Visa fee drama

• …Immigration Department starts early collection

In a twist of events, the Department of Immigration has started collecting visa fees from visiting United States of America nationals ahead of October 1, the date which was set by government to begin the visa fee implementation.

Information posted on the website of the US Embassy in the country on July 13 warned all visiting US nationals to be prepared to pay visa fees at all points of entry of the country ahead of the official date that was communicated by government to all diplomatic missions.

Reads the post in part; “Immigration officials of the Government of Malawi have begun collecting entry fees from US citizens at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe as well as in Blantyre and at least some border crossing posts. While the US Embassy understands that the entry/visa fee will not be officially implemented until October 1, US citizens arriving in Malawi should be prepared to pay the fee upon arrival or at the designated Immigration Department office following their arrival.”

Government communicated recently that it would introduce visa fees for all nationals from countries where Malawians pay visa fees when visiting. Such countries include the US and Britain.

The Department of Immigration has confirmed to have been collecting the fees but only as an implementation of an amendment to Immigration Regulations 2015 which established July 1 as the date to begin the collection.

Immigration’s public relations officer, Martha Gonondo, said the department has since stopped collecting the fees after being instructed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

She added that the collection was not an anomaly as they were only acting under instructions.

Said Gonondo: “The department has been directed by the mother ministry, Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security to put a temporary suspension on the implementation of the regulation. As such the effective date will be October 1 2015 so that the public is given adequate notice to avoid inconveniencing travellers. Since the collection of the fees was not an anomaly as such, the tourists cannot claim the money back.”

Malawi Tourism Council has since called the process of introducing the visa fee as chaotic because there has been no proper communication flow about the fee and other accompanying details.

The council’s executive director, Rosebill Satha-Sambo, said in an interview that this development has the potential of reducing tourists’ traffic into the country which is already struggling and tourism generated revenue.

She said while the council appreciates that government finds it necessary to implement visa fees, the way they went about it has been very chaotic.

“Lack of communication by the relevant ministries to the private sector has made us look not only unprofessional, but also disorganised as the tourism private sector has been called and emailed for information and we have no official response to give.

“We have had clients who were in Malawi and went to Zambia and returned only to be asked to pay either $50, $75 or $120. As such, visitors arriving are thinking that our Immigration authorities at ports of entries are corrupt because when they look at all international embassies websites, including our very own embassies abroad, it shows that the introduction of visa fees has been scheduled for October 1, but here they were being asked for money or they wouldn’t be allowed into the country.

“This is not a nice welcome to the country known as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’,” Satha-Sambo said.