Originally Posted by
IAN-UK
Oman has largely ditched the attempts to enforce the e-visa regime for all nationalities/passport holders, and has back-tracked on the elimination of short term OMR5 visas.
Many people take up the e-visa option, i guess because it can save time on arrival. Still there's usually a queue at the VOA desk, but it's a slick operation.
I wouldn't sweat this too much. I visit frequently and I haven't experienced problems at my departure airport. No Omani immigration official has made me feel uneasy, unwelcome or quizzed me on hotel arrangements: indeed they have been consistently helpful.
I'm not sure why the UK government website suggests you should arrange a visa in advance. Both US and Canadian equivalent sites advise of the existence of visas on arrival.
I ditched the evisa option as I didn’t want to deal with getting a printout and because getting the evisas was turning out to be more time consuming on my side than just doing the VOAs. And I am certain that at least in my case the VOA option encouraged visits to Oman that would have been otherwise postponed or not taken place even with an evisa option.