Travel guide
Visas and entry to Tanzania
What you need to enter Tanzania, how the e-visa works, and the one Zanzibar requirement most travellers miss.
Almost everyone needs a visa
A handful of nationalities are exempt, and a small number need a referral visa applied for well in advance. Everyone else needs an ordinary tourist visa, and the sensible route is to apply online before you fly.
One visa covers the whole trip. Zanzibar is semi-autonomous and stamps you again on arrival, but it is not a separate visa — travellers regularly worry about this and do not need to.
Apply online, before you travel
Tanzania runs an e-visa service. You apply, upload a passport scan and a photograph, pay, and receive a grant notice by email that you show on arrival.
Visa on arrival still exists at the major airports for eligible nationalities, and you will read confidently written articles saying it was abolished. It was not, but it is also not the route we would choose for you: it puts your entry in the hands of a queue at the end of a long flight. Apply online and the question is already settled.
Apply a few weeks out. Most approvals are quick, but a referral visa is not, and a rejected application close to departure is a problem with no good solution.
What your passport needs
Six months of validity beyond your entry date, and at least one blank page for the stamp. Airlines check this at the gate, and a passport that expires five months after you land is refused there rather than in Tanzania.
The Zanzibar insurance requirement
Since late 2024 every visitor to Zanzibar must hold a specific mandatory travel insurance policy, purchased through the Zanzibar authorities, in addition to any travel insurance you already have. It is charged per visitor and is checked on arrival.
This catches people out because it is not a visa, not optional, and not covered by the policy you bought at home. If your journey includes Zanzibar, we will remind you — but buy it before you fly.
What we do, and what we cannot do
We will tell you what your journey requires and when to start. We cannot apply on your behalf: the application asks for passport details and a declaration that has to come from you.
Rules change, sometimes at short notice. Everything above was checked on the date shown, and the official sources below are the authority — not this page.
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