Chinese nationals have been exempted from knowing ‘English’ when applying for a tourist visa for Sri Lanka as per an agreement signed between the two countries, the Daily Mirror reported.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Sri Lankan Immigration Department and China travel specialist Travelzen International Travel Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
As per the MOU, Chinese tourists will be permitted to apply for a visa to visit Sri Lanka using their mother tongue, “Mandarin”.
Chinese nationals are reported to have faced issues when applying for a visa to Sri Lanka via the Electronic Travel Authorisation System implemented in Sri Lanka as it functions only in the English language.
The Department of Immigration and Emigration introduced the Electronic Travel Authorisation System in 2012 for pre-screening and granting approval for foreigners to visit Sri Lanka. (Newswire)
We appreciate the Chinese Visa Application facilitation by Immigration, which will hopefully attract more tourists in the coming future.
So far, many popular tourist destinations incl. Thailand, New Zealand, Australia have introduced similar friendly policies.@sltda_srilanka pic.twitter.com/ok9aj5TCMe— Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) August 14, 2020