Bangladesh’s government online visa application portal has been unable to accept new applications for six days due to a technical glitch. The portal has been down since September 23, causing disruptions to visa applications and processing for foreign nationals.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the issue. Attempts to access the portal several times on Monday morning were unsuccessful, with a “server error” message appearing each time.

Diplomatic sources said Bangladesh’s visa application process is handled by the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to relevant sources, the portal has not been modernized for a long time and can go down when it comes under heavy traffic. Authorities are now examining the cause of the current problem and working toward a permanent solution.

After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs about the issue, it was informed that work was underway to restore the server. The technical team concerned is working around the clock to resolve the problem.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh High Commission in London said in an urgent notice on Wednesday that technical problems with the relevant system were causing delays in No Visa Required (NVR) endorsements, visa processing and visa issuance.

Last Sunday, several Indian citizens who were unable to apply for Bangladeshi visas took to social media platform X and tagged the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and the Deputy High Commission in Kolkata to report the problem. One of them wrote, “Your visa application site has not been working for two days. I wanted to get a Bangladeshi visa, but the site is not working. The application portal is showing an error and I have been unable to access it for three days.”

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Embassy in Berlin, Germany, said in another urgent notice that the Machine Readable Visa (MRV) server was currently unavailable due to technical problems with the Department of Immigration and Passports’ central system.

As a result, the processing of NVR and visa applications and the issuance of visas at the Bangladesh Embassy in Berlin are being temporarily delayed. The embassy said efforts were underway to restore the DIP’s central system as soon as possible.

The embassy has asked applicants to allow additional time and urged them not to repeatedly contact the mission to inquire about the status of their applications. It said normal visa services would resume once the central system is restored, with updates to be provided through the embassy’s website and Facebook page.

DIP Director General Md Alimul Amin told the media that the visa application system was currently closed, creating several problems. He said there might also be issues related to the maintenance contract and that the technical team was working around the clock to resolve the matter.

He said, “We are not accepting new applications due to the system error. However, those who applied earlier will receive their visas on time. The government is treating the matter as a priority.”

A senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said citizens of the United States, European countries and other countries whose nationals do not require advance visas to enter Bangladesh can obtain visas on arrival at airports. However, he said the prolonged shutdown of the government visa application portal is a major issue and needs to be resolved quickly.