Foreigners living in East Africa land special visa deal

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI Special Correspondent
Posted Saturday, May 10 2014 at 17:05
IN SUMMARY
Visa will be issued by the country where the foreigner resides,
subject to the validity of the work/residence permit taking into
account the visa regimes.
The deal will give non-citizen residents an edge over their travelling
counterparts, who get a 90-day visa.
Foreigners living in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda will from next month get
a six-month East African tourist visa under a preferential deal agreed
on last week as the states sought to fully implement the issuance of a
joint visa for the region.
According to a report on last week's Northern Corridor Integration
Project Summit held in Nairobi, the visa will be issued by the country
where the foreigner resides, subject to the validity of the
work/residence permit taking into account the visa regimes.
The deal will give non-citizen residents an edge over their travelling
counterparts, who get a 90-day visa.
Since its launch in Kampala last month, officials say, tremendous
progress has been realised in the implementation of the joint visa,
which is expected to sell the East African region as a single tourist
destination.
READ: Single tourist visa: Things to note
The ministers' report says the countries have opened special visa fees
accounts and agreed to transfer revenue from the joint visa to each
partner state by July 15.
The meeting directed Kenya to develop a sample application form for
the visa and share it with partner states.
Working like the Schengen visa for European Union countries, the East
African visa is expected to allow tourist to enter any of the three
countries and move freely within the other two.
It is issued as a multiple-entry visa at $100 instead of $150 at the
diplomatic offices of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, immigration offices of
the respective countries or online.
Annual audit
"The national audit agencies of the partner states will conduct the
auditing of the accounts of the East African visa on an annual basis,"
said the ministers in their report.
The design of the application form has also been completed and,
according to the ministers, tourists can start applying for their
visas as from May 15 from all the partner states. To enhance the use
of the visa in the countries, the ministers mandated Rwanda to lead
the co-ordination of an awareness drive.
The three East African countries participated jointly at the Indaba
Fair in South Africa and World Travel Market in London. At the Berlin
International Tourism Fair in March, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda shared a
pavilion, at which they launched the single tourist visa.
READ: Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya are top 3 African exhibitors at tourism fair
On national identity cards and student IDs as travel documents, the
partner states have resolved that travellers coming from outside the
three countries will use standard travel documents.
Partner states have therefore been directed to issue interstate passes
by July 1. The states also agreed on the format of a standard student
ID card to be in use by July 1.
Uganda will co-ordinate the sensitisation of immigration officials on
the operationalisation of IDs as travel documents by May 15.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Foreigners-living-in-East-Africa-land-special-visa-deal-/-/2558/2310248/-/mpf4s4/-/index.html&source=s&q=Foreigners+living+in+East+Africa+land+special+visa+deal&sa=X&ei=Qn1uU6PANoObyASWroCQDA&ved=0CBsQFjAA
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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