Last reviewed 8 September 2026
Armenia repealed its invitation-only country list on 16 June 2026, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since confirmed that it no longer processes stand-alone invitation letters, so most travellers who came to this page looking for one now apply for an e-visa instead, at AMD 3,000 (USD 8) for a stay of up to 21 days.
Government Decision N 643-N, adopted 14 May 2026 and in force from 16 June 2026, repealed Decision N 329-N in full. Decision N 329-N was the act that listed the 57 states whose nationals could obtain an Armenian entry visa only at an embassy or consulate, and only on the strength of an approved invitation. The invitation-only rule itself survives in Decision N 1268-N, Appendix 2, Point 5, which names no country and refers to no list.
The repeal is temporary, and the official guidance has not caught up
The published justification for the repeal states that the intention is to repeal Decision N 329-N and then adopt it again, so that nationals of the listed states can use the E-VISA system during the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity COP 17 conference, held in Yerevan from 18 to 30 October 2026. On 16 April 2026 the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed that regulations of the same content be re-adopted immediately after the conference closes; that proposal was recorded as noted. No re-adopting decision had been published as at 8 September 2026.
Meanwhile the Foreign Ministry still publishes the old 57-country invitation-only page under an “Updated 02.02.2024” stamp, and the Migration and Citizenship Service says the same. If you hold a passport from one of the 57 formerly listed states, ask the Armenian embassy or consulate handling your application to pre-clear your route before you book travel, and re-check the position after 30 October 2026.
At a glance
- The invitation-only list was repealed on 16 June 2026. No nationality can presently be identified as subject to invitation-only entry.
- The Foreign Ministry confirmed to this firm on 2 September 2026 that the e-visa is open to nationals of all countries and that it no longer processes stand-alone invitation letters.
- Two different documents share the name. The formal invitation letter under Article 11 of the Law on Foreigners has a prescribed form, an approval step and an AMD 5,000 state duty. What an e-visa applicant may attach is not that document: it is an informal cover letter from a host in Armenia, with no form, no duty and no approval step.
- The cover letter is optional for every nationality. We recommend attaching one.
- E-visa fees are AMD 3,000 (USD 8) for up to 21 days and AMD 15,000 (USD 39) for up to 120 days. The decision comes within a maximum of 3 working days.
- The old formal invitation letter carried an AMD 5,000 state duty and a 15-day statutory approval maximum under Article 11(6). Neither applies to anything today: invitation letters are no longer issued, and an e-visa cover letter carries no duty and no approval step.
Do you still need an invitation letter?
For every nationality the answer is now no. The compulsory invitation-plus-consular route was tied to the repealed list, and with the list gone there is no identified group of passports that must go through it. A letter from a host in Armenia remains worth attaching to an e-visa application, but it is optional, and it is not the formal invitation letter this page used to describe.
Apply for the e-visa
Decision N 1268-N, Appendix 2, Point 9 defines e-visa eligibility negatively: the system is open to citizens of states not included in the list of invitation-only states. That list has no members at present, so the e-visa is available across the board. Applications are made at evisa.mfa.am, and Point 11.6 requires the application to be approved, returned for correction, cancelled or refused within a maximum of 3 working days.
The cover letter inside an e-visa application
Nothing obliges an e-visa applicant of any nationality to attach a letter from a host. We recommend it anyway: it is the document that most reliably answers what a reviewer asks about purpose, host and means, and a supported application is less likely to be returned for correction.
This is not the invitation letter that Article 11 governs. It has no prescribed form, no approval step and no state duty. It is written by the host in Armenia — a tourist agency, employer, educational institution or other company, a state body, a local self-government body, an accredited embassy, a consular institution or an international organisation — and uploaded with the rest of the application. A host who chooses to follow the wording of the old formal invitation may do so; that gives the letter no additional standing.
The e-visa document set is the passport, a photograph, travel and health insurance, a flight reservation and evidence of financial means. Evidence of means is a three-month bank statement, an employment certificate stating salary, or an employment contract. One-way tickets are accepted where the purpose is education or work, or in other justified cases.
