An expatriate from Riyadh who landed at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on his birthday was in for a pleasant surprise when he was showered with the day's greetings and given an extended visa for six months as a birthday gift by US immigration officials recently.

“It was on April 18, my birthday, I landed at the JFK airport and handed over the passport to the immigration. When the official who took the travel document logged into my details, the system started singing birthday greetings,” Omar Hassan Hamzah told Arab News on Sunday. He arrived in Riyadh on Thursday.

Hailing from Sudan, Hamzah has been working for GESALO in Riyadh for the past two decades.

“It was a pleasant surprise for me,” he said, recalling that he was a bit nervous when he handed over the passport to the immigration officials since it was his first visit to the US and had heard stories about the tough passenger screening procedures. “I had a three-month visa, but they gave me another six months as a birthday gift, besides the greetings” he said.

Hamzah said that he went to New York to meet his son, Musab, who was recently admitted to an institute in Manhattan.

He said that Allah rewarded him with another surprise when he met an old Egyptian friend in New York the same day when he had met him 25 years ago. “My friend too greeted me with a bouquet on my birthday,” he said.

Hamzah said the Egyptian was his college mate living in the same room in Cairo.