Mozambique Visa Requirements 2026: ETA, e-Visa & Cost

A Mozambique tourist visa is the permission stamp foreign visitors need to enter the country for tourism — and as of 2026 it comes in four flavours: visa-free entry for SADC and selected African passports, an online ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) for 29 countries including the US, UK, EU, and Canada, a full e-visa (also called electronic visa or eVisa) for everyone else, and an embassy-only route for six nationalities. Costs range from free to about $290 USD depending on your passport and how long you’re staying.

Why this guide exists

Mozambique’s entry system was overhauled in February 2026. There’s now an online portal at evisa.gov.mz, a pre-authorisation called an ETA, a full e-visa (electronic visa / eVisa), and for some travellers the old visa-free or visa-on-arrival still works. Different foreign governments give contradictory advice — the UK says the authorities request an ETA at least 48 hours before departure, the US says it’s only needed if you’re staying with friends, Canada says no pre-authorisation is needed at all. It’s a mess.

We’ve pulled the rules into one place and sorted them by passport. This is the tourism version — if you’re travelling for work, study, or residency, you’ll want a different guide.

The legal basis for all of this is Decree No. 10/2023 of 31 March 2023, which scrapped tourist visas for 29 countries and, under Article 4, created the ETA (the online pre-registration you’re meant to file before you fly). That decree is still the law — which is why the ETA keeps reappearing even after it was suspended in 2025. There’s a dated timeline of every change at the end of this guide.

The four paths, at a glance

There are four real paths into Mozambique as a tourist. The selector above sorts you into one. If you’d rather see all four side by side, here they are.

1. Visa-free (SADC and selected African nations)

Who: Angola, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

What you do: nothing in advance. Show up at the border with a valid passport and you’ll be stamped in. Free.

How long: 30 days per entry for most. 90 days for Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Watch out: a 90-days-per-calendar-year cap applies. Border runs reset the per-entry clock, not the annual one.

A note on passport types. This guide assumes an ordinary tourist passport. Holders of diplomatic or service passports sometimes have different arrangements — for example, ordinary Portuguese, South Korean, or Indonesian passports fall in the ETA bucket below, but diplomatic/service versions are visa-free. If you’re travelling on an official passport, confirm your category on evisa.gov.mz.

2. Visa-free OR ETA (the confused middle bucket — 29 countries)

Who: Belgium, Canada, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.

What you do: you have two options.

• Route A — pay at the border. Arrive with your passport, return ticket, and hotel booking, and pay about $10 USD at immigration. Quick but dependent on a functioning card machine — bring cash (USD, EUR, or MZN) as backup.
• Route B — get the ETA online. Apply at evisa.gov.mz. Costs about $48 USD. It usually comes back in 1–2 days, but we’d recommend applying about a week before you travel to leave a buffer — the portal has outages and can ask for corrections. Print the PDF and carry it. If the application is rejected, the fee is not refunded — but you can re-apply with the corrections. Apply early enough to re-submit if something goes wrong. ETAs are also non-refundable if you postpone or cancel your trip — if your dates shift, you’ll need to apply again. And don’t apply too early either: the ETA is valid for only about 60 days from the date it’s issued — not from your travel date — and it’s single-entry, so the clock starts the moment it’s approved. Apply months ahead and it can expire before you arrive, or partway through your trip. The sweet spot is one to four weeks before you fly.

Our recommendation: get the ETA. Some airlines now refuse to board passengers without one, even though Mozambique itself would admit you visa-free. The ETA removes that risk.

How long: 30 days per entry.

3. e-Visa required (everyone else)

Who: the default. If your country isn’t on the two lists above and isn’t on the embassy-only list below, you’re in this bucket. Includes Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil, most of the EU not already listed (Austria, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, etc.), most of Latin America, most of the Middle East, most of Africa outside SADC, and most of Southeast Asia.

What you do: apply at evisa.gov.mz before you fly. Upload your documents, pay, wait about 5 business days, print the approved e-visa PDF.

How long: 30, 60, or 90 days — you choose when you apply. Two details the portal spells out and most guides miss: the e-visa itself is valid for 2 months from the date it’s issued — that’s your window to enter the country, separate from how long you may then stay — and it is issued as multiple-entry, set from the itinerary you submit. So a trip that hops over to Eswatini or South Africa and comes back doesn’t need a second visa.

