Kenya Visa and Entry Requirements
- Country Kenya
- Guide Visa and Entry
- Reviewed 16 August 2026
- Length 3 min read
Credit Sdkb, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last reviewed 16 August 2026
Kenya changed how it admits visitors, and a good deal of the advice still online describes the old system. There is no visa to queue for at the airport and, for most people, no visa to obtain in advance either. There is an authorization, it is applied for online, and you need it before you board.
Who needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation
Assume you do. Kenya requires travelers to apply online for an Electronic Travel Authorisation, an ETA, in advance of travel. It is granted per traveler, including for children, and it is checked by the airline before you fly as well as by immigration when you land.
Two groups are different. Anyone still holding a Kenyan visa issued under the old system may travel on it until it expires. And a set of exemptions exists, which changes, and which the official portal below lists. Nationality decides this, and it is the passport you actually travel on that counts rather than where you live.
How to apply
Applications are made on the government’s own portal, run by the Directorate of Immigration Services. The authorities recommend applying at least two weeks before departure. That is a recommendation rather than a maximum, and leaving it to the last week is how people end up rebooking flights.
⚠️ Apply through the official portal and nowhere else. Kenya’s change of system produced a large number of lookalike sites that charge a fee to fill the same form in for you, and some that simply take the money. The address of the real one is in the sources below. If a site is not on a Kenyan government domain, it is not the government.
What you need to hand
The list the portal itself shows when you start an application is the list that counts. Treat this as what to gather beforehand rather than as a substitute for it.
- A passport valid at least six months beyond your arrival date, with at least two blank pages
- A digital passport photograph, and a scan of the passport biodata page
- Your accommodation address in Kenya and a return or onward ticket
- A card to pay the fee, which the portal states at the time you apply
- A yellow fever certificate IF you are arriving from a transmission risk country
On arrival
Most visitors land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, and a good number at Moi International in Mombasa. Immigration will want the passport the authorization was issued against; biometric capture on entry is routine.
Two things to expect that are specific to Kenya. Enhanced health screening may be in place on arrival, particularly for travelers coming from Uganda, Ethiopia or the Democratic Republic of Congo. And it is illegal to bring a drone into Kenya without prior approval from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, which is not something to discover at the customs desk.
Health requirements
⚠️ This is where Kenya differs from much of West Africa and where copied advice goes wrong. A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required only if you are arriving from a country listed as a yellow fever transmission risk. It is not a blanket requirement of every arrival, and the list of countries is not fixed.
That is a requirement. Separately there are recommendations, which are a different thing and will not stop you boarding: malaria prophylaxis for most itineraries, and whatever a travel clinic advises for your route. Start that conversation at least eight weeks out. Requirement and recommendation both matter, and only the first is enforced at a border.