Decision N 1268-N, Appendix 2, Point 1.4 sets out a separate e-visa route for citizens of Iraq, Egypt and India, conditional on health or travel insurance and on either holding one of the qualifying third-country documents described in Point 1.2 or submitting the documents at Annex 1, point 2, sub-points 1, 3, 4 and 5 — a return air ticket, a letter from an interested party in Armenia, evidence of financial means, and insurance to the coverage standard set by the Minister of Health. Read alongside the repeal, this is unlikely to leave an Iraqi, Egyptian or Indian applicant worse placed than an applicant of any other nationality, and the letter it refers to is the informal cover letter described above, not an Article 11 invitation.
What an Armenian visa costs
These are the government fees in the Foreign Ministry consular fee table expressed as valid from 1 January 2026. The USD figures are the ministry’s own published amounts.
| Visa | AMD | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor, single entry, up to 21 days | 3,000 | 8 |
| Visitor, single entry, up to 120 days | 15,000 | 39 |
| Visitor, multiple entry, 6-month validity, up to 60 days per stay | 20,000 | 52 |
| Visitor, multiple entry, 1-year validity, up to 120 days per stay | 40,000 | 103 |
| Transit, single entry | 10,000 | 26 |
| Transit, multiple entry, 1-year validity | 18,000 | 47 |
The public e-visa portal offers only the two single-entry visitor products. Whether the multiple-entry and transit rates can currently be bought online has not been established from any published source. Under the Law on Foreigners, Article 9(2), a visa is single entry unless Armenian law or a treaty provides otherwise.
Routes that remove the visa question entirely
Visa-free entry on a qualifying residence status
Government Decision N 610-N, as amended by Decisions N 1984-N and N 932-N, runs a temporary visa-free regime from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2027. Its annex lists 111 states. A national of an annex state enters without a visa if, at the moment of entry, they hold residence status valid for at least six months issued by the United States, an EU member state, a Schengen state, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Oman. Citizens of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman are visa-free without any residence condition.
The United Kingdom is not a qualifying issuer under this regime, and several published sources say otherwise. A British residence card qualifies under the separate border-visa rule below, and does not open the visa-free route. Permitted stay is up to 180 days in a year, under Article 7(1) of the Law on Foreigners. This confers entry only and gives no right to work.
The decision text requires only residence status of at least six months’ validity. The conditions circulating in consular guidance about a physical card or sticker and Latin-script biographical data do not appear in it. Treat those as practical cautions when packing your documents.
A visa at the border
Decision N 1268-N, Appendix 2, Point 1.1 lets nationals of twenty states obtain a visa at a border checkpoint with no further condition: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, North Macedonia, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.
Point 1.2 opens the border to everyone else who holds a temporary or permanent residence status, or a valid entry visa, from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Russian Federation, Japan, an EU country or a Schengen country. Holders of Gulf Cooperation Council documents qualify on residence status alone; a Gulf visitor visa does not count. The border visa is an ordinary visitor visa on the fee scale above.
How the invitation procedure used to work
Article 11 of the Law on Foreigners still contains the invitation provisions, but they no longer operate. The Foreign Ministry does not process invitation letters, and a residence or long-stay application does not revive them. What follows describes the procedure as it stood, for readers who come across references to it.
Who could issue one
- An Armenian citizen residing in the country.
- A foreigner holding residence status in Armenia.
- A legal entity registered in Armenia, including companies, non-governmental organisations, hotels, educational institutions and travel agencies.
- State bodies, local self-government bodies, embassies accredited in Armenia, consular institutions and international organisations.
Where the application went
| Invitor | Deciding authority | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Armenian citizen, or foreigner with Armenian residence status | Migration and Citizenship Service | e-request.am, or in person at 14 Tairov Street, Yerevan |
| Legal entity, state body, embassy, international organisation | Foreign Ministry Consular Department (no longer processed — see below) | Foreign Ministry Visa and Consular Department |
The Foreign Ministry’s confirmation of 2 September 2026 ended that second row. The ministry no longer processes stand-alone invitations, and the confirmation covers every purpose — tourist, business and work alike. The document a sponsoring company should produce instead is the informal cover letter filed inside the e-visa application, described earlier on this page.
