KSA initiates e-visa for Bangladeshis first

Staff Reporter :
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on Monday introduced e-visa, abolishing visa stickers for all types of travelling applications and it chooses Bangladeshi applicants first to implement the new system.

“The KSA choose Bangladesh as the first country to implement the new system of visa issuing in all sorts like work, visits, and transit visa,” Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Yousef Essa Alduhailan said it while making the announcement at the Embassy in Dhaka on Monday.

He said that the Bangladeshi nationals don’t need to get sticker visa of any category including work visa for travelling to the oil-rich Kingdom from Monday.
The KSA hosts more than two million  Bangladeshis expatriate workers which is the largest by number of the country’s migrant workforce in the world.
The Saudi diplomat said also that this new initiative of introducing error-free e-visa system, containing both Arabic and English language, will reduce hassle, cost and time to get Saudi visas.

The Saudi government spends huge amount of money so far for issuing sticker visas. Printing of such sticker is also a difficult task, the ambassador added.
“It will be a win-win situation for the awaiting Bangladeshi visitors and other stakeholders including the recruiting agencies,” the ambassador said.
He said also that the kingdom is keen to work with Bangladesh for betterment of the Bangladeshi expatriates working there.
Earlier, the kingdom had introduced the e-visa system only for Umrah visa.

The ambassador said the introduction of e-visa will help the embassy here to manage huge number of visa applications.
Currently the Saudi mission in Dhaka issues 7000 to 8000 visa every day.

The Saudi government has plans to introduce a similar e-visa system in other countries gradually.
Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Director General Shahidul Alam also spoke in the event.
Saudi Arabia continues to be the favorite destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers.

As per a recent report of Bangladesh Bank nearly 100,000 Bangladeshi Diasporas migrated to the Arab nation in the last quarter of 2022 alone.
The Bangladesh Bank data showed that Saudi Arabia was the second-biggest source of remittances to Bangladesh in the fourth quarter last year, just behind the US, as workers brought in about $910 million from the Kingdom during the period.