Cost: roughly MZN 6,250 / 12,504 / 18,756 for 30 / 60 / 90 days — about $95 / $190 / $290 USD — plus a VFS service fee. Treat those as indicative rather than quoted: since the February 2026 relaunch the official portal no longer publishes a fee table at all, so the authoritative figure is the one shown at the payment step of your own application. Fees are set in Meticais and float against the dollar.

Watch out: don’t rely on visa-on-arrival. Since the February 2026 portal relaunch, the government routes everyone in this bucket to the online e-visa. Apply at least 1–2 weeks before travel. Rejected applications are not refunded.

4. Embassy-only (6 nationalities)

Who: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia.

What you do: the online portal won’t accept your application. You’ll need to apply in person at a Mozambican embassy or consulate. Plan for weeks, not days.

How much does a Mozambique visa cost?

Mozambique visa costs range from free to about $290 USD in 2026, depending on your passport and how long you plan to stay:

• Free — SADC and selected African nationals (visa-free entry).
• About $10 USD — pay-on-arrival fee for the 29-country ETA bucket (US, UK, EU, Canada, Japan, and others).
• About $48 USD — the same bucket, pre-applied online as an ETA.
• About $95 / $190 / $290 USD — e-visa for 30 / 60 / 90 days, for everyone else (Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil, most of the world).

Every figure above is indicative, and it’s worth knowing why. Fees are set in Meticais and float against the dollar — but more to the point, the official portal stopped publishing a fee table at the February 2026 relaunch. Nothing on evisa.gov.mz states a price until you reach the payment step of a live application, so that screen is the only number that counts. A VFS service fee is added to e-visa applications.

Mozambique visa on arrival — can you still get one?

Yes, but only for 29 nationalities. If you hold a US, UK, EU, Canadian, Japanese, or other ETA-bucket passport (see the full list above), you can still pay about $10 USD at the border with a valid passport, return ticket, and hotel booking. Bring cash in USD, EUR, or MZN in case the card machine is down.

If your passport is in the e-visa bucket (Australia, New Zealand, India, most of the world), don’t count on visa on arrival — since the February 2026 portal relaunch, the government routes everyone to the online e-visa. Apply at evisa.gov.mz at least 1–2 weeks before you fly.

Our recommendation: even ETA-bucket travellers should get the ETA online rather than pay on arrival. Some airlines now refuse to board passengers without one, even though Mozambique itself would admit you.

ETA and e-visa edge cases people ask us about

These answers are important enough to keep in the main guide:

• If you already paid for an ETA online, do you pay again on arrival? No. Once the ETA is paid online, there is no extra immigration fee to enter. Show the printed approval and keep your entry receipt.
• What if your ETA runs out before you leave Mozambique? Make sure your Boletim de Alojamento is filed — it’s mandatory for every foreign visitor, and immigration checks it before granting an extension. If it’s not done, fines can run at MZN 1,000 per day. Then apply for the extension with the required documents in this guide, ideally 2-3 days before expiry. Extensions are usually once, up to 30 extra days.
• How early should tourists apply? ETA approvals can come very fast — sometimes in 5-10 minutes, sometimes the same moment — but they can also take longer if the portal is unstable or asks for corrections. E-visas are usually around ~5 business days. Apply at least 7 days before travel so a delay doesn’t break your trip. But don’t apply too early either: an ETA is valid for only about 60 days from the date it’s issued, not from your travel date, so applying months ahead can leave it expiring before — or during — your trip. The sweet spot is one to four weeks before you fly.
• Ugandan passport holders: Uganda is in the visa-free list in this guide, so no ETA fee applies under current rules.
• Cote d’Ivoire passport holders: Cote d’Ivoire is in the ETA bucket, so the usual options are ETA online ($48) or pay-on-arrival ($10), subject to current government updates.

Is there a Mozambique digital arrival card?

