OMAN: 10 Day Cheaper Tourist Visa Introduced

A year after quadrupling the cost of its tourist visa fee, Oman has brought back its cheaper tourist visa that will allow visitors to stay for 10 days.

The new short-stay visa will cost OMR5 about Dhs50, which is how much it used to cost before the fee was raised to OMR20 about Dhs190 in April last year, the length of stay was also increased from 10 days to one month.

Tourist visas will now be divided into three categories: 10 days, one month and one year.

Travel agents in Oman have reportedly welcomed the move, with one quoted as saying the OMR20 visa fees were too high.

Earlier this year, Oman declared that all applications for tourist and express visas should be made online via the Royal Oman Police eVisa website.

Oman launched its e-visa service in July last year. It’s pretty simple, you just need to fill in an online form, attach travel documents, they pay the fee through a secure Global Payment Gateway.

You’ll then receive your visa and notifications via email.

Remember, some nationalities do not require a visa to visit Oman, and some nationalities like New Zealanders can obtain a visa free of charge.

To find out which visa you’re eligible for, visit the website and click - apply for unsponsored visa.

After answering a few questions, it will show which visa types are available to you.

Planning a spontaneous weekender in Oman?

A little more planning ahead may now be necessary, as you will no longer be able to rock up and apply for your visa at one of the service desks on arrival.

Instead, all applications for tourist and express visas will now have to be made online in advance via the Royal Oman Police eVisa website.

According to the eVisa Oman Twitter account, these changes will came into effect on March 21.

Oman launched its e-visa service in July last year. It’s pretty simple – you just need to fill in an online form, attach travel documents, they pay the fee through a secure Global Payment Gateway. You’ll then receive your visa and notifications via email.

The tourist visa fee went up in April last year from OMR5 (Dhs47) to OMR20 (Dhs190).

At the same time, the length of stay was increased from 10 days to a month.

Remember, some nationalities do not require a visa to visit Oman, and some nationalities like New Zealanders can obtain a visa free of charge.


Tourism Observer