New Delhi: In a significant development, businesswoman Tarina Sardana became the very first Indian e-Visa holder to travel to the Philippines, the Philippines embassy in New Delhi said on Wednesday.
According to the Philippines embassy, using her e-Visa, she cleared check-in and immigration at Indira Gandhi International Airport without difficulty and arrived in Manila later the same day.
On hand to observe the first use of the e-Visa were Vice Consul Mark Anthony P. Dizon, Jose Elpidio B. Espinosa Jr., Rogelio B. Silva, Jr. and Rina Isabel P. De Chavez, the Philippines embassy added.
"Using the new Philippine e-Visa has been smooth”, Sardana said happily after clearing airport pre-departure formalities. The e-Visa beta test and the first successful e-Visa use by an Indian traveller mark an important milestone in Philippine consular services and in fostering travel and people-to-people ties between the Philippines and India.
The eventual full implementation of the e-Visa system is seen to further expand Indian tourism and business flow into the Philippines. Sources said that the Philippine Embassy in Delhi commenced beta testing of the Philippine e-Visa System for Indian nationals. The Philippine e-Visa system is a joint project of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
A prelude to eventual full implementation, the ongoing beta test is geared towards evaluating system features and performance and applicant experience. Observations and findings are then reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs and DICT, for system finetuning.
What is e-Visa beta test?
The e-Visa beta test yields legitimate and valid 9(a) temporary visitors visas for travel to the Philippines. It currently requires applications to be processed and evaluated on-site. Accordingly, e-visa beta test applicants are required prior appointments to visit the embassy to access the system.
Since April 5, the Embassy's Consular Section has already assisted several Indian e-Visa applicants, taking the opportunity to take note of client feedback and system performance. Overall, the Indian applicants described their application experience to be positive, the embassy said.
