Swaraj took the time to consider his plight and went public with it - which ultimately resulted in a positive resolution for his family.
"Above all else I wanted to first thank Swaraj for stepping in."
On Sunday he tweeted her saying: "@SushmaSwaraj thank you mam, finally I got visa. Get well soon will pray for your good health, once again thank you for all the support."
Way back in September, Sharif put forward an application for a visa so his wife could travel to India to seek stem cell treatment for their disabled son.
The treatment is not yet available here in Dubai.
After being told the process would take 40 days, he waited double that time, with little explanation from the Consulate as to why, he said.
Frustrated by the lack of communication, he took to Twitter on November 4 and directly tweeted Swaraj asking for help.
And within a few hours she responded saying:
Now, with his wife's visa in tow, Sharif is in the process of sorting out a medical appointment for his son.
"We will have to contact the hospital for new dates as we were forced to cancel two previous appointments due to the delay in visa processing. But I am just happy we can make solid arrangements now," he said.
Sharif's son suffers from cerebral palsy, and he said this visit to India for treatment will help improve his health condition.
"Our hope is to see the child's movement improve by some percentage. I really can't thank Sushma enough for helping make this opportunity come about quicker." Kelly@khaleejtimes.com
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