Tanzania has introduced a new visa-on-arrival handling process at Kilimanjaro Airport which has had an immediate impact on the arrival and visa collection procedure. This change, disappointingly, has been implemented without any advance warning nor with consultation with tour operators. The procedure involves travellers standing in three different lineups which adds a significant amount of time to their arrivals and we have had reports this process exceeding two hours for some clients.
With this change in place, we strongly encourage all clients to obtain their visa online in advance of arrival if arriving at Kilimanjaro Airport. E-visas are currently typically taking 2 – 3 weeks to be issued.
We only currently recommend this process if arriving at Arusha at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) or Dar Es Salaam at Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR). For travellers flying between either Kenya or Rwanda and the Serengeti we continue to recommend that clients do their visa on arrival as the process of validating the online visa is at the moment cumbersome. For clients arriving at Zanzibar either the online visa or visa on arrival options are available as we have not yet heard of reports of the on arrival option taking excessive lengths of time. This however could change without notice.
You can apply for your visa online by following out guide here or by using our Visa Assistance Service which is available for $50.