Botswana Entry Requirements 2026: Visas and Border Rules

Botswana is the easy one in this part of Africa. If you hold a US, British, German or other EU passport you fill in a form at the border, get a stamp and pay nothing. No visa, no e-visa, no arrival fee. The things that catch people out are elsewhere: blank pages in the passport, a child’s birth certificate, the vehicle fees if you drive in, and what is in the cool box when you reach a veterinary fence.

I checked everything here on 12 October 2026. Botswana’s own sites were patchy that day. The government portal (gov.bw) had an expired security certificate and the tourism board’s site returned an error on every page I tried, so for the visa lists I’ve leaned on Botswana’s embassies and checked them against the British and German governments.

Who gets in without a visa

Botswana’s embassy in Washington publishes both lists in full.

Passport	Visa needed?
United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the other EU countries, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Israel	No
South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, Seychelles	No
India, China, Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Morocco, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ukraine	Yes, apply before you travel

All 27 EU countries are on the Washington no-visa list. The embassy in Tokyo carries what looks like an older list that still puts Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in the visa column. None of those ten is on the list of nationalities the e-visa portal accepts, as VisasNews reported it in May 2025, which backs up Washington. If you hold one of those passports I’d still email the nearest Botswana embassy before booking.

Germans should note one trap. The Auswärtiges Amt says a vorläufiger Reisepass (temporary passport) only works with a visa, and the Personalausweis is not accepted at all.

Ninety days, and it’s per year

You are given up to 90 days as a visitor. The German Foreign Office spells out the part most pages leave off: it is 90 days in total per calendar year, so two long trips in one year can use it up. The stamp records your date and port of entry. The British government says an unstamped passport raises suspicion of illegal entry, so check you have one before you walk off.

To stay beyond 90 days you apply to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship for an extension before the days run out. The government portal says it takes three days and wants a covering letter, a letter from your host, a photo and certified passport copies. Working, volunteering and studying all need their own permits.

If you do need a visa

The application is online at evisa.gov.bw. The government portal quotes 7 to 14 working days. The Washington embassy says to allow 21 working days and lists these tourist fees (checked 12 October 2026): US$30 for a single entry of up to one month, US$50 for multiple entries over up to three months. The fee is not refundable. You upload a passport copy, a photo, your itinerary, hotel bookings or a letter from your host, and a covering letter about the trip. Fingerprints are taken when you arrive.

The portal has form for going quiet. It stopped taking new applications at the end of April 2025 and was back about a month later, according to VisasNews. Apply early.

Passport pages

Six months’ validity from the day you arrive, and at least three blank pages. That is what the British government and the Washington embassy say. The Germans advise four free pages, and more if your trip takes in several countries, because each one counts pages for itself. If you hold two passports, enter Botswana on the one you used to leave the last country.

Children

Botswana checks children’s papers coming in and going out. Anyone under 18 needs their passport plus a full (unabridged) birth certificate naming the parents, as an original or certified copy. If one parent isn’t travelling, carry that parent’s affidavit giving consent. If neither parent is travelling, the adult with the child needs proof of temporary guardianship as well. The Washington embassy notes one exception: no affidavit is needed where the father is not named on the birth certificate. The German Foreign Office adds that documents may need an official English translation, and that parents without custody shown on the certificate should carry the court order.

Flying through Johannesburg? South Africa has its own rules for children in transit, which I cover in my South Africa entry requirements guide.

Coming over from Victoria Falls

Plenty of people reach Chobe on a day trip from Zimbabwe or Zambia. Visa-exempt passport holders just get stamped in at Kazungula. The catch is on the other side, because a single entry visa for Zimbabwe or Zambia is used up once you leave. The KAZA Univisa solves that. The British government’s Zimbabwe page says it costs US$50, lasts 30 days, covers both Zimbabwe and Zambia and stays valid through day trips into Botswana. It is not a Botswana visa and does nothing for nationalities that need one.

Yellow fever: you need a certificate only if you arrive from, or have transited, a country with yellow fever risk. The Auswärtiges Amt says arriving from South Africa, Zambia or Zimbabwe does not count. The malaria on safari guide covers the tablets you’ll want for the Delta and Chobe.

