OnLine Visas for visitors to Sri Lanka – Counter Productive!
Posted on May 2nd, 2011
Prof. Hudson McLean
The Online Visa rule is a hassle, which is Counter productive.
This is simply a bureacratic creation to bloat the ego of some “bird-brain” in the administration.
There are several options to the Visa Fee.
1: The Visa Fee could be charged to the Airline Ticket. Recovery from the Airline.
2: Collect on Arrival along with the Visa Application. Immediate Cash, like in Indonesia.
Most of my travelling is done at short notice. And book my tickets through travel agents.The agent fixes an e-Ticket which awaits at the check-in counter, available when I produce the passport.
Like most businessmen, I try to maintain my bureacracy to a minimum.
In between flights, to get on-line to get the Visa, pay with a credit card sometimes is also a risk which I prefer to avoid.
My advice to Sri Lanka Immigration Authority –
“Keep the Entry to Sri Lanka a Pleasant Experience.”
and encourage the Customs & Immigration Authority personnel to be Polite & Smile!
Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
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May 3rd, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Dear Hudson,
Please learn to live with modern technology. You cannot avoid using credit card online now.
I think on line visa is an excellent idea.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Yeah I agree with you Prof Hudson. A dumb idea, some bearucrat thought it might be great to charge tourists extra, just a money making excercise, no different from some of the hawkers in SL who try to con people of money,
to charge foreign passport holders a fee. You will find in the months ahead less and less people with foreign passports will be travelling to Sri Lanka anyway as the Global financial crisis, especially in the west bites further, I suppose only rich sri lankans from the west will be travelling to sri lanka, but they won’t be charged will they. Mark my words due to these kind of measures less and less people will travel to Sri Lanka. The air ticket costs a lot of money on top of that people don’t won’t the hassle of a visa fee charged. I remember when I was living in Sri Lanka in the 1980s lot of tourists from the west visited even though the LTTE insurgency was in full swing. I guess the thinking here is if a foreign passport holder can falk out the money to buy a return ticket to Sri Lanka, he has the money to get charged a visa fee right? I guess it is another tourist profit making business by the minister.
Also Dham no need to insult Prof Hudson when he was putting a very valid point forward.
Dham I suppose it is an excellent idea for you, as I understand you are a Sri Lankan? So you don’t have to contribute to this money making scheme and hassle?
Dumb idea Sri Lanka. Scrap the online visa fee. Just because there is the internet no need to rip people off.
May 4th, 2011 at 3:45 am
Rohan,
Those who want to come will always come. I did not insult Hudson, he is my hero. But old age catching up probably. I said he should learn to use technology.
Look it is probably a world first.
Congratulations SriLanka !
Dogs bark mountains do not shake !