VOA Visa Upon Arrival to Mozambique Remains $50 While Other Visas Double in Cost

24/07/19

There has been widespread disbelief in the Mozambique Tourism industry in response to the announcement of doubled visa fees for international tourists planning to visit Mozambique. Our team visited the Ressano Garcia border today to find that VOA (Visa Upon Arrival) or "Visto de Fronteira" remain $50 USD and continue to be valid for two entries despite the recent increase that at this point is only being applied at Mozambican missions outside of the country.

(UPDATE 26/07/19 - We can confirm that Frontier Visas will not be affected by the price rise. Frontier Visas, known as VOA or Visa On Arrival were created by Ministerial Diploma 56/2017. This latest announcement 65/2019 of 5th of July only affects visa costs that were created by Ministerial Diploma 57/2017. If Frontier Visas are affected in the future we will edit this article to include the change. When applying for Frontier Visas (VOA) you should have your hotel accommodation reservation and onwards flight tickets ready to leave with the immigration official for their file.)

Tunelga Manjate, owner/manager of popular Mozambican Tour Operator, Tours Maputo ( http://www.toursmaputo.com ) lamented the decision. "We have seen a steady increase in visitors since last year's announcement that cleared up the question of international tourists being able to apply for tourist visas upon arrival at a reasonable $50, but this latest decision sets us back again. What is worse is almost daily I speak to international guests who say that they receive conflicting information from Mozambican Embassies and Consulates. There is so much talk about tourism be one of the four pillars of our country's development but we keep on confusing our potential visitors and many of them give up and go to more welcoming and organised countries like Tanzania and South Africa."

Tourism chat groups have lit up over the last 24 hours with many lodge-owners and Mozambique Tourism investors complaining that the industry is still too fragile to be scaring visitors away, and adding more costs to businesses that are already facing great financial pressure. Residence Permits, required by foreign investors working in Mozambique, have almost doubled in price with the one-year "DIRE" (Resident's permit) now costing 33,760 MZN per year, equivalent to over $500 USD.

Antonio Manna, from Vilankulo's Varanda Lodge posted the new visa fees to Facebook group Mozambique Tourism para todos with the following comments here translated to English:

"They have meetings, workshops, congresses, forums etc. to try to revatilise tourism and then they apply this death sentence.

Which tourists are going to pay these prices for a visa?

Tourism in Mozambique - R.I.P."

At the time of the writing of this article we have also found that some Mozambican High Commissions, Embassies, and Consulates are still not using the new increased prices that have just been announced but still not widely implemented.

New Visa costs July 2019 (MZN):