Electronic visa
system to affirm the eligibility of a foreign national to travel to a country
An electronic visa (E-Visa) and an electronic travel authorization (ETA, also styled eTA) are online systems established by countries that affirm the eligibility of a foreign national to travel to their country under their immigration laws. They confirm that the visitor meets the country's conditions for entry.
Depending on a country's visa category and intention of travel, these systems are a midway point between countries allowing a foreign national to travel to their country unconditionally without a visa, or, countries that require a foreign national to attend an interview at an embassy or consulate to obtain a traditional paper visa in advance before traveling to their country.
Beginning in the 2000s, many countries introduced online systems to issue visas or travel authorizations in electronic form, as an alternative to a traditional paper visa—particularly in the case of ETAs where a bilateral visa waiver program is in place but the receiving country requires background checks to confirm that the visitor meets the conditions of the program. These online systems were established mainly to streamline travel by short-term visitors and tourists from a limited set of countries.
Issuance
Depending on the traveler and country of issuance, electronic visas are either issued within minutes, or can take many days. Countries that issue electronic visas conduct initial background checks on all applicants, which include an Interpol database check.
Electronic visas can expire, depending on the country of issuance.
An electronic visa (e-Visa or eVisa) or Electronic travel authorization (or ETA) is stored in a computer and is linked to the passport number so no label, sticker, or stamp is placed in the passport before travel. The application is done over the internet, and the receipt acts as a visa, which can be printed or stored on a mobile device.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42029732. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Electronic visa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.