At long last, the Government of Liberia (GOL), through the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS), has worked all formalities leading to the introduction of visa upon arrival in Liberia. According to information, His Excellency President Joseph N. Boakai is expected to grace the launching ceremony at the headquarters of the LIS in Monrovia.
Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) has issued manual visa since its establishment in 1956. However, authorities of the LIS have deemed it necessary to digitalize the services to the public. Meanwhile, Liberia’s visa upon arrival platform will, for the first time, be made available by the Government of Liberia (GOL). The visa upon arrival platform allows travelers to obtain a visa upon arrival in Liberia by plane.
Information gathered on the e-visa process indicates that travelers must follow the following steps in getting a visa upon arrival in Liberia: Create an email account, upload a passport’s biometric component, take a passport-sized photo with white background, do the payment to the LIS system, and receive notification of successful payment by the system for visa approval confirmation page to one’s e-mail.
However, the LIS pointed out that the visa confirmation page is not the visa upon arrival in Liberia. Passengers, when at the Roberts International Airport (RIA), will be required to follow the process that leads to their visa approval upon displaying their confirmation document for the LIS officers to authenticate, followed by fingerprint before the issuance of the visa upon arrival sticker within the traveler’s passport.
The visa upon arrival sticker has a lot of security details meant to protect holders of legitimate passport.
The new Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) VISA upon arrival has created an easy way for travelers coming to Liberia.
The LIS Re-Entry Permit Card is a document that enables non-citizens of Liberia to leave and return to Liberia during approved stay without needing to apply for a visa on arrival each time. There are two types of Re- Entry Permit Card to be provided by the LIS: re-entry and special card. The Re-entry Card is used by foreigners with a temporary residence in Liberia, while the special card is used by other foreign nationals without a residence permit.
The visa upon arrival and Re-Entry Permit Card do not apply to ECOWAS citizens because of the community protocols on free movement of its citizenry in the region.
Since the pronouncement of the LIS e-visa, Liberians in the diaspora have been expressing their happiness over the new visa platform at home.
The LIS has urged interested individuals to visit visaonarrival.lis.gov.lr for more information on Liberia’s visa upon arrival, and reentryvisa.lis.gov.lr for more information on the Re-entry Permit Card.
