By Tufan Aktas
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - Turkish Service Agency (TSA) on Tuesday opened an office in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to serve as a link between the Turkish Embassy and visa applicants.
This is the fourth office in Africa after the agency previously opened its offices in Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.
Turkish Ambassador to Ethiopia Fatih Ulusoy also attended the inauguration ceremony.
“There are many countries that are working with private agencies on visa services,” Fatih Ulusoy told Anadolu Agency.
“This system will help Ethiopian people to get easy visa and it will save time of the applicants,” he said.
The TSA has been accredited not only to serve as a link between the embassy and applicants but also to verify documents.
However, the embassy gives the last decision on each and every application.
Hussein Gunay, deputy general manager of TSA, said the company receives preliminary applications, checks the accuracy of the documents and sends them to the embassy or consulate.
Gunay said it takes 7-8 minutes to apply for the visa. The application is responded in a day if there is no missing documents.