Mozambique’s “digital arrival card” is, in practice, the online entry portal at evisa.gov.mz — the same site where you apply for an ETA or e-visa before you fly. Mozambique does not run a separate standalone digital arrival form or passenger-locator card on top of your visa or ETA, so if you’ve already sorted your entry online, you’ve done the “digital” part.

There’s one paper holdover worth knowing about. At some airports — especially smaller ones like Vilanculos — immigration still hands you a short paper arrival card to fill in on landing, even when your ETA or e-visa is already approved. You’ll usually fill in another near-identical departure card on the way out. Neither costs anything; both just want your name, passport and flight details, and where you’re staying. Keep a pen in your pocket and the address of your first night saved somewhere easy to reach, and you’ll clear the desk faster.

Mozambique visa requirements by passport

Mozambique visa for US citizens

US passports are in the visa-free or ETA bucket. Either apply for the ETA online at evisa.gov.mz (about $48 USD, 1–2 days) or pay about $10 USD at the border. We recommend the online ETA — some airlines refuse to board passengers without one, even though Mozambique itself would admit you. The US State Department currently has Mozambique at Level 2 with a Cabo Delgado carve-out; the southern coast is unaffected.

Mozambique visa for UK citizens

UK passports are in the visa-free or ETA bucket. The UK Foreign Office’s travel advice says the Mozambican authorities request an ETA application at least 48 hours before departure — pay-on-arrival also remains allowed for this bucket. Apply at evisa.gov.mz (about $48 USD) at least a week before flying to avoid airline boarding hassle.

Mozambique visa for Canadian citizens

Canadian passports are in the visa-free or ETA bucket — not the e-visa bucket. You can pay about $10 USD at the border or apply for the ETA online (about $48 USD). The Canadian government’s own travel advice says no pre-authorisation is needed; Mozambican law contradicts that, and we recommend the ETA to avoid boarding hassle.

Mozambique visa for French and EU citizens

French and most EU passports — France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, and the other states in the list above — are in the visa-free or ETA bucket, not the e-visa bucket. Apply for the ETA online at evisa.gov.mz (about $48 USD) at least a week before flying, or pay about $10 USD on arrival. We recommend the online ETA: France’s own France Diplomatie guidance and several airlines now treat it as required, even though Mozambican law still allows pay-on-arrival for this bucket. One warning — searches for “Mozambique visa exemption” surface a lot of third-party lookalike sites; evisa.gov.mz is the only official portal, and the ETA fee is non-refundable if your application is rejected, so enter your details carefully.

Mozambique visa for Australian and New Zealand citizens

Both Australian and New Zealand passports are in the e-visa required bucket. Apply at evisa.gov.mz at least 1–2 weeks before travel. Cost: about $95 / $190 / $290 USD for 30 / 60 / 90 days. Don’t rely on visa-on-arrival — since the February 2026 portal relaunch the government routes everyone to the online process.

How to apply online (ETA and e-visa)

Applying for a Mozambique ETA or e-visa online requires six documents, all uploaded to evisa.gov.mz. Get them together before you open the form — the portal times out and won’t save half-finished applications. Here’s the checklist:

• A passport valid for at least 6 months beyond your arrival date, with at least two blank pages.
• A recent passport-style photo — a colour image on a plain white or light background, head-and-shoulders, with a neutral facial expression.
• Proof of accommodation — a hotel booking confirmation, or (if you’re staying with friends or family) a notarised Termo de Responsabilidade plus a copy of your host’s ID.
• A return or onward flight ticket.
• Proof of funds — a recent bank statement showing you can cover the trip.
• The visa-fee payment — paid by card on the portal. Keep the receipt; you may be asked for it at the border.

Both the ETA and the e-visa go through the same portal. Here’s what the process actually looks like:

1. Register. Go to evisa.gov.mz and click Login or Register. Enter your email, get a passcode, sign up. Save your username and password somewhere safe — the reset function is unreliable and you’ll need to log back in later.

2. Start the application. Click Create Application (top-left). On the form, set:

   • Nationality: your passport country
   • Passport type: P (regular)
   • Passport type name: Normal
   • Visa type: Tourist
   • Duration: 30 days
   • Number of entries: autofills to Multiple — you can’t change it, that’s normal.

3. Issuance location is the airport or border where you’ll enter Mozambique. Pick the wrong one and the desk on arrival can get awkward.