What the invitor filed
- The application form available through e-request.am.
- The invitor’s identity document: a passport for a citizen, a passport and residence permit for a foreign resident, or the state registration certificate for a company.
- A copy of the invitee’s passport.
- A statement of the purpose, dates and arrangements for the visit.
- An undertaking covering the invitee’s expenses during the stay, including medical care and the cost of departure from Armenia, required by Article 11(4).
- A state duty receipt for AMD 5,000.
Article 11(6) set a maximum of 15 days for a decision. Shorter practice estimates circulated, including seven business days and one month, and no reliable 2026 source supported either. An approved invitation did not shorten visa processing: no published Armenian legal or ministry source established an expedited route on that basis.
Once approved, invitation data passed electronically to the border management system and was available to consular officers at Armenian missions. The invitation did not itself grant entry: the invitee still needed a visa unless they were exempt.
Exemptions that survive the repeal
Family of an Armenian citizen
Decision N 1268-N, Annex 1, point 1(10) is a border-visa route for the spouse, parent, child, sister or brother of an Armenian citizen who otherwise has no statutory right to a visa at the border. It requires the citizen’s passport or identity card copy, the marriage or birth certificates establishing the relationship, and contact details. It does not extend to relatives of an Armenian residence-permit holder. This route is not tied to the repealed list and remains in force.
Armenian origin
Article 9(4.1) of the Law on Foreigners allows ethnic Armenians from the invitation-only states to obtain a visa at a border crossing without an invitation. Annex 1, point 1(11) prescribes the proof: an original birth certificate carrying an Armenian ethnicity notation, an original baptismal certificate carrying such a notation and issued by an ecclesiastical structure recognised under Armenian law, or another document substantiating Armenian origin. A copy alone suffices where the document was issued or authenticated by an Armenian competent authority. Foreign documents require consular legalisation unless a treaty provides otherwise; English and Russian documents need no translation.
How this route operates in practice today is uncertain, because Article 9(4.1) defines who benefits by reference to the listed states and there is currently no list.
Third-country permanent residence
The consular waiver at Decision N 1154-N, point 3(7) covered permanent residents of the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Switzerland and the Schengen states other than Greece, Spain and Portugal, excluding citizens of every African state except Egypt and citizens of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. It was discretionary, exercised by the head of the mission, and required an interview. Decision N 1154-N confines its categories to citizens of countries on the Decision N 329-N list, so it has no identified beneficiary class while that list is repealed. It becomes live again if the list returns.
Fee exemptions
The State Duty Act, Article 26(1)(c), exempts the spouse, child, father, mother, sister and brother of an Armenian citizen from the duty for services connected with formalising an entry visa. Article 26(1)(f) exempts persons under 18. Grandparents and grandchildren are not listed. How the exemption is applied inside the public e-visa payment workflow has not been published.
Extending a visitor visa
Article 9(1) of the Law on Foreigners allows a visitor visa of up to 120 days to be extended by up to 60 days, giving a 180-day maximum in a year. Beyond that a temporary residence permit is required.
Decision N 1268-N, Appendix 2, point 17 provides that the application is submitted no more than 15 working days before the visa expires, so the filing window opens inside the final 15 working days and does not require 15 working days’ notice. The Migration and Citizenship Service decides within 2 working days. Point 17.1 permits extension through the E-VISA system where no refusal ground applies. The fee is AMD 500 per day of extension, about USD 1.40 at the Central Bank of Armenia rate of 363.85 on 7 September 2026, being half of the AMD 1,000 base duty.
A reform expected on 1 November 2026 will fold visa extension into the quota-based residency framework. Anyone planning a stay beyond 180 days should treat the timing as material.
How we handle host letters
Vardanyan & Partners arranges host letters through a partner travel agency. We do not issue the letter ourselves and we do not offer it as a stand-alone legal service. Where a cover letter is worth having in a file, the agency issues the letter and we handle the surrounding immigration work, including visa, work permit and residence questions.
Several travel agencies continue to advertise a paid invitation letter carrying Foreign Ministry approval. The ministry no longer processes stand-alone invitations, so ask precisely what document you would be buying before paying for one.
