Visitors may also be required to undergo and pass security or health checks upon arrival at the port of entry. Visa applications in advance of arrival give countries a chance to consider the applicant's circumstances, such as financial security, reason for travel, and details of previous visits to the country.

Some countries do not require visitors to apply for a visa in advance for short visits. The modern visa may be a sticker or a stamp in the passport, an electronic record of the authorization, or a separate document which the applicant can print before entering and produce on entry to the visited polity. Today, travellers wishing to enter another country must often apply in advance for what is also called a visa, sometimes in person at a consular office, by post, or over the Internet.

If permitted entry, the official would issue a visa, when required, which would be a stamp in a passport. Historically, immigration officials were empowered to permit or reject entry of visitors on arrival at the frontiers. Some countries no longer issue physical visa evidence, instead recording details only in immigration databases. Visa evidence most commonly takes the form of a sticker endorsed in the applicant's passport or other travel document but may also exist electronically. In each instance, a visa is subject to entry permission by an immigration official at the time of actual entry and can be revoked at any time.

Visas are associated with the request for permission to enter a territory and thus are, in most countries, distinct from actual formal permission for an alien to enter and remain in the country. Visas typically include limits on the duration of the foreigner's stay, areas within the country they may enter, the dates they may enter, the number of permitted visits, or if the individual has the ability to work in the country in question. A visa (from the Latin charta visa, meaning 'paper that has been seen') is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory.

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