Ethiopia visa and entry requirements

The visa

• A visa is required for tourism. Apply online, before you travel, at evisa.gov.et, which is the government platform.
• The standard tourist visa is 30 days, single entry, and can be extended by 30 or 90 days from inside the country before it expires.
• The passport must be machine readable and valid at least 6 months after the day you arrive.

Visa on arrival, honestly

• The FCDO tells British travellers to get the visa online before arrival and does not present visa on arrival as a route.
• Ethiopian Airlines publishes an Immigration and Citizenship Services guideline for a visa on arrival service at Addis Ababa, so the service exists.
• The two are not in conflict so much as aimed at different people. A visa on arrival is granted to a published list; the airline is what stands between you and the aircraft, and a check-in agent who is unsure will refuse boarding.
• So hold the e-visa. It costs a small fee and removes the argument.

The health declaration

• Ethiopian Airlines requires a health declaration form completed before departure, on the Ethiopian Public Health Institute's portal at e-thtp.ephi.gov.et.
• This is separate from the visa and is easy to miss because it is announced by the airline rather than by immigration.

Yellow fever

• A certificate is required if you are arriving from a country on the transmission risk list.

Cash at the border

• You may carry no more than 3,000 birr in or out of Ethiopia. That is a legal maximum, not a guideline.
• Up to USD 10,000 or equivalent in foreign currency may be brought in; above that you declare it on arrival.
• Taking more than USD 10,000 out requires either a bank document certifying you bought the currency, or the customs declaration you made on entry. Even with the paperwork, confiscation, fines or imprisonment remain possible above the limit.
• Arriving overland, the declaration threshold drops to USD 500.