Tanzania Visa and Entry Requirements
- Country Tanzania
- Guide Visa and Entry
- Reviewed 19 August 2026
- Length 3 min read
Credit Zachariahct, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last reviewed 19 August 2026
Tanzania is straightforward to enter and has two requirements that catch people out. One is a policy you can only buy from a single company. The other is a route that used to exist and does not any more.
Apply for the e-visa, and do not go to London
You need a tourist or business visa. You apply for an e-visa before you travel, through the Immigration Services Department portal.
The change worth knowing is that it is no longer possible to get a visa from the Tanzanian High Commission in London. Advice written before that changed still sends people there.
A single entry tourist or business visa is also available on arrival at the main ports of entry, subject to meeting immigration requirements, and you may be asked to show proof of your return journey. You cannot get a multiple entry visa on arrival, so an itinerary that leaves Tanzania and comes back needs the e-visa.
Your passport must have an expiry date at least six months after the date you arrive and at least one blank page. Be ready to show a return or onward ticket at border control.
Zanzibar has its own compulsory insurance, and only one company sells it
This is the requirement most likely to interrupt a trip, and it applies to all visitors to Zanzibar other than residents.
You must hold mandatory Inbound Travel Insurance from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation for the duration of your stay, up to 92 days. You can only buy it from that corporation. Other international travel insurance policies are not accepted, however comprehensive they are, and you may be refused entry without it.
Read that as a separate line item in the budget and a separate task in the planning, not as something an existing annual policy covers. It does not.
Before you fly
- Passport valid at least six months beyond your arrival date, with a blank page.
- E-visa applied for online, or the on arrival route confirmed for a single entry trip.
- Zanzibar inbound insurance bought from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, if Zanzibar is on the itinerary.
- Proof of return or onward travel, ready to show at the border.
- Yellow fever certificate, if you are arriving from a country listed as a transmission risk.
- Work permit arranged by your employer or volunteer organization, if you will be working or volunteering.
Screening on arrival
Two health screening measures apply at present. In May 2026 the Tanzanian Ministry of Health announced heightened screening for travelers arriving from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in response to an Ebola outbreak, which the World Health Organization has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Separately, you pass through mpox screening in the form of body temperature checks at all points of entry.
Neither stops an ordinary arrival. Both mean the queue is longer and the questions are more specific if you have been in the region.
What you may not carry in or out
Tanzania enforces its wildlife rules at the border in a way that surprises visitors who think of them as applying to traders.
Do not bring animal skin accessories into Tanzania: you risk questioning or detention when you try to leave with them. Border officials have arrested foreigners for trying to take wildlife items out, including horns and seashells. Taking them without a certified export permit from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is illegal, and being caught means detention or a fine.
A shell picked up on a beach is the everyday version of this and it is worth saying plainly: leave it on the beach.