How to get a Uganda Tourist Visa: Obtaining a Uganda tourist visa is a step toward making a lawful entrance into the country. All nationalities who are visa-prone ought to obtain their visa before they are granted entrance to the country.
A visa can either be obtained from the immigration offices at Entebbe International Airport on arrival or from Uganda missions abroad in advance. Most Uganda tourist visas are gotten on arrival at the airport, BUT there is an option to this if you want to make your purchase months in advance at the comfort of your home.
Briefly, a valid Ugandan visa is rubber-stamped on one of your passport’s pages and signed by an immigration officer to prove its validation. This visa also covers the period (number of days) you plan to spend in Uganda.
If you are booking Uganda gorilla trekking from Kigali, then you have to apply for an East African tourist visa. Its a single visa that allows multiple entries into both countries. Only book a Uganda tourist visa if you are booking tours starting from Entebbe and you have no plans of visiting any of the East African countries.
How to Get a Visa to Uganda
The best and easiest way to get a Uganda tourist visa is upon your arrival in the country. The only drawback of this is sometimes you might have to wait for a few hours before your visa is issued to you, which might delay your trip if your departure is set on the same day of arrival.
The alternate way is making use of the Uganda visa online application form/system. This application system was introduced to simplify the hierarchy/procedures of visa application for Uganda and give travelers a chance of obtaining visas several months in advance personally.
The Uganda online visa application system will capture all the required details, documents, and credentials, and if successful, a barcode that will be scanned by an immigration officer before being inserted in your passport will be emailed to you within 72 hours.
The third way is obtaining a visa with the help of Uganda Missions abroad, though it’s recommended to use the online application system.
Uganda Visa requirements
Like said previously, you need to meet a number of requirements to get a Uganda entry visa, which include
A filled in visitors pass
A cover letter of the applicant
A copy of confirmed return air ticket
Immigration status, copy of passport (6 months of remaining validity)
Original passport for Verification
Yellow Fever Vaccination Certificate
The requirements might look many, but some are not applicable in certain cases. To be on the safe side, you need all the requirements mentioned above in place.
Cost/Price
How much does a Uganda visa cost? With effect from July 2015, the prices of single-entry visas were revised to $50, $100 for multiple-entry visas, $100 for East Africa tourist visas, and no charge for government officials or diplomatic visas.
Please note that the price for a single-entry visa was sliced by half, unlike the $100 fee that was charged previously. This implies that if you are searching for a Uganda visa for Indians, Americans, or any other nationality, the Uganda visa cost will not change.
If you opt to obtain your visa through the online application form in urgency, an expedited extra fee of $30 might be charged to hasten the entire process. This makes it possible to obtain your visa in less than 48 hours, though most of the time you finish up the whole process within 24 hours. These fees are obtained on arrival at Entebbe International Airport or through credit card transfer and electronic funds transfer.
Exemptions
Some citizens are exempted from paying for Uganda travel visas. These citizens include
1. Nationalities of countries that belong to COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa). The countries include Eritrea, Malawi, Angola, Seychelles, Madagascar, Swaziland, Zambia, Kenya, Mauritius, Comoros and Zimbabwe.
2. East African Citizens (Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda)
3. Citizens from Barbados, Fiji, Grenada, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Cyprus, Bahamas, Belize, Solomon Islands, The Grenadines, Vanuatu, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, Gambia, Jamaica, Malta, Antigua, Singapore and more.
More exemptions do exist, only they are usually specified on arrival. This means it’s advisable to first inquire about the existence of charges for your nationality through Uganda Immigration before making your payment and getting aboard a plane to Uganda.
Tips for getting a Visa on Arrival
It is very disappointing to reach the airport, be denied a visa, and know you won’t be able to proceed with your entry to the country. Below are a few tips/precautions you should take during the interview as you finalize getting your visa.
1. Carry all necessary documents. The most important thing is to carry all the necessary and required documents especially the original copy of your passport. Leaving any document behind might cost you a Visa because they are key during the verification process
2. Carefully read through your interview letter. You might be asked questions related to your interview appointment letter; hence, it’s important to read through the document over and over again to have some details on your fingertips. Your answers should come straight without any contradictions, or else you might be doubted.
3. Be honest, compliant, and confident. You have to be compliant and confident throughoutthe entire process of the interview. These panelists usually test your confidence and consistency, implying your confidence has to be extremely high. You also have to comply with whatever you are asked or requested, and in case you lack any information, fee free to tell them the truth.
4. Dress well. Dress codes usually make the first impression of you, implying you have to dress decently. Any funny dressings might cause immigration officers to ask you a big array of questions for further verification. Formal dressing can earn you trust and make your interview shorter.
5. Be precise and straight to the point. These immigration officers usually have a lot of people to interview and attend to; hence, you ought to be extremely precise and straight to the point to save time.
Lastly, most people think the approval of their visa applications implicates their eligibility for the approved visa, which is not the case. This approval doesn’t guarantee the definite approval of your application. And besides, all information you provide must be valid because a visa application approval can be revoked/terminated at any time for various reasons, like provision of invalid information.