A few minutes ago I had an email land in my inbox with the exciting title: “Getting visas for Asia travel just got easier” – from a company called eVisa Asia (at evisaasia.com – I haven’t linked to them, on purpose).
Sounds interesting, I thought. Kay and I travel in Asia quite a lot, and anything that can simplify the process of getting a visa has got to be worthwhile.
However, alarm bells started ringing as soon as I read the first few words: “Electronic visa – Print out your own visa before you fly.” Hang on, I thought – don’t we already do this for Cambodian visas?
And sure enough, the very first country they mentioned was Cambodia.
So I went and had a look at the site, to see how much they charge. To my not very great surprise, the charge was US$ 40 – for an e-visa you can obtain direct from the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation for just US$ 25.
Great. You pay them $15 for the privilege of introducing a totally pointless extra step into the process. They don’t appear to add any value – I just went through their process, giving a false name and uploading a picture of Dennis the BE Dog. It wasn’t any easier than doing it through the MFAIC’s own website. And in spite of the obviously dodgy photo*, they appeared perfectly happy to take my money (I didn’t hand any over, though).
As for Australia, that “only” costs US$ 20. For a visa you can get direct from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship for, um, nothing.
They claim an average of 300 applicants a day. Well, there’s one born every minute, after all.
Our advice is: if someone is trying to sell you a no-hassle way of obtaining an e-visa – or any other government service provided electronically, for that matter – always check out the relevant government department’s own website first. You’re likely to find that the same service is readily available, much more cheaply (or even free) – and you won’t have to hand over your credit or debit card details to an unknown commercial enterprise either.
*Following an approach from Dennis’s representatives, I’m happy to point out that it was, of course, the use of the photo that was dodgy and that no slur on Dennis’s character was intended or should be inferred.
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Author: Dave McMahon
5 Comments
On a related note, there are several companies in the UK that offer to supply an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card – to obtain reciprocal health cover as a tourist in the EEA, replaces the E111 in the UK) for “as little as” £10 and sometimes as much as £25. The card is of course free if you apply through the correct channels (see https://www.ehic.org.uk/Internet/startApplication.do).
A personal gripe is commercial organisations being able to use the term “… Agency” in their name, giving a veneer of authority in the eyes of those less cynical than me.
I couldn’t agree more, JJ. It’s not quite “passing off”, but it certainly creates a spurious impression of official approval.
The only benefit I can see of bringing a middle-man into the process in this way is familiarity with the system – to ensure no mistakes are made in filling in a complex form. But these forms aren’t complex – they’re well-designed, simple and straightforward. So I’d say the benefit gained is effectively zero.
Adding the extra step not only slows the data entry process down, it increases the scope for the data to get garbled in transmission. Why pay good money to reduce efficiency?
Australia ETA is not free even you get it from the official site. The website do provide some values added features and it looks pretty good and reliable.
Here’s a quotation directly from the Dept of Immigration & Citizenship’s wizard – I filled in details for an adult British citizen planning to visit Australia for up to three months on holiday.
I’m not sure what an “Australia ETA” is, but the visa that eVisa Asia are charging $20 for is identical to the one that’s available free from the official site – a one-year multiple-entry visa allowing non-working visits of up to three months at a time.
I note that “Simon” doesn’t say what value the eVisa Asia “service” adds. As for being reliable, how trustworthy is a company that doesn’t even have a registered office address on its website?
I see also from the IP the comment was posted from that “Simon” appears to be in the same country that eVisa Asia appear to be based in. Obviously I can’t prove that “Simon” is a sock puppet, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
“Simon”’s comment doesn’t do anything to persuade me that eVisa Asia are any more reputable – quite the opposite, in fact. Am I being too cynical? I don’t think so.
I’ve just received an email from evisaasia.com’s founder, stating that they started it “about a year ago” and that they spent two years working out their system to make it a “one-stop visa center for all”.
That may be true, but it still doesn’t explain what value they add – you have to give them exactly the same information that you would have to provide the relevant foreign ministry, including uploading a photo. (Uploading a photo is the only slightly complicated part of the process, and even then only if you’re not technically minded – and the ministry websites generally give pretty good instructions on how to do it anyway.)
They also claim to have helped Cambodia to build their first electronic visa system. However, they fail to provide any evidence to support that claim. And the Cambodian service was launched in April 2006! So why did it take evisaasia over six years to develop their service, if they had the relevant knowledge back then? It makes no business or technical sense to delay – you make the most use you can of the knowledge you’ve got while it’s still current, otherwise you may find that the system you helped design has been replaced with a new one.
I stand by what I’ve said: this service adds no value at all that I’ve been able to discern so far. If anything, it introduces complications. And wouldn’t you rather have the peace of mind of knowing that you’ve been dealing with the responsible government authority, rather than paying to deal with an intermediary that has no official status whatsoever?