• Technology
• Uploaded In: 2022

How E-Visas has emerged as a smarter choice for the global traveller

More and more countries are adding the E-Visa route to the common visa channels being a quicker, and hassle-free solution for travellers. But will it pose a risk to the traditional visa application model in future?

As overseas travellers continue to grow by leaps and bounds each year, in the present digital era, technology plays a major role in determining the way travel is planned and decisions are made. We are now able to make travel decisions faster, whether related to transport or living arrangement or guided tours, with the help of tools and apps available at our fingertips.

Breakthroughs in technology coupled with improved internet connectivity and speed are allowing 'armchair booking' of visas, flights, and hotels at the click of a button. Airports are upgrading their technological solutions to ensure biometric check-ins of travellers soon.

Owing to the impact of the pandemic, many travellers are preferring services that enable them to submit visa applications from the comfort and safety of their homes or offices with reduced human touch points. Changing customer expectations have fuelled the emergence and acceptance of contactless and do-it-yourself technologies like E-Visas which have seen higher acceptance over the last few years.

The Electronic Visa (E-Visa) is emerging as a convenient and revolutionary service in the travel domain as it now offers customers the unmatched convenience of applying for their visa from the location of their choice. Even in the case of visa services, E-Visa services allow customers to submit their visa applications using just a mobile phone as it does not require a visit in person to the Application Centre as part of the submission process.

E-visas allow the secure management of the visa application process to take place entirely in an online environment, increasing time and cost efficiencies for the end customer and the concerned government as a convenient solution for pre-travel authorisation. Some of the reasons why eVisa services are being preferred by modern-day travellers are:

• Applying on the go with the globally accessible websites
• Simplified payment options- mostly online in nature
• Quicker turnaround time of decision-making with visas being emailed to their email id
• No more paper form filling or carrying copies of documents while arriving in a country
• Time and effort saved from not having to visit the Consulate or Embassy in person for a visa

More and more governments are looking into a solution that transforms the traditional offline visa application process into a digital visa model. But will that be a threat to the traditional visa application process?

We feel otherwise. While one part of the application process can be fully digitised, the biometric enrolment will still happen at a nearby visa application centre. This is primarily because physical enrolment of biometrics continues to be an important aspect of border control norms today.

Especially when there is a growing interest amongst governments across the world who aim to liberalise their visa regimes to make their respective countries both tourist-friendly and business-friendly destinations in this digital day and age.

End to end E-Visa solutions for Governments: The VFS Global example.

VFS Global is the only one with a full end-to-end E-Visa solution for governments who have leveraged our highly secure and smart solutions across the world.

With an intuitive online application form-filling support that leverages artificial intelligence and quality checks to ensure all details submitted and documents uploaded are as per the requirement of the mission, our E-Visa solutions make it simpler and more convenient for governments to decide on the visa application in a secured (GDPR compliant format).

VFS Global has made significant investments towards providing a seamless online customer journey to our customers. One of the initiatives was developing the Thailand eVisa On Arrival (eVOA) solution along with the Immigration Bureau of Thailand that allows eligible travellers to get fast and easy immigration clearance at select Thailand airports, through a completely online process that addresses over 10 million travellers to Thailand with visa on arrival each year. In fact, for those travellers who have even been considering Thailand as a getaway option for the next long weekend, this solution ensures you get a visa easier and caters to an urgent visa requirement to travel to Thailand with options like Express eVOA service for quicker processing. Since commencing this service in 2002, we now offer innovative and highly secure online visa solutions accessible by customers anytime, anyplace for both locations (Thailand, Suriname etc.) and airlines (Emirates) as the destination or travel partner of choice. For Emirates, we process Dubai E-Visa applications annually across 180 locations worldwide.

Another notable E-visa project is our recent rollout of the first-ever Indonesia fast-track Visa on Arrival which ensures the local authorities faster clearance and exit from the airport upon arrival in Jakarta and Bali, considering the growing inbound travel the country has been experiencing. Our E-visa solutions cover a diverse segment of travellers worldwide, like 70 nationalities in the case of the Azerbaijan E-visa project and 86 nationalities in the case of Indonesia.

If you have any feedback on this article or would like to reach out to our team to know more, please email us at
communications@vfsglobal.com