Investigation of Blockchain to Automate Visa Services

The presence of visa center as an intermediary among the visa services field’s agents indicates the imperfection of the industry. Visa center increases both clients’ fees and the period of visa reception, appends additional risks into the processes. Current methods of visa center processes automation can increase its efficiency but can't upgrade the industry. At the same time, blockchain technology gains popularity. It provides the ability to store any kind of digital assets, make and verify transactions in a matter of seconds without any intermediary. This network is decentralized, protected and transparent to all participants. Blockchain has been already used in many industries and can potentially become one of the solutions for visa processes modernization. The aim of the current research is to identify the disadvantages of current visa service processes and determine the limits of blockchain technology applicability for its modernization. The following tasks were completed. 1.The specificity of the visa field was considered; the disadvantages of its processes and current ways to overcome them were disclosed. 2.The advantages and disadvantages of blockchain technology, its successful practices were studied; criteria of the industry in which it is advisable to use blockchain were highlighted. 3.The degree of visa field compliance with these criteria was specified; the concept of the modernized processes was built. 4.The appropriate blockchain platforms were identified; the concept of application architecture on the example of Hyperledger Fabric was built. 5.The main obstacles of processes modernization were indicated and ways of their overcoming were offered. The use of blockchain in the visa field may increase documents issuance pace, raise the revenue of the Consulate, reducing clients’ fees, and implement the remote way to get a digital visa. However fundamental changes necessity in the established processes may prevent the use of blockchain in this field.