Archive February 2020

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has replaced the commercial and working visit visas with the introduction of the ‘business visit visa’.

As per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Saudi Arabia, the new business visit visa will be available now, instead of the previously issued commercial and work visit visas. The business visit permit is available for investors, company owners, members of the board of directors, managers and other company representatives visiting Saudi to take part in business-related activities. However, the new visa comes with a remark of “not permitted to work”, thereby disallowing any kind of work, which was previously allowed on the work visit visa.

As a result, the invitation letter previously obtained for applying for the commercial or work visit visa will have to be changed to the updated format. The new invitation letter or visa order can be obtained electronically through the website of the MOFA. Upon obtaining this, the letter has to be attested by the Saudi Chamber of Commerce. You will be able to apply for the visa only after obtaining the attestation.

The business visit visa is also expected to increase the processing time taken, although it isn’t clear to the extent of this. Though the introduction of this has removed a short-term work prospect in Saudi, a new-short term work visa can be expected to be released soon.

The Schengen area comprises 26 European states, and travelling to any of them requires a common visa, even for inter-state travel. And as per the sources, there is most likely to be a hike in the Schengen visa fees. The hike is a result of an updated Schengen visa code which will be coming to force from February 2nd, 2020.

A tour to Europe will be more expensive as visa fee is deemed to be increased from 60 euros to 80 euros, the fee hike will be applicable to every country which has not signed the visa facilitation agreement with the EU. There is an increase of 5 euros for children between 6 to 12 years, from the current 35 euros to 40 euros.

This is the first price hike in visa fee since 2006, however, infants below the age of 6 will be charged no money. Over 16 million visa applications were present in the embassies, which shows the magnitude of travel and tourism in this region.