Photo: Collected –
Metropolis Desk-
Bangladesh was chosen as the first nation to implement the new initiatives when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia introduced e-visas on Monday, eliminating visa stickers for work, visits, and transit.
Bangladesh will be the first nation to use the new technology, we decide. In the afternoon, Essa Yousef Essa Alduhailan, the Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh, made the statement at the embassy in Dhaka.
Beginning on Monday, Bangladeshi nationals will no longer require a sticker visa of any kind, including a work visa, in order to visit the oil-rich Kingdom, which is home to more than two million Bangladeshi expatriate workers.
The implementation of an error-free e-visa that supports both Arabic and English language would save bother, cost, and time associated with obtaining Saudi visas, according to the Saudi envoy.
He claimed that despite the difficulty of printing such stickers, the Saudi government spends a significant amount of money issuing sticker visas.
The ambassador stated that “it will be a win-win situation for the intending Bangladeshi workers and other stakeholders, including the recruiting agencies,” and added that his country is eager to collaborate with Bangladesh for the improvement of the expatriate Bangladeshi workers.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia only offered e-visa services for Umrah visas. The launch of e-visa, according to the ambassador, will make it easier for the embassy here to manage the large volume of visa requests. The Saudi embassy in Dhaka currently grants 7000–8000 visas every day.
The Saudi government intends to eventually implement a comparable e-visa scheme in other nations. Shahidul Alam, the director general of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET), also addressed at the event.
According to a recent Bangladesh Bank study, about 100,000 Bangladeshis moved to the Arab country in the last quarter of 2022 alone, maintaining Saudi Arabia as their preferred destination for migrant labor.
Workers in the Kingdom sent over $910 million to Bangladesh during the fourth quarter of last year, placing Saudi Arabia second only to the US in terms of remittances, according to data from the central bank.