4. Fill in personal details. If multiple travellers, finish one application fully before starting the next. The form is fussy about punctuation in addresses — commas, full stops, and extra spaces can trigger silent errors. If your postal code is rejected, use 12345 as a workaround. If it rejects your address, try typing it in a plain text editor first and pasting it in.

5. Upload documents. You’ll need:

   • A passport-style photo
   • Your passport bio page
   • A hotel booking confirmation — or, if you’re staying with friends or family, a notarised Termo de Responsabilidade plus a notarised copy of your host’s BI or passport
   • A return flight ticket
   • A recent bank statement

   File rules: PDF/JPG/PNG, ≤2 MB each, simple filenames (no special characters). For each upload the form asks for Document Date, Document Number, and Issuing Authority — these are required even on documents that don’t officially have them. Enter something logical (e.g. “Standard Bank” as the issuing authority for a bank statement, your airline for a flight ticket).

6. Pay. Visa cards work best. Mozambican-issued cards are often rejected. The payment portal is slow — don’t refresh the page, just wait for the confirmation screen.

7. Download and print. You’ll get the approval by email (ETA in ~2 days, e-visa in ~5 business days). You can also go to My Applications on the portal — when the status shows “Ready for issuance”, click Action to download the PDF. Print it on paper. Digital copies on a phone are sometimes accepted but often not — bring paper.

Apply at least 48 hours before travel (the UK government’s stated minimum). A week or more is safer — it gives you a buffer if the application is rejected and needs corrections, or if the portal has an outage.

What to have at the border

Whether you’re flying into Vilanculos, Maputo, or driving across from South Africa, the kit is the same. Get this together before you go and you’ll skip most of the friction at the desk.

• Passport valid for at least 6 months beyond your arrival date
• 2 blank pages in your passport
• Proof of onward/return travel (printed)
• Proof of accommodation (printed booking confirmation)
• Proof of funds (a recent bank statement or card that works at an ATM) — immigration can ask for this on arrival, even if you’re visa-free
• Yellow fever certificate if you’re arriving from a yellow-fever-endemic country (including transit)
• Cash for the ETA fee, if you’re paying on arrival. Bring the exact amount — $10 USD, €10, or MZN 650 — in case the card machine is down. Skip this if you’ve already paid for an ETA or e-visa online.
• A pen, and your trip details within reach. Some airports — especially the smaller ones like Vilanculos — still hand out a paper card even if your ETA or e-visa is already approved. You’ll fill in your name, passport number, flight number, the date and way you’re leaving, the address where you’re staying, and similar basics. And it’s not just on the way in: they’ll usually make you fill out a near-identical departure card when you leave, asking for your onward destination and flight, so keep that pen handy for both ends of the trip. Having all of it on a saved note (not buried in your email) and a working pen in your pocket gets you out of the queue noticeably faster.

Before you leave the airport/border desk: make sure you’ve been handed your entry payment receipt and that your passport has been stamped. Ask for the receipt even if you didn’t pay on arrival — one is usually issued either way, and officers don’t always offer it unprompted. Keep it on you for the rest of the trip: immigration often asks for it again when you leave the country, and you’ll need it if you extend your visa. Photograph it and email yourself a copy as a backup.

Health and customs: yellow fever, malaria, and cash

Mozambique has three health-and-customs rules worth sorting before you fly: a yellow-fever certificate for some arrivals, malaria prevention for everyone, and a cash-declaration limit at the border. None of them are part of the visa, but all three can trip you up on the day.

Do you need a yellow fever certificate?

A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required only if you’re arriving from — or have spent more than 12 hours in transit through — a country where yellow fever occurs. Fly in direct from the US, Canada, Europe, or South Africa and you don’t need one: Mozambique itself has no yellow fever risk, so the US CDC doesn’t recommend the vaccine for a direct trip. But route through much of Central or West Africa, or parts of tropical South America, and immigration can ask for the yellow card — travellers aged one year and up are covered by the rule. The vaccine takes 10 days to become valid, so if your itinerary needs it, get the shot well ahead. (Source: US CDC — Mozambique.)

