Azerbaijan has announced changes to visa rules following the president decree on simplifying the visa procedures in order to facilitate developing the tourism and business ties.

Starting from 1 February 2016 the simplified visa regime is introduced in all international airports of Azerbaijan for the citizens of Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The citizens of these countries would be able to obtain tourist visas to Azerbaijan in airports upon arrival. The visas will be issued for the duration of 30 days.  These regulations have been applied to the citizens of the United Arab Emirates since November 10, 2015.

Also, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they resume issuance visas in all international airports of Azerbaijan. Visa centers will be established in all airports to deal with these matters. Visas upon arrival were stopped 3 years ago and tourists had to apply for visas through the embassies of Azerbaijan. Later on they introduced electronic visas (evisa) that made the process much easier and convenient.

There are still some questions on how the procedure of getting visas in Baku airport will work, but more detailed information should follow within coming days.