More than 71,000 visas released in 2020

Maldives Immigration has announced that they released more than 71,000 visas for different purposes in the year 2020.

The authority announced that a total of 71,777 visas had been granted to various parties this past year, and that 64,235 from this number comprised of work visas. While 63,081 work visas were granted for employment in the Greater Male' Region, 1,154 of the work visas had been for foreigners who wished to work in different atolls.

Additionally, Immigration also granted 3,587 business visas in the past year, along with 648 student visas and 1,909 dependency visas. Further, 310 special visas were granted as well, with 1,088 visas also released by Immigration for other needs.

While Immigration has released a large number of visas in the year 2020, they have also expanded heavily on the services provided through their "Imuga" portal, which allows businesses and individuals to submit letters and appeals to Maldives Immigration based on their desired services.

The "Imuga" portal attends to queries submitted in relation to services provided by Immigrations, such as the sign-on and sign-off of sea vessels or crew transport services; in addition to this, the portal can also be used to submit forms for all visa applications with the exception of work visas, along with sponsorship declarations for those who wish to enter the country to to visit friends, as dependents or in order to marry a Maldivian national. Once the portal has processed applications, it will recommend users their next step in seeking out their desired services with Maldives Immigration.

Many government offices were forced to move their services online following the global Covid-19 pandemic.