Saudi scraps visa sticker, introduces e-visa in seven countries

The Saudi foreign ministry announced on Thursday that it will replace visa stickers with electronic visas in seven countries.

The ministry said that the new initiative to use e-visas with QR codes went into effect on the first of May in the Kingdom’s missions in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Philippines and Indonesia.

The moves comes as part of the ongoing efforts to “automate procedures and boost the quality of consular services provided by the ministry,” as well as to “develop the mechanism of issuing work, residency and visit visas.”

The Kingdom has been recently revamping the visas procedures and easing visa rules, attracting more tourists and foreign businesses.

It also comes amid talk of a possible unified regional Schengen-style visa among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

source: Gulfnews