Driving in with a foreign car

Three charges are paid at the border counter by every foreign-registered vehicle: a road transport permit, the National Road Safety Fund levy (the disc lasts a year) and third party insurance (valid 90 days). I couldn’t find a current official price list. Checked 12 October 2026, this is what the sources give:

Source	What it says
Government fee proposal, 2017	Single trip permit for a vehicle under 3,500 kg from another customs union country: P50 one way and P90 return, proposed to rise to P65 and P117
South Africa’s cross-border agency, 2018	Permit P50 single or P90 return, road fund P20, insurance P50, P20 per trailer
Travellers on the 4x4 Community forum, July 2024	One paid P260 for a bakkie, another R385 with no trailer
Drive South Africa, updated June 2026	Permit P100, road fund P50, insurance P50. Budget P200 to P400 or more for a single entry

So budget P200 to P400 for a car, and Drive South Africa puts a trailer at another P100 to P150. Pay in pula. Forum reports from 2017 say Martin’s Drift, Tlokweng and Pioneer Gate refused rand but took cards. An earlier post in the same thread says smaller posts have no card machine, and one driver did pay in rand at Ramotswa, Platjan and Stockpoort. Carry pula.

Bring the original registration papers or a certified copy. For a hire car, or one registered to somebody else, you need the owner’s written permission to take it across, signed in front of a Commissioner of Oaths. Visitors bringing a vehicle from outside the customs union (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and Botswana) are normally asked for a carnet or a bill of entry.

Meat, milk and the veterinary fences

Botswana is cut into disease control zones by cordon fences, and the gates on the main roads are staffed. The standing rule, as Tracks4Africa put it in 2015, is that raw meat can travel south to north and east to west but not back the other way. By their account you can carry meat from Maun into Moremi, Chobe, Savuti or out to Tsodilo, but not from Maun to Nxai Pan, the Makgadikgadi, Nata or Ghanzi. Officers look in fridges and cool boxes. You may be asked to drive through a dip and step on a disinfectant mat with every pair of shoes you have.

2026 has been stricter than usual. Foot and mouth disease broke out in four zones: two in the North East District near the Zimbabwe border, Zone 11 in the south (Goodhope, the Southern District and Gamalete, with Lobatse inside it) and Zone 13 in the Kgalagadi. The restrictions brought in that January covered fresh meat and fresh milk crossing between zones. The government’s foot and mouth coordinator said in February that UHT, pasteurised and sour milk and some cooked products were not covered. Restrictions were eased in May, and on 11 August the minister told Parliament the North East outbreaks were closed while Zones 11 and 13, along the South African border, still had active cases, inside a containment zone being fenced from near Ramotswa to Verda.

Bringing meat across the international border is a separate matter. It needs a veterinary import permit, and the Department of Veterinary Services won’t issue one where the country of origin has foot and mouth. South Africa reported outbreaks in January 2026. My advice is dull but it works: cross with an empty meat drawer and shop at the butcher in the town where you will braai.

Customs and cash

Everyone declares their goods on Form J. The duty free allowance per person is 2 litres of wine, 1 litre of spirits, 200 cigarettes, 20 cigars, 250g of tobacco, 50ml of perfume and 250ml of toilet water. Alcohol and tobacco are for over 18s only. On top of that, other goods are free up to R3,000 if you arrive from outside the customs union, or R500 from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho or Eswatini. BURS still prints those limits in rand. Above that, on goods from outside the customs union, you can choose a flat 20% on a further R12,000.

Cash: there is no cap on what you bring in or take out, but notes worth P10,000 or more, in pula or any other currency, have to be declared both ways. Traveller’s cheques don’t count. BURS says failing to declare can mean prosecution. (Checked 12 October 2026.)

New in 2026

There is no tourism levy. The US$30 arrival levy announced in 2017 was withdrawn that December before it started, and I found nothing reviving it. The Washington embassy’s visa page still points to a tourism levy page on the tourism board’s site, which did not load when I checked. That is where the confusion starts.

What did change is health screening. Since 28 May 2026, after Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Uganda, the Ministry of Health has run temperature checks at every point of entry and asks about travel in the past 21 days. Air passengers fill in a health declaration before they get off the plane. The British government’s page was still carrying the notice when I looked.

Park and tourism fees were also reviewed this year, with the minister saying agreed changes would start on 1 April 2026. Those are on the park pages, not here. The foot and mouth rules above are the ones most likely to have moved again by the time you travel, so ask at your first fuel stop what the gate ahead is taking off people.