Russia, China and Iran join visa on arrival list of Oman
Travellers from Russia, China and Iran can now enter the Sultanate of Oman without a pre-entry tourist visa. The move is an extension of new visa policy introduced by Oman in March including the new online application process. By this Oman joined its neighbour UAE in relaxing the visa policies for travellers from Russia and China in the recent years.
The Sultanate had already facilitated visa on arrival for travellers from 68 countries including USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and the European Union’s Schengen area. Russia, China and Iran are the latest to join the list. Since UAE granted visa on arrival to Russia and China, there has been an increase of 41 per cent in Chinese visitors and 121 per cent in Russian visitors to Dubai last year. The travellers from the countries can apply for Oman entry visas via new online portal (https://evisa.rop.gov.om/) as the officials are planning to phase out visa on arrival desks at airports.
Kazakhstan
In another plan, Kazakhstan may soon have a visa-free travel to Oman. “Visa-free travel and the multimodal Ashgabat Agreement promise to take the Sultanate’s strong ties to Kazakhstan to even greater heights. One of the major challenges facing the economic ties between Kazakhstan and Oman has been geographical distance and lack of direct transport links. In this regard, Kazakhstan is planning to join the international transport multimodal corridor established between Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Oman as part of the 2011 Ashgabat Agreement. This step will enhance and increase the volume of cargo transportation from Kazakhstan to Oman and bring lots of benefits including preferential customs tariff regimes,” said Yerzhan Mukash, Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Oman.