News
Legal issues over free visas for visitors from 35 countries
View(s):Authorities are now looking at whether President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has the powers to issue a directive to give effect to the Cabinet decision, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Priyantha Fernando said yesterday.
The countries were to be Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The seven countries that were previously gazetted for free visas—China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan—will continue to be qualified for free visas.
Meanwhile, the SLTMobitel-run electronic travel authorisation (ETA) system was reintroduced this week after a court battle against the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s 12-year outsourcing contract to process online visas with a joint venture comprising the Singapore-registered GBS Technology Services, the UAE-registered IVS Global-FZCO and the Dubai-headquartered VFS VF Worldwide Holdings Ltd.
According to available data, around 310,000 one-month tourist visas (not on-arrival) had been issued through the VFS system since April 16 this year, along with about 52,000 six-month tourist visas. Altogether, nearly 380,000 visas were issued across 13 categories.
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