Thursday,September, 29, 2011Colombo:The Department of Immigration and Emigration of Sri Lanka is to introduce new system called "Electronic Travel Authorization - ETA" in order to grant prior approval for visa via online for the foreign nationals visit Sri Lanka.
This was revealed to the public at a press briefing held at Ceylon Intercontinental yesterday (28 Sep) organized by the Department of Immigration and Emigration.
The new system will be introduced on 30 September, and it will terminate the presently implemented 'on arrival visa' at the ports of entry, the Department said.
Accordingly, foreign nationals from 78 countries visiting Sri Lanka on purposes of tourism affairs, medical treatments, sports, cultural shows, business conferences and discussions, training programmes and seminars can apply for the Electronic Travel Authorization via www.eta.gov.lk, the dedicated official website of the Department for the purpose.
Only an administration fee has been suggested for this "Electronic Travel Authorization, the Department said.
The previous method of granting visas on arrival at the airport free of charge to the nationals from the Maldives and Singapore is still in effective as a reciprocal gesture, the Department further said.
Information is available in nine international languages allowing great continence to foreigners. However, applications should be forwarded only in English language and six methodologies have been introduced to facilitate the process.
According to this new visa granting system, since the air and ship crew are exempted from obtaining prior approval for the visa, the old system will be effective as before.
The foreigners, who officially or diplomatically visit Sri Lanka should obtain prior approval for visa through a government institute of Sri Lanka and such approvals will be granted free of charge.
Mr. W.A. Choolananda Perera Controller Immigration and Emigration, Mr. Nihal Ranasinghe Deputy General IT and Border Control, Mr. S. Hettiarachchi Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence and Mr. R.M.S. Sarath Kumara Section Head (Visa) were also present at the event.
No comments:
Post a Comment