Namibia Entry Requirements 2026: Visas and Rules

Until the end of March 2025, US, British and most European visitors needed no visa for a holiday in Namibia. That ended on 1 April 2025. Namibia now asks for a visa from countries that don’t let Namibians in visa-free, and that list includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and every other EU country. The good news is that it’s a visa on arrival, so you don’t need to post your passport to an embassy. The less good news is the paperwork around it: passport pages, children’s birth certificates and a fee that is due to go up if you apply at the counter.

Everything below was checked on 7 October 2026. The main official source is the Home Affairs ministry’s own fact sheet (version 4, dated 28 May 2025). The ministry’s own websites wouldn’t open for me, so I’ve used the copy published by the Namibian High Commission in London and checked it against the embassies, the tourism board and the British and German governments.

Who needs a visa

Namibia sorts passports into three groups.

Group	Examples	What you need
No visa for holidays	South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, Hong Kong	Nothing in advance
Visa on arrival (or e-visa online)	United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the Nordic countries, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Israel	Apply online before you fly, or at the counter on arrival
Visa before travel	Any country not on the two lists above	An e-visa or embassy visa before you leave home

Cyprus and Slovenia joined the visa on arrival list when Cabinet added more countries in September 2025. The tourism board’s visa page lists both, and Malta too, so every EU passport should now qualify, with one doubt. Malta is not on the ministry’s May 2025 list and the September announcement names the Sovereign Military Order of Malta rather than the country, so Maltese passport holders should confirm with the High Commission in London (which covers Malta) before they fly. Note that “visa on arrival” is the name of the scheme, not just the place you buy it. You can apply for the same visa online weeks before you go, and the ministry says that is the preferred option.

The visa is for holidays, visiting friends and family, meetings and similar short visits. Any kind of work, including volunteering, needs a different permit applied for in advance.

The e-visa and the visa on arrival

Online, you register on the ministry’s e-services portal (eservices.mhaiss.gov.na), choose the visa on arrival application, fill in your details, upload a scan of your passport and a photo (between 300 KB and 2 MB), and pay online. The e-visa is issued on the portal. Print it and bring it, because it doubles as your arrival form; you sign it in front of the immigration officer. One catch: an e-visa can only be applied for from outside Namibia and is only good for the dates on it, so if your plans move you need a new one.

At the counter, you fill in the application (online or on the paper form handed out on the plane or at the desk), give it to the officer with your documents, pay by card and get the visa in your passport. You also need to fill in the normal arrival form, but don’t sign it until you are in front of the officer.

Not every entry point can issue one at the counter. The fact sheet lists these for both e-visa and in-person visa on arrival:

• Hosea Kutako International Airport (Windhoek), Walvis Bay Airport and Walvis Bay Harbour, Lüderitz Harbour
• Border posts at Ariamsvlei, Noordoewer and Oranjemund (from South Africa), Trans-Kalahari at Buitepos, Mohembo, Ngoma and Impalila (from Botswana), Katima Mulilo (from Zambia) and Oshikango (from Angola)

At smaller airports (Eros in Windhoek, Lüderitz, Keetmanshoop, Mpacha, Rundu, Ondangwa) and quieter borders such as Mata-Mata, Klein Manasse, Sendelingsdrif, Ruacana and Katwitwi, only a ready-made e-visa is accepted. Dobe was not taking either when the fact sheet was issued. The tourism board’s page gives a slightly different list (it includes Katwitwi, Ruacana, Lüderitz Airport and Oranjemund Airport for visa on arrival), but I’d go by the ministry’s fact sheet. If you are self-driving in from the Kgalagadi or the Richtersveld, sort the e-visa first.

The holiday visa is multiple entry, so you can pop into Botswana or Zambia and come back without buying another. You get the number of days you ask for, up to 90 in a calendar year, so ask for your whole trip. If you need more time, the ministry’s regional offices (Windhoek, Keetmanshoop, Walvis Bay, Rundu, Katima Mulilo and others) handle extensions. The German Foreign Office warns that stamps have sometimes been given for odd periods, and the British government says you can be fined or detained for an overstay or a missing stamp. Check the dates before you walk away from the desk.

