Botswana visa and entry requirements

The visa is the easy part

• Most visitors, British and Canadian citizens among them, enter for up to 90 days without a visa. Work, study and volunteering all need the right permit instead, arranged before you travel.
• If your nationality does need a visa, apply online at evisa.gov.bw. The government's own service page allows 7 to 14 working days, so this is not a same-week arrangement.
• Online applicants must upload every supporting document as one single PDF. That is the government's wording, and it is the step that sends applications back.
• An approved e-visa can be printed at the port of entry. If the approval letter has not been printed at a mission, travel with it and the visa is issued at the airport or border.
• Overstaying delays your departure. Extensions go through the Department of Immigration, not the airline.

The passport, and the part people fail

• At least 6 months' validity after the day you arrive.
• At least 3 blank pages. This is the requirement that turns a well-travelled passport into a refused boarding, and it is separate from the validity rule.
• Make sure you get your passport stamped. The FCDO says an unstamped passport raises suspicion of illegal entry, and the stamp is what records the date and port your exit check is measured against.
• A passport reported lost or stolen means refused entry, even if you have since found it.

Dual nationals

• Enter Botswana on the same passport you used to leave the previous country. That is Botswana's rule, not an airline preference, and mixing the two is the usual cause of trouble at the desk.

Travelling with anyone under 18

• Carry the original or a certified copy of the child's full birth certificate, on entry and on exit. Not the short form.
• Any parent not travelling must sign an affidavit consenting to the trip. Arrange it before you fly; there is nowhere to arrange it at the border.

Vaccination and health screening

• A yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from a country listed as a transmission risk. There is no yellow fever in Botswana itself, so this is purely about where you have been.
• Health screening applies to arrivals from Ebola-affected regions. Check before you travel and again before you transit.

Money at the border

• Declare cash of P10,000 or more, in pula or any foreign currency, coming in and going out. Failing to declare it is prosecutable, because currency counts as goods under the Customs and Excise Duty Act.