Dubai, 7 May 2019: Azerbaijan is currently on the cusp of a tourism boom as it welcomed a record number of in-bound visitors spending more than US$ 2 billion in 2018, making it one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world. To ensure convenience to travellers, the Caucuses country has launched several innovative reforms such as the new simplified electronic visa procedure. Since the introduction of the ASAN visa system, tourists can obtain a visa in 3 simple steps (application, payment and download) from the convenience of their home or on their mobile device. 

Tourists should visit www.evisa.gov.az, the official e-visa portal of the Republic of Azerbaijan which serves travellers in 9 different languages. At present, nationals of 95 countries are eligible to apply for an E-Visa. The list of countries can be found here. Emergency visas can be issued within 3 hours at an additional cost. Group visas can also be obtained through the portal. 
 
Since May 15, 2018, visas are issuance and processing take under 2 minutes with the support of ASAN visa staff and self-service terminals at Baku, Ganja, Gabala and Lankaran International Airports. The staff at the airports assist tourists in Azerbaijani, English, French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Hindi, Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Urdu, Norwegian and Russian.  

The visa on arrival service is provided to the citizens of 14 countries - Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, China, Turkey, South Korea and Indonesia, as well as expatriates possessing a valid residency permit from the UAE. 

In less than a year, since the launch of the ASAN visa system around 1,191,000 tourists have received visas to travel to Azerbaijan. This year, the number of tourists applying for E-visas to Azerbaijan has increased by 72% compared to the same period last year. 

The ASAN visa system was created according to a Decree by Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on June 1, 2016.