Online visa process halted: Lankan Mission in UK urge President to rectify shortcomings

Sri Lanka’s High Commission in UK has called the President’s office and Foreign Ministry to intervene to rectify a shortcoming in the e-visa application process which has caused complications in applying for tourist and business visas.

The High Commission has explained that pursuant to instructions from the Foreign Ministry the mission had taken action to issue a notice on the revised visa application process advising those wishing to travel to Sri Lanka to apply for a visa through the High Commission or obtain on-arrival visas.

However, the High Commission said it has noticed that the options for applying for tourist visas and business visas through the e-visa agent module for the High Commission have been removed.

The High Commission said it has been placed in an embarrassing position as the mission will not be able to process the applications as indicated earlier.

The Mission has urged the government to rectify the situation.

The issuance of online visas for travellers to Sri Lanka grounded to a halt after the Supreme Court on Friday suspended the agreement signed by the Immigration Department to outsource online visa processing to a tripartite joint venture between Singapore-registered GBS Technology Services, the UAE-registered IVS Global-FZCO and the Dubai-headquartered VFS VF Worldwide Holdings Ltd.

However, the Immigration Department had notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that tourists can once again obtain visas through Sri Lanka’s overseas missions and on-arrival at the point of entries.