Visa (the credit card) and Visa (the travel permit)

[cupboardie]

I've always wondered why these two different things have the same name, are they related or is it purely a coincidence?

[kempie]

The term Visa [the credit card company] was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock. He believed that the word was instantly recognizable in many languages in many countries, and that it also denoted universal acceptance [i.e. playing on the notion of the other meaning of visa - acceptance of a request for permission to enter another country]. Nowadays, the term VISA has become a recursive backronym for Visa International Service Association.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Inc.#Backgro und