Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Citizens of 15 more countries will be able to obtain visas through the ASAN Visa system.

The list of countries includes Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Japan, Indonesia, Iran, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, Israel and United Arab Emirates.

The issuance of electronic visas for citizens of those states will start on May 15.

In total, about 420,000 foreigners were granted electronic visas through the ASAN Visa system as of today. Since January 2017, foreigners are issued visas within a three-hour period. The state fee for a visa is $20.

The terms of issuing and using electronic visas through the ASAN Visa system were developed jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. This step was taken for the promotion and development of tourism in Azerbaijan.

ASAN Visa portal designed to simplify a procedure for issuing visas to foreigners and stateless persons wishing to visit Azerbaijan, as well as to ensure immediacy and transparency of this process, was presented to the public in 2016.

Electronic visa is a document for one entry, which determines the period of stay in the country up to 30 days.

Electronic visas are issued only to the citizens of the countries, approved by the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, and stateless persons permanently residing in this country.

Also, the ASAN Visa system offers the issuance of group visas to foreign citizens. Group appeals are provided for a minimum of two, a maximum of ten people.

Foreigners and stateless persons, who wish to receive an e-visa, must enter information into the system of "ASAN Visa", and after receipt on acceptance of confirmation pay online a state fee in the amount prescribed by law "On state duty".

The system of "ASAN Visa" sends the appeal to the interagency automated retrieval system "Entry-exit and registration". The relevant executive authority verifies the information not later than three days from the time of appeal in "ASAN Viza", checks restriction list of the "Entry-exit and registration".

Then a visa is sent to the e-mail address of the contact person. In case of failure the person is also informed.

The electronic visas are not stuck in the passport but presented together with the passport while crossing the border check-point. Foreigners and stateless persons may apply for a new e-visa only after they will leave Azerbaijan.

Only citizens of 94 countries (or persons residing in these countries) can obtain an electronic visa. The list of countries, which can be found in this link, is approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz