Saudi Arabia scraps visa stickers in seven countries

The Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia has announced to replace visa stickers with electronic visas in seven countries.

The ministry said that the new initiative to use e-visas with QR codes went into effect on the first of May in the Kingdom’s missions in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Philippines and Indonesia.

The moves comes as part of the ongoing efforts to “automate procedures and boost the quality of consular services provided by the ministry,” as well as to “develop the mechanism of issuing work, residency and visit visas.”

Saudi Arabia has been recently revamping the visas procedures and easing visa rules, attracting more tourists and foreign businesses.

It also comes amid talk of a possible unified regional Schengen-style visa among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.