Immigration has made arrangements to facilitate work visa application at any time.
Government offices have been closed for over two months as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the new arrangements made by Maldives immigration, visa applications can be submitted at any time.
Immigration spokesperson Hassan Khaleel said the arrangements were made on Monday to facilitate timely application of work visas. Visa applicaions can be submitted online and fees can also be paid online under the new change, said Khaleel.
While the immigration made arrangements for online work applicaion submission last year, the time frame for application was limited to between 7 am and 2 pm.
Immigration said the authority will confirm the authenticity of documents once the required documentation are submitted, and appointments will be issued to collect the visa once the Health Protection Agency (HPA) issues the relevant permission. Noting that immmigration has already requested HPA for the permits to issue visas, Khaleel said he believes HPA will issue the permit next week.
Khaleel noted that changes have also been brought to the photo submission policy. While applicants cannot present themselves to the authotiry to have a new photograph taken at this time, the authority will accept the photograph submitted along with the visa application, said Khaleel.
Immigration previously announced that it would not charge any fines for late payment of visas that are due between March 1 and June 30.
