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Digital age dawns on Thai visa service

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BANGKOK, 31 January 2019: VFS Global has entered a partnership with Thailand’s Immigration Bureau to offer a new eVisa On Arrival (eVOA) service for travellers from 21 countries including China and India, effective 14 February,

The full-list of eligible nationalities for Thailand’s eVOA comprises of Andorra, Bulgaria, Bhutan, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Travellers, who are eligible to use the online eVOA service, provided by VFS Global, will receive their travel authorisation from the Immigration Bureau of Thailand prior to their departure from their country of origin.

It will take between three to five days to receive the authorisation that has to be presented to immigration officials at airport border checkpoints.

The new eVOA service will be available from 14 February at thailandevoa.vfsevisa.com.

Initially, eVOA travellers will be able to enter at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueng airports in Bangkok, as well as at Phuket and Chiang Mai airports.

Thai Airways International and Thai Smile Airline said they would alert their passengers to the eVOA service when they bought tickets through their websites, or mobile phone apps, that would provide them with a click-through weblink.

To see the launching soon webste page https://thailandevoa.vfsevisa.com/launchingsoon

In its official announcement, 29 January, VFS Global outlined three steps that needed to be completed when travellers apply online.

STEP 1: Go to thailandevoa.vfsevisa.com. Share the application details and upload the necessary documents online. No physical passport submission is needed.

STEP 2: Pay the applicable fee using the payment gateway facility with Mastercard, Visa or Union Pay credit, or debit card, which is enabled to make international transactions or via Wechat or Alipay

STEP 3: On the successful completion of the payment and once the application is processed with the preapproved eVOA code, travellers can download and print out the eVOA application for reference and may even keep a copy of the file on their mobile phones.

Travellers receive their pre-departure travel authorisation online before the trip within 24 to 72 hours.

If there is an urgent visa requirement to travel to Thailand, travellers can also complete the online the Express eVOA facility, by paying an additional service fee. Eligible travellers can get their eVOA decision within 24 hours for any short notice travel requirements.

On arrival at one of the four designated airports, eVOA applicants pass through dedicated Immigration counters to present their passport and a print out of the authorisation code.

Travellers don’t need to carry any physical copies such as hotel booking confirmation, air tickets and photographs.

Since the eVOA fee was paid online, no cash in local currency is required at the immigration counter.

Commenting on the launch of the new eVOA service, Pol Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, commissioner of the Thailand Immigration Bureau said: “With the eVOA service, we are proud to offer a new age digital solution, which will enhance the overall experience for the modern day traveller who seeks to visit Thailand from any of the 21 countries.

“In our cooperation with VFS Global, we aim to effectively meet the objective of increasing tourism to the country through this solution especially taking into consideration the all-important security aspect that allows pre-check of travellers prior the arrival, as it offers time to the Immigration Bureau for effective assessment.”

VFS Global CEO, Zubin Karkaria added: “It is an honour to work with the Immigration Bureau of Thailand and Thai Airways to ensure a more convenient and faster service for travellers to Thailand, while maintaining the security and integrity of the visa process… Thailand eVOA service will further ease of travel to Thailand, and thereby facilitate increase in tourism to the country…  within Thailand we employ 326 Thai nationals – of which 96 are dedicated resources for the new eVOA service.”

VFS Global is the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide.

With 2997 Visa Application Centres, operations in 143 countries across five continents and over 189 million applications processed as on 31 December 2018, VFS Global is the trusted partner of 62 client governments.

VFS Global has a Swiss parentage and is a portfolio company of EQT, a leading global private equity firm headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

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