By Daisyderater Chaputula
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi’s immigration department says electronic visas will be introduced within three weeks after being done with all the processes within the project.The immigration department’s public relations officer Joseph Chauwa told The Maravi Post in an interview that the project has not be changed as planned as there is much progress currently.
“The contract was signed with the contractor and the contractor is now on the ground doing consultations and software requirements where they will develop the software then bring the systems and start installing the systems,” he said.
For any foreigner to enter the country they need to be granted an authority to come to Malawi and that authority is a visa
“It’s different from other countries where a visa is like a permit in Malawi which allows you to stay in that country for a particular period but here in Malawi is just an authority to come into the country and once the person makes an entry the visa expires,” Chauwa explained.
“As of now the visa process is done manually where a person can only submit the application physically within our offices or we tried at least to modify it that if a person wants to come to Malawi should apply for an authority letter for that person to get the actual visa on entry and grant the person an opportunity to fly into the country or get the visa from our borders, ” he said.
The visa can only be issued at the broader, airports or immigration office for now but when the project is done everything will be done online.
“Currently, we are trying to change the process electronically where the person will be visiting our immigration page and be able to submit the application, getting feedback, making payments and also be granted the visa online, ” he added.
Other countries are required to have a visa in advance in the sense that the visa must be granted before they decide to come to Malawi.
Other category are countries which are not of high risk where people can just go to the Airport and apply for the visa right there and be granted one.
There are SADC countries that are not required to have a visa to come to Malawi as well as countries that do not allow Malawians to have a visa to get into their country.