What it costs

The fee was set by Cabinet in early 2025 and it is the same online or at the airport. Checked 7 October 2026:

Traveller	Non-African Union passport	African Union passport
Aged 12 and over	N$1,600	N$1,200
Children aged 6 to 11	N$800	N$600
Children under 6	free	free
Cruise passengers (per day, Walvis Bay or Lüderitz)	N$300	N$300

The fact sheet puts N$1,600 at roughly US$90. The sources don’t agree on 11 year olds (the fact sheet puts them in both bands), so budget N$1,600 for an 11 year old to be safe. Embassies charge their own fees in local currency if you’d rather get a visa before you leave; the Stockholm embassy, for example, charges SEK 900 and says its visa fee is not refundable.

There is a change coming. In September 2025 the ministry announced a N$400 extra fee for applications made by hand at the counter, which would make the counter price N$2,000, to push people online. It said the start date would be announced once the fee is gazetted. I couldn’t find a gazette notice or a start date as of October 2026, but I’d apply online anyway. It’s cheaper if the surcharge lands and the queue is shorter.

Passport, pages and what to carry

Your passport needs to be valid for at least six months and have at least three blank pages. The ministry’s fact sheet just says six months’ validity, while the High Commission in London and the embassy in Stockholm count the six months from the day you leave Namibia. Go with the stricter reading. Three blank pages is more than most countries ask, so check before you book. German travellers can use a Reisepass, a vorläufiger Reisepass or a Kinderreisepass, but not the Personalausweis, according to the Auswärtiges Amt.

The tourism board says all visitors need a return ticket. The embassies also list proof of accommodation, travel insurance and proof you can pay for the trip among the visa papers, and the fact sheet says you may be asked to show you have enough money. I’d have flight and lodge bookings to hand, printed or on the phone.

Travelling with children

Namibian border officials check the paperwork for children closely, on the way in and out. Anyone under 18 needs their passport plus a full (unabridged) birth certificate that shows both parents, as an original or certified copy. Immigration won’t accept the short version. If only one parent is travelling, bring an affidavit from the other giving consent. If you’re travelling with children who aren’t yours, you need an affidavit from the parents plus copies of their passports and their contact details. Unaccompanied children need a consent affidavit and a letter from whoever is looking after them, with the address where they will stay.

Those rules come from a Home Affairs media release and are repeated on the British government’s page, checked 7 October 2026. If you drive on into South Africa, or connect through Johannesburg or Cape Town, South Africa’s own rules also apply; I cover those in my South Africa entry requirements guide.

Yellow fever

The British government says you need a yellow fever certificate if you’re coming from a country with yellow fever transmission risk. The ministry’s fact sheet words it by nationality: citizens of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and others on its list must carry a certificate and see Port Health before immigration. If you hold a European or North American passport and fly in from Europe or North America, neither rule applies to you. My malaria on safari guide puts the yellow fever rules for Namibia, South Africa and Botswana next to each other.

Customs allowances

Namibia is in the Southern African Customs Union with South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, so the allowances will look familiar. Arriving from outside SACU, each traveller can bring in duty-free 200 cigarettes, 20 cigars, 250g of tobacco, 2 litres of wine, 1 litre of other alcohol, 50ml of perfume and 250ml of eau de toilette, plus other goods worth up to N$5,000. The tobacco and alcohol allowances are only for over 18s. On top of that you can choose to pay a flat 20% on a further N$20,000 of goods. Food, plants and animal products are restricted, and personal medicines are fine if you carry a prescription or doctor’s letter and no more than three months’ supply. These figures come from NamRA’s traveller guide, checked 7 October 2026.

Cash: NamRA lists cash and foreign currency among the goods you declare when you arrive or leave, and amounts equal to or above N$100,000, converted from any currency, are restricted and must be declared. Use the red channel if you’re unsure.

What’s new in 2026

The rules themselves haven’t changed this year, as far as I could find. Two things are worth knowing. The online portal went down for planned maintenance on 19 May 2026 and was still out the next day, according to VisasNews, which is a good reason to apply a few weeks ahead rather than the night before. And in May 2026 SADC said its long-planned UniVisa, one tourist visa for several Southern African countries, had moved closer to adoption. It isn’t available yet, so for now you still need a Namibian visa of your own.

Before you fly

The Home Affairs portal is at eservices.mhaiss.gov.na, and the ministry’s fact sheet (version 4) is on the Namibian High Commission’s London site (linked in the sources below). Check your own government’s travel advice too. When I looked, the British page had last been revised on 10 December 2025 and the German Foreign Office page on 17 September 2026.