Needing to send your passport away for a visa is slowly starting to become a thing of the past as more and more countries come on board with e-visas and visas on arrival.
E-visas are visas that you apply for online. You enter your details, sometimes upload a photo, pay the fee and generally within a day or two you get your approval letter by email. It doesn’t guarantee you entry into a country but it means you have the necessary paperwork to enter when you front up to immigration.
Visas on arrival mean that when you turn up to a country, you can apply for a visa at the airport. It’s a simple process of filling out the paperwork, often providing a photo and paying the fee. In many cases such as Egypt and Jordan, a visa on arrival is merely just a formality to enter the country and all you do is pay a fee.