Pakistan unveils details of new liberal visa policy for Afghanistan

Afghan nationals advised not to pay any fee in the name of facilitation to process visa to any agents, says statement

In order to facilitate movement of Afghan nationals to Pakistan, the Pakistan embassy and its consulates in Afghanistan have taken several key measures to ensure implementation of new liberal visa policy “in letter and spirit”.

A statement issued on Tuesday by Pakistan embassy in Kabul shared the details of new measures taken to facilitative visa processing of large number of Afghan applicants which are as follows:

• Number of windows for collection of visa application forms has been increased from 7 to 17, which has resulted in enhanced visas processing capacity for the applicants.
• Issuance of long-term multiple entry visas to all categories of visitors (one to five year visas).
• Taking a forward-looking friendly step, the embassy of Pakistan in Kabul and its consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif at the instruction of government have introduced online visa/e-visa for Afghan nationals. This enables the applicants to apply for visas online from the website visa.nadra.gov.pk on a 24/7 basis.
• Separate windows have been designated for applicants for medical treatment, students and business people.
• Separate windows have been designated for female visa applicants.
• Students are being issued visas for their entire duration of studies according to the education programme in Pakistan.
• As a result of these concrete measures, Pakistan’s authorities have issued 150,000 visas during the months of October and November alone, the statement said.
• In addition to this, around 12,000 online e-visas have been issued by the embassy in Kabul during past one and a half months.

Due to the above stated facilitative steps, Pakistan has been able to manage the large number of visa applicants in a dignified manner.

“In this regard, the embassy would like to advise the visa applicants to come to the embassy during visa hours in the morning where enough visa processing capacity is available to entertain them,” the communiqué read.

The visa applicants do not need to wait for visas outside the embassy during night hours and Pakistani officials in the neighbouring will continue to process visas of Afghan nationals in a dignified and honourable way, it added.

The official statement further pointed out that visas for Afghan nationals except businessmen are without any fee. “The embassy reiterates that there is no visa agent for the embassy. The applicants are advised not to pay any fee/charges in the name of facilitation to process visa to any agents or middlemen.”

Pakistan’s consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif have also taken similar facilitative measures.

“The embassy once again thanks the Afghan authorities for assisting the mission for managing the large number of visa applicants on daily basis and looks forward to their continued cooperation and support.”