The Electronic Visa popularly known as e-Visa has made travel easy across the world. It has emerged as one of the most innovative travel services to promote tourism, strengthen business ties, and ease movement across borders. Implementation of e-visa services has made the management of millions of visa applications easy as the entire process has become online which also eliminates human errors and the need of unnecessary paperwork. The entire process of issuing e-Visa such as application, supporting documents, and payment are submit online. Even all the relate communication and decision relate to the application is submit online. Some of the countries offering the best e-Visa services include Turkey, Georgia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Enhanced Travel Experience

eVisa services have been introduced as a part of the eBorder strategy offering enhanced travel experience to travelers while reducing administration cost significantly without making any compromises on border integrity. Implementing the eVisa process can be a humongous task as it involves a series of complex processes as well as a sensitive database. However, integrating experience and strict management policies will help in the implementation of this task smoothly within 3-4 months.Let’s take a look at the various advantages of eVisa system.

Huge cost saving

eVisa is completely an online process eliminating the need for huge paperwork and resources required for managing huge paperwork and sensitive data. Logistics become simplified and streamlined eliminating the possibility of human errors. You don’t need to travel to a visa office for face-to-face appointments where a government employee manually enters data into the system, scans documents, and conducts meetings.

Document Regularly Management

Approvals are also communicated online hence eliminating the need to print a visa sticker and managing the documents regularly. According to a report by the World Bank, the Moldovan Embassy saved around 12-14% of the man- hours by introducing eVisas in 2014. They also registered savings of around 38,200 Euros on transportation cost as the foreigners located in other countries received eVisas online eliminating the need to travel to the respective Moldovan Embassies of other countries. Also, in 2013, Europe made significant savings of 10 million Euros by getting away with visa stickers for more than 16 million short-term visas for 26 European countries.

Revenue Boosting Opportunity For Governments

eVisas have a higher processing fee of up to 20% as compared to the traditional visas. Since the process is easier and faster than normal, it provides more job and travel opportunities to the visitors. It also stimulates business-related travel and strengthens economic ties between the countries consequently increasing the revenue generated from tourism. The higher fees cover the extra cost of maintaining and operating the portal. A 2012 report titled “The Impact of Visa Facilitation on Job Creation in G20 economies” generated by the World Travel and Tourism Council mentioned a 15% increase in overseas tourist arrivals from the visa facilitation programs, increasing 20% hike in traveler spend in the visiting country.

Why few countries have adopted e-Visa while it has so many benefits?

Research done on worldwide travelers reveals that some of the most traveled countries of the world such as US, Spain, China, UK, Russia, France, Italy, and Germany don’t offer eVisa services to foreigners. Only Turkey amongst the top 10 most-visited countries in the world offers online visa services. Various important concerns that matter include the following:

Identity theft

Since the visa applications are submitted online, personal appearance at visa offices is not required hence it may lead to many fraud cases of false identities of applicants.

Forgery of documents

In eVisa process all the supporting documents like identity proof, medical insurance, financial proofs, etc. are submitted online which increases the risk of document forgery.

Impossibility to collect biometric data

Personal visit to visa office allows authorities to collect relevant data such as fingerprints; digital pictures etc. however eVisas eliminates any such possibility, increasing the security risk and forgery.

Poor ICT Infrastructure

Many countries don’t have adequate ICT infrastructure hence increasing the inefficiency of eVisa services which increases security threats. However, in many countries, the day to day management of various operations is done through traditional visa procedures. Besides, countries are steadily upgrading their IT infrastructure hence poor ICT infrastructure should not be consider as a shortcoming for eVisa services.

Implemention Of Process

Implementation of technically advanced processes will always have its pros and cons. However, these problems can be minimized by taking several measures the addresses the government’s measures to boost security for eVisas. The measures may include the following:

Identity verification via Payment cards-

Applicants should be ask to make payments through debit or credit cards issue on their names for the online payment process. In case of any suspicion, authorities can always cross-verify the whereabouts of an applicant from the respective bank. Contracting companies specializing in the verification of scanned documents to provide validation about applicant’s identity can also be an additional measure to prevent the forgery of documents & frauds related to the issuance of eVisas as it can be a major threat to a country’s security.

Biometric checks-

Usually a traveler’s documents and biometrics are verified at the border control point but in case of eVisa process, biometric checks aren’t possible online. Nonetheless, the IT industry has already developed solutions to enable the collection of biometric data from individuals who are located abroad and are applying for e-services. For example, webcams can be used for collecting biometric data of applicants.

Advanced control & tracking

Digital process of issuing Visa empowers authorities with real-time updates of trends related to visa demands as well as the profile of applicants. Additionally, on-demand information regarding the status of specific visa requests is also enabled.

Advanced security options

Integrate real-time automatic background checks and links to watch-lists for strengthening the security of processes. We believe that implementing any new system will always have multiple concerns however they can be resolve with careful planning and management. Moving forward, institutions worldwide should embrace innovation and rethink the delivery of services related to travel and tourism. One of the best examples of digitalizing the complete process is the banking sector. Earlier online money transfer was considered unthinkable but in today’s date bank is providing the majority of the services online.