Malaria: prevention for everyone

All of Mozambique carries a malaria risk, so the US CDC recommends every traveller take prescription antimalarial medicine. This isn’t a border requirement — nobody checks it — but it’s the health advice that matters most on this coast. The CDC lists atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline, mefloquine, and tafenoquine as options; which one suits you depends on your health and trip length, so see a travel clinic 4–6 weeks before you leave to start the course on time. Pair the tablets with the basics — repellent, long sleeves at dusk, a treated net — because prevention is layers, not a single pill. (Source: US CDC — Mozambique.)

Declaring cash at customs

You must declare any cash over USD 10,000 — or the equivalent in another foreign currency, or 10,000 meticais — to customs when you enter or leave Mozambique. Below that, there’s nothing to declare and no limit on what you carry. Over it, you fill in a short declaration form at the customs desk and keep your copy. Most travellers never come close, but it’s worth knowing before you pack a large float of cash for a long trip. The Bank of Mozambique itself recommends cards and transfers over carrying big sums. (Source: Government of Canada travel advice, based on Mozambique’s Foreign Exchange Law.)

Travelling with children under 18

Children under 18 entering Mozambique need the same paperwork as adults — a valid passport plus the visa or ETA matching their nationality. There’s no special child visa, the fee is the same, and Mozambique doesn’t ask for parental consent letters or unabridged birth certificates at its own borders.

Most paperwork people associate with travelling internationally with kids is imposed by departure countries, airlines, and transit airports — not by Mozambique itself. Two documents satisfy the requirements of almost every country in the world. Carry both:

• A birth certificate or passport showing both parents’ details (a printed copy is fine).
• A notarised parental consent letter if the child is travelling without both biological parents — that includes travelling with one parent, with a grandparent or family friend, with a school group, or alone. The letter should name the child, the dates of travel, and authorise the named adult (or the child, if unaccompanied) to make the trip. If a parent is deceased, carry a death certificate; if there’s sole custody, a court order.

Get the consent letter notarised at home before you fly — affidavits without a Commissioner of Oaths or notary stamp are routinely rejected at exit borders.

If your route touches South Africa

Most of our international visitors connect through Johannesburg, and a lot of regional travellers drive up from SA. South Africa has some of the strictest under-18 exit rules in the world, and they apply to every child crossing a SA border, regardless of nationality or destination.

Foreign visa-exempt children (US, UK, EU, Canadian, etc.) — a valid passport is enough. SA doesn’t require an unabridged birth certificate or a parental consent letter for foreign visa-exempt children.

South African children need a fuller pack depending on who they’re with:

• With both parents: valid passport, plus a birth certificate or passport showing both parents.
• With one parent: add a notarised parental consent letter (Annexure C), a copy of the absent parent’s ID/passport, and contact details. Death certificate if deceased; court order if sole custody.
• With a non-parent (grandparent, aunt, family friend): consent letters from both parents, copies of their IDs/passports, and contact details.
• Unaccompanied: consent letters, both parents’ ID copies, contact details, plus a letter from the person receiving the child in the destination country with their address and a copy of their passport.
• On a school tour: the school’s group consent affidavit (Annexure D).
• Pending Unabridged Birth Certificate: the Annexure A letter from Home Affairs confirming the UBC application is in process.

Forms (Annexures A, C, D) are on the South African Department of Home Affairs site; the same forms with worked examples live in the DriveMoz member resources.

Other neighbours

Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Malawi, and Zambia each have their own under-18 rules, and they change. If you’re crossing one of those borders, confirm with that country’s immigration before you set off. The two-document rule above (birth certificate + notarised consent letter for kids travelling without both parents) covers the basic expectation almost everywhere.

Driving into Mozambique

Driving across a Mozambican land border means clearing both your exit country and Mozambican entry. The Mozambique-side rules below are the same at every border (Lebombo, Kosi Bay, Mhlumeni-Goba, Forbes/Machipanda, Zóbuè…); the exit-country rules are whatever your home country requires. Most self-drivers come up from South Africa, so we’ve covered that case in more detail at the end.

What Mozambique requires at any border

These rules apply regardless of where you’re coming from:

• Your vehicle registration (original or certified copy). If the car isn’t yours, see “If the car isn’t yours” below.
• A Temporary Import Permit (TIP), issued on arrival at the Mozambican-side desk (mostly electronic now).
• Compulsory Mozambican 3rd-party insurance, required by Mozambican law for every foreign-registered vehicle. Buy it online before you leave (faster and cheaper) or at the border — but it must be issued by a Mozambican insurer. Your home country’s cover does not substitute, regardless of what your broker says.
• In the car: two red hazard triangles, two reflective vests (yellow or green) for the front passengers, and your country’s road code sticker on the rear (ZA for South Africa, ZW for Zimbabwe, NA for Namibia, MW for Malawi, Z for Zambia), visible when towing.
• If you’re towing a trailer, caravan, or boat: a blue-and-yellow triangular sticker on the front right bumper of the car and on the rear of what you’re towing.
• A valid driver’s license, vehicle license, and (if towing) trailer license — all in date for the entire trip. Mozambique has no 21-day grace period for an expired vehicle license. Learner’s licenses are not accepted; temporary driver’s licenses are.
• Temporary “paper” plates (new or recently sold cars) are not accepted. You need the proper plates.

An international driver’s permit isn’t generally required for SADC license holders (Zimbabwean license holders are advised to carry one).

If the car isn’t yours

Mozambican border officers want documentary proof that the registered owner has authorised you to take the car across:

• Financed by a bank: an authorisation letter from the bank, naming the country and dates of travel, plus a certified copy of the registration.
• Owned by a company or another person: a notarised affidavit from the owner authorising the trip, plus certified copies of the owner’s ID and the vehicle registration.
• Rental: a “border letter” from the rental company authorising the cross-border trip, with country and dates, plus a certified copy of the rental company’s registration. Ask for this at least 2–3 weeks before you travel — many rental companies need that much lead time and some don’t allow Mozambique at all.

Driving up from South Africa, specifically

SA layers its own paperwork on top of the Mozambique-side rules:

• Vehicle registration copies must be certified by a Commissioner of Oaths or at a SAPS station before you go (not at the border).
• For financed cars: take the NATIS document the bank emails you to your branch and have them certify it there.
• A letter from your SA insurer authorising the cross-border trip, with country and dates — separate from your compulsory Mozambican 3rd-party.
• The community resource for SA road-trippers is DriveMoz — a Facebook group with detailed checklists, real-time border-time updates, route conditions, and a Zello walkie-talkie channel for help on the road. Worth joining before you go in peak season.

From other countries

If you’re crossing in from Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, or Malawi, the Mozambique-side rules above still apply. Exit-side requirements (insurance letters, owner affidavits, certification standards) vary — check with your departure country’s road traffic authority before you set off.

How long can you stay? The 30-day rule

Most tourists land with thirty days in their pocket. Here’s how that clock actually works.

• Per-entry cap. Most tourists get 30 days per entry. Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania passports get 90. E-visa holders get whatever they paid for (30/60/90).
• Extensions. You can extend once, for up to 30 more days. To stay longer than that, you’ll need to leave the country and re-enter (a “border run”).
• Border runs work, but only for the per-entry clock. You still can’t exceed 90 days in Mozambique per calendar year.
• Overstaying is expensive. Fines are quoted at MZN 1,000 per day and up. Don’t do it.

Extending your stay in-country

It’s possible, but it’s not a casual errand. If you already know you want more than 30 days, the cleanest option is to apply for a 60- or 90-day e-visa before you fly — it costs more, but you keep your passport and avoid the paperwork. Extensions are a fallback, not a plan.

How many. You can extend once, for up to 30 additional days. If you want to stay longer, you’ll need to leave the country and re-enter.

Where. Extensions are handled at provincial immigration (SENAMI) offices in the larger cities — Maputo, Beira, Nampula, and some provincial capitals. Vilanculos does not have one; the nearest is in Maxixe (about 3 hours south).

One wrinkle worth knowing before you go: the official portal’s tourist-visa page now tells e-visa holders that to extend a stay they “must contact the Mozambique Embassy directly.” In practice, in-country extensions still run through SENAMI as described here — but if you’re on an e-visa and an office pushes back, that portