Applying for an Oman E-Visa (using official website)

This blogpost takes you through the process to apply for an unsponsored Oman E-Visa.  If you are of a nationality/profession which previously did not qualify for a visa on arrival then most of this information is  not applicable to you.

Update 9 November 2019

The Royal Oman Police now require you to apply for an evisa before arriving in the country.  The official notice does not go as far as to say that people will be turned back, however they say that visas on arrival will be the exception rather than the rule.  Applying online is relatively straightforward and I suggest you do this at least 7 days before you are to to arrive in Oman.

Do not apply for your evisa more than 30 days before you arrive in the country!

Once issued, they are only valid for 30 days.  Most visas are issued within a matter of hours, especially if you have visited the Sultanate before.  Currently 7-14 days before arrival is more than enough.

If you applied for one more than 30 days before arrival then don’t worry, wait til the visa in the system expires, then reapply within the above time period.  Unfortunately the fee for your unused visa is not refundable.

Who qualifies for an unsponsored Oman visa?

Tourists from Countries on “List number 1”

EuropeanCountries

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Rep, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Vatican

South American Countries

Argentine, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Other Countries and Regions

Australia, Brunei, Dar Al-Salam, Canada, China, French Guiana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Macao, Special Administrative Region of China,  Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States of America

GCC Foreign Residents

Those who have a residency visa for any of the GCC countries (UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait) and who have an “approved” profession listed on that visa.  More details here.

The cost is 5 OMR and the visa’s validity is for 28 days.

You must have 6 months left on your GCC residency visa and 6 months left on your passport to apply.

Men who have an approved profession and who sponsor their wives and children in one of the GCC countries can also avail these for their family.

First Step: Register

First of all, please register at the E-visa ROP site here.  A confirmation will be sent to your email address, normally within a few minutes.

Second Step: Gather

The next thing to do is collect supporting documents you will need for the application.

Scans of the following –

***SIZE IS IMPORTANT – files should be no bigger than 512kb.  PDF or JPG are accepted formats – suggest you save them in both formats***

• Your passport – photo/details page
• If you are a GCC resident, your residency visa as stamped in your passport
• If you have visited Oman before, your last Oman visa as stamped in your passport
• Your hotel booking if you have one.  This is not 100% necessary so do not worry if you do not have one – however include it if you do.  There is no such thing as too many bits of paper in the Middle East!
  • if you feel you MUST have a hotel booking, then go onto booking.com, choose a hotel which you can cancel, book it, use the confirmation for your application then cancel it.
• A recent photo – SIZE MAXIMUM 512kb
  • Head and shoulders
  • Neutral expression
  • Light background
  • No head covering or glasses etc
• One taken from your mobile phone is fine but remember that file size is crucial (reduce the size using paint, or download an app which will let you do this directly from your phone)
• Have your credit or debit card to hand

Third Step: Apply

Tourists

Log into the e-visa site with your credentials, which you should have received by email.

Please note that sometimes some browsers don’t work, so if you are having problems with say Chrome, then try IE etc.

Once you are signed in, select “View Visa Types” from the list on the left, then choose  “visit unsponsored visas”

Select the visa you require

26 is the main group for tourists, so select that and click sub-type which brings up another screen with many different options.

For those on list one then 26A will most likely be the one for you if you are staying for 10 days or less.  26B applies for stays up to 1 month.

Once you click on your chosen visa then a whole list of terms and conditions will appear on the next page.  Please check these to make sure you have the right one!

Note –

10 and 30 day visas can be applied for a maximum of one month in advance

Your passport must be valid for a minimum of 6 months on arrival

GCC Foreign Residents

As above, except, you must apply for visa 29, sub type 29A

You must have a minimum 6 months left on your GCC residency, or else you will have to apply for a tourist visa type 26.

In the case of family applications, the head of the household (most usually the husband) should apply first for their 29A visa.  Then once it is received the rest of the family under his sponsorship should apply for 29B visa, using a scan of the husband/parent visa as a supporting document.

Step 4: Receive

Once you have paid and submitted your application, you will probably find your visa in your inbox quite quickly, often just a few hours.

Print off your confirmation email/visa and present it with your passport to border control at your port of entry and the officer there will stamp it in your passport.

Sometimes you receive the email but the visa is not attached, don’t panic, just go back into your account and you will be able to print it off there.

That’s all there is to it!  Have a wonderful holiday in Oman!

Future Visits: Reapplying for your e-visa

The website makes this very easy – just log on to your account, tick your last visa, and click re-apply.  No need to spend time uploading your passport etc again – it’s all there for you.

Where are the land borders?  Heres my regularly updated Lowdown on Oman-UAE land borders.

Want to collectively speed up the process at the border?  Check out my Passport and Paperclips blogpost.