Kingdom Weighs Visas on Arrival
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 26 April 2005 — Saudi Arabia is studying the possibility of issuing business and tourist visas at airports as part of its efforts to attract foreign investment and tourists, according to Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisy, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

“The Kingdom has set up a committee comprising representatives of various government departments to work out mechanisms to issue visas to businessmen and tourists at airports,” Asharq Al-Awsat daily quoted Jeraisy as saying.

Jeraisy hoped that the committee would adopt recommendations that would enable businessmen and tourists to get visas at airports instead of from Saudi missions abroad. Many GCC countries have already started issuing such visas on arrival.

This could be an important break-through for both businesspeople and tourists who wish to visit Saudi Arabia. The current process is laborious and time-consuming. Whether the different offices that currently have a say in whether or not a visa is issued–particularly the security services–will go along is another matter. I’ll keep an eye on this for future developments.