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I would like to know the main difference between situations where a visa is not required and a visa is issued on arrival.

Imran
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2 Answers2

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Visa on arrival (VOA) means that on arrival, you will need to queue up at a visa counter, apply and pay for a visa, which gets pasted into your passport on the spot, before you go to immigration. (Usually, anyway, since separating the money handlers from the immigration guy reduces the opportunities for graft, but a few countries merge everything to one desk.)

VOA is often limited to certain entry points (eg. international airports, major land borders), so for border crossings where it's not available, you will need to apply for a regular visa in advance.

No visa required means that you can proceed from the plane to directly to immigration, and will not need to pay anything. If no visa is required, you are generally free to enter the country from any legal border crossing and by any means.

lambshaanxy
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    Can I be denied Visa on arrival at the visa counter?? If yes then under what circumstances? – Imran Nov 23 '14 at 10:28
  • Well abnormal situations like having been deported earlier or denied entry for some reason or if the VISA officer has serious reason to suspect your reasons for travel – skv Nov 23 '14 at 10:45
  • Apart from the visa fee, I don't think it matters to you if you get denied entry at the visa counter or at immigration. Before booking a trip to a foreign country, always check in advance what you have to do to maximize your chances of entry granted. – pts Nov 23 '14 at 12:51
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    @lmso1987 You can always be denied entry, even with a visa or when you don't need a visa. – Relaxed Nov 23 '14 at 14:59
  • I have done both. My experience with the VOA with respect to Vietnam is that although I did not have to get a visa before traveling, something had to be done for me before hand. I think someone wrote a letter on my behalf which put me in a list of persons approved for visa on arrival. It was definitely easier than getting a visa, but I suspect if I had not been on the list I would have had problems. – emory Nov 23 '14 at 16:01
  • Sometimes the term 'visa' is used when you need a visa in advance, excluding the VOA, so it's not unusual to see the term 'no visa required' while you need a VOA, especially from non professional people. – Nean Der Thal Nov 24 '14 at 06:55
  • This reminds me of this question. Wouldn't "to be able to charge money for visas" be a reason, then? – Fiksdal Aug 21 '16 at 19:35
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    Just to clarify, it is not always "pasted on the spot", it may be just in the form of a stamp which is given by the immigration officials, and not a sticker. – Burhan Khalid Aug 22 '16 at 03:42
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    Actually, arriving at Queen Alia International airport Amman, there was only one set of immigration/visa counters where the officers would stamp the passports that didn’t need visas and also apply visas (plus collect cash) for those who did. Including funny anecdotes like two officers only having one visa stamp between them to share for an entire plane of VOA-eligible Germans from Frankfurt … – Jan Aug 22 '16 at 12:15
  • At Bahrain, the visa (and money) is collected by the immigration officer, who then stamps your passport and hands you a slip of paper. – Burhan Khalid Aug 29 '16 at 06:08
  • @BurhanKhalid Clarified. Must be a lucrative job... – lambshaanxy Aug 29 '16 at 07:00
  • and will not need to pay anything is not quite true. To travel by land from Canada to the USA I need no visa (I do need ESTA) but I do need to pay. – gerrit Dec 15 '16 at 14:11
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    @gerrit You don't need an ESTA to enter the US by land. ESTA only applies to scheduled transportation. – Calchas Dec 15 '16 at 16:26
  • @Calchas True, I made a mistake. I did have ESTA and was told it still helps for land border crossings. My point was that I still needed to pay. – gerrit Dec 15 '16 at 16:28
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To add to jpatokal's answer: You should pay close attention to countries where citizens of some foreign countries do not require a visa, while citizens of other foreign countries require a VOA. In such cases, sometimes the difference is just money, but sometimes it's actually stricter immigration rules for those that require VOA.

For example, a friend and I traveled to Thailand a few years ago. I came in on essentially a one-way ticket, but since I was from a country for which Thailand does not require a visa, I went through a "lightweight" version of the passport/immigration check, and nobody ever questioned me about my plans to leave the country. My friend, however, was from a country for which Thailand requires a VOA, and so he went through a completely different immigration process (physically located in a slightly different part of the airport if I remember correctly), was questioned in detail about his onward travel plans, and was required to show an onward ticket.

Another example of a VOA check: I believe that in Nepal, if you're from a country that requires a VOA, they will check passport stamps to count how long you were already in Nepal in that calendar year, and will only issue a VOA for a duration that will not make you exceed a total of 6 months in the year (including your previous visits). And they will charge different amounts for VOAs of different duration (my data on Nepal is a few years old, things may have changed).

Eugene O
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