There are a number of individual reports from visitors who
say they had obtained visas on arrival at the border(s) or from Libyan embassies. Even though many of these remain unconfirmed reports, they do not represent
the official view of the transitional government. What is the Transitional National
Council (TNC) has to say in relation to the visa issue?
The new law according to the TNC's Constitutional Declaration:
The
TNC has announced on the 3rd of August 2011 a 37-point interim "Constitutional
Declaration" to provide a framework for the transition
to an elected government, and to call for a constitutional assembly within eight
months. This Constitutional Declaration updates the current (or the old) law,
and also cancels a number of old laws that are related to constitutional matters. Article
(35) of
this Declaration specifically states that the law regarding all provisions decreed
in the current legislations stay the same and remain effective as before,
until they are amended or repealed. Here
is what it says in Arabic:
TNC's Article (35), Constitutional Declaration.
Translation:
"All the current provisions decreed in the
existing legislations shall continue to be effective, in as much as they do not
conflict with the provisions of this "declaration", until the announcement
of new provisions to amend or repeal them. Each reference in these [old]
provisions to the so-called
"People's
Congresses" or
the "General
People's Congress" shall be taken as a reference to the "Interim Transitional
National Council" or the "General National Council [Congress]";
each reference to the "General People's Committee" or the "Peoples'
Committees" is
a reference to the "Executive Board" or to the members of the Executive
Board or to the government or to the members of the government, each within his
or her jurisdictional boundaries; and each reference to the (Great Socialist
People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) shall be deemed as a reference to (Libya)."
What this means is that almost everything stays the same, as before, with the change of the old names of Libya and its institutions to the new names, until the TNC completes the transition period and supervises an elected government. Therefore the old visa law should stay the same. Embassies provide diplomatic, study and business visas; tour operators and visa bureaus provide tourist visas on arrival. In fact Turkey was one of the first countries to take advantage of this when it reiterated that its citizens were allowed into Gaddafi's Libya without an entry visa (http://www.independent.com.mt/) and therefore they do not need any visas to enter new Libya. These issues are still being addressed, and the following update from the Libyan embassy in Malta hints at a new visa update to be released by the TNC soon.
Read Temehu.com's full visa update and download copies of the Constitutional Declaration at:
http://www.temehu.com/Visas.htm
http://www.temehu.com/Visas.htm
