Common GCC tourism visa will boost economy, income

The official stressed that the GCC countries — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman — need to first set up what he described as electronic linkages to keep track of all the visitors. This would facilitate the enforcement of a "GCC Schengen", the official noted.In the European Union, the Schengen area is a group of 26 members that have abolished passport and immigration controls at their common borders.It functions as a single country for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy."The unified visa will help boost the tourism activities in the region. Oman will especially benefit from the unified and simplified visa procedures. People from other GCC countries are keen to visit Oman because it's quite different from others. Oman never fails to satisfy a tourist's quest to see more," Renny Johnson, executive manager at Mezoon Travels, told the Times of Oman.

The system will enable a visitor with a GCC visit visa to enter all the GCC countries.Moreover, the database will be connected to the blacklists that contain the names and fingerprints of those banned from entering every member country. With the help of the new visa, Arab and foreign tourists would be able to visit all the GCC member countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — simplifying travel formalities for visitors.According to reports, a single-entry visa would be valid for one month while multiple-entry visas could be issued for one year, reports said, adding that the conditions for obtaining the GCC visa will include presenting evidence of sufficient financial resources.

The recruitment pitch to students on short-term visas must have seemed irresistible: give us your good name and some help in our fraud scheme, and we'll put money—potentially thousands of dollars—in your wallet before your return trip home.In charges unsealed late last month in San Diego, FBI agents and their law enforcement partners named dozens of young visa holders from former Soviet-bloc countries who took the bait and became willing co-conspirators in a range of elaborate fraud schemes. In four separate indictments, a federal grand jury laid bare how a Los Angeles-based Armenian crime ring ran scams in L.A. and San Diego that relied on a steady tide of accomplices whose time was short in the U.S.