E-Visa to be Launched Soon: Home Minister of Bangladesh

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that Bangladesh is going to enter the era of e-visa soon.

He said at the e-Gate inauguration ceremony at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong on Tuesday, “You will be happy to know that we are going to launch e-Visa as well. E-Visa will be launched shortly. We are going to fully digitize this sector.”

The event was organized by the Directorate of Immigration and Passports of the Security Services Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “We made the MRP under the instructions of the Prime Minister. Then e-passport. We took up the e-passport project under the direction of the Prime Minister. German company Veridos implements this project. At that time, many people said – We may not be able to give passports to millions of people who are abroad. But the Prime Minister has delivered that passport to everyone.

Now we are printing 20,000 e-passports every day. We have already launched 26 e-gates in Dhaka. Inaugurating 6 e-gates in Chittagong today. E-Gate Service Locals and foreigners can avail this service easily. Those who have e-passport will get through easily. This is the Prime Minister’s gift to the people of Chittagong.

Stating that e-gates will be established gradually at all land ports of the country, the minister said, “You will be happy to know that we are also going to introduce e-visa.” E-Visa will be launched shortly. We are going to completely digitize this sector.

Director General of Immigration and Passport Department Major General Md. Nurul Anwar said, ‘The immigration process will be digital through e-gate. Only the visa verification process is somewhat manual. Under the e-passport and automatic passport management scheme, the work of setting up e-gate is in progress. So far 57 thousand passengers have taken this service in Dhaka.

In the event, it was informed that the immigration police can automatically verify the information of e-passport holders and complete the immigration at the e-gate. At these gates, e-passport verification, biometric and personal data verification in the passport and the overall immigration process can be done in an integrated manner.

An e-passport holder can complete immigration without anyone’s assistance by verifying documents in just 18 seconds. When a passenger places the first page of the e-passport on the scanning machine and is identified through the scanning, the first gate opens. After capturing the image through the scanning machine’s identification camera and after confirming the identity, the exit gate will open.

Members of Parliament MA Latif and Abu Reza Mohammad Nezam Uddin Nadvi, Divisional Commissioner Ashraf Uddin, CMP Commissioner Krishna Pad Roy and Chittagong Divisional Director of Passport Department Abu Saeed were present on the occasion.