admin
Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
FOREIGN visitors can now apply or pay online for travel visas to Zimbabwe and get them within 48 hours after the Immigration Department rolled out the E-Visa payment system.
Department of Immigration principal director, Mr Clement Masango, revealed this while addressing captains of industry and tourism players here recently. He said online visa payment started last week as the department gears for a paperless visa facility before totally abolishing the facility through time.
He said the development, which has received an overwhelming response is meant to improve travel facilitation and unlock the country’s potential in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and complementing the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra by President Mnangagwa. “From the inception of the New Dispensation, President Mnangagwa has made two calls-that Zimbabwe is open for business and that there is going to be change in the way we do things especially on the part of civil servants,” said Mr Masango.
He said as a regulator of immigration in the country, the department was critical. “We have rolled out online visa application and payment system, which allows visitors to apply and pay in advance thereby reducing delays on arrival. We rolled out the online payment system last week,” said Mr Masango.
He said the facility was handy especially for those from Group C countries who would previously have to go and apply at the embassies. Mr Masango said they will also soon come up with a machine generated visa sticker.
“We intend to generate a machine generated sticker, which will be quicker and reduce human error as well as save space in people’s passports.
“This is the first phase before we go paperless, a project we are planning for year-end,” said Mr Masango.
He said the facility was different from the Kaza Uni-Visa facility, which was implemented by Zimbabwe and Zambia although plans were underway to embed the two facilities. Mr Masango said there were also plans to totally remove the visa facility, taking into consideration that the SADC region has scraped visas among its members.
@ncubeleon
Online Reporter