A static table of visa requirements by country is out of date the week it is published. What you need is a function of two things that keep moving: the passport you are traveling on and the destination you are entering. Fees change, new electronic systems replace old ones, and an exemption can be suspended for one nationality while it stands for everyone else. So this page shows you how to get the current answer for your own trip in under a minute, and how to read it once you have it.
How to look up any trip
Open the requirements checker and give it two things: the passport you will actually present at the border, and where you are going. What comes back is the document that trip requires, the consular fee attached to it, and the processing time the destination currently publishes. Add your transit stops if you have any, because a layover can carry a requirement of its own that has nothing to do with where you finish.
To browse instead, the coverage page lists the destinations we hold maintained requirement data for and marks which of them we process end to end. It tells you how far the data runs.
How to read what comes back
- The document type. "Visa" covers several different objects. An electronic travel authorisation is a pre-screening for people who would otherwise arrive visa-free. An e-visa is a full visa issued online. A visa on arrival is granted at the border, which means it can also be refused there. Our guide to the differences between electronic visas and ETAs sets out which is which.
- The two dates. Almost every approval carries two clocks: how long you have to enter, and how long you may stay once you are in. They are rarely the same number, and the first one runs down whether you travel or not. When an electronic visa expires and how to renew it covers what to do if that clock runs out before your trip starts.
- The fee split. A price quoted for a visa is usually two amounts stacked together. The consular fee belongs to the government and should reach you at cost. Any service fee on top is what the company doing the filing charges for the work. A quote that gives you one blended number with no breakdown is the thing to ask about before you pay.
Three questions a quick reference cannot answer for you
A country-level table answers the average case. Three ordinary situations sit outside the average, and each one needs a lookup against your own details.
- Transit stops. A change of planes can require its own authorisation, depending on the airport, whether you clear immigration, and how long you are on the ground. The row for your final destination says nothing about the country you pass through.
- Dual nationality. Two passports mean two sets of rules, and the easier entry is not always the passport you booked the flight on. Read applying for an e-visa with dual citizenship before you choose, because the passport in the booking has to match the one you hand over at the border.
- Residence that differs from nationality. Some destinations open a simplified route to holders of a residence permit from a third country. Others ask applicants living outside their country of citizenship for extra documents. Same passport, different answer, depending on where you file from.
Rules change faster than a page can be republished
We re-verify requirements against government sources every week, because that is roughly the rate at which they move. A published table cannot keep up: it freezes one week's reading and ships it forever, and nothing on the page tells the reader how old it is.
So the useful thing to put on a page with this title is a route to the live answer, not a snapshot of one particular October. Run your passport and your destination through the requirements checker before you book anything non-refundable, and run it again if your dates or your route change.