Dhaka mission in Kolkata starts machine readable visa service

Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, India, yesterday launched machine readable visa (MRV) application service to ease visa procedures for the neighbouring country's people.

In the experimental phase, it received around 100 MRV applications through online, confirmed officials at the mission. The mission will start issuing MRVs by the next two weeks, they added.

Usually, the mission can issue 300 to 450 visas manually every day. The officials hoped that the figure would be almost double through MRV process.

Now, Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi and Assistant High Commission in Agartala are issuing MRVs. Bangladesh government is also issuing visas from its Deputy High Commission in Mumbai.

All necessary machines and devices were earlier sent to Kolkata for the MRVs, but the task couldn't be launched. On Thursday, foreign ministry asked the officials to launch it immediately.

So, the Bangladesh mission had to launch the system without any prior announcement. Therefore, many applicants failed to submit their applications.

Mofakkharul Islam, first secretary (press) at Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, told The Daily Star that the total process of receiving applications and issuing visas would be conducted digitally.

“No manual visa application will be received. No manual visa will also be issued. Thus, there will not be any scope of allegation of issuing fake visa,” he added.