Italy's e-visa portal wins Innovation Prize

(AGI) Rome, June 6 - An e-visa portal run by the Italian Ministry of Affairs has won the Innovation Prize for excellence at the SMAU (Salone Macchine e Attrezzature per l'Ufficio) exhibition in Bologna. Italy's leading information & communications technology event is being held at BolognaFiere on June 9 and 10. The website has had more than two million hits since it began in April last year, and was developed by the DGIT software and services company and the Directorate General for Italians Abroad. It is available in Italian, English, Russian and Arabic, the four most common languages for people seeking Italian visas, and will soon be available in Chinese. Italy issues more than 2.5 million visas every year through 160 embassies and consulates. The website includes a portal containing all information for foreigners wishing to visit Italy for tourism, work or other reasons. It sets out questions and provides a personalised response. Information on Schengen and Italian visas is available, and all application documentation can be downloaded. (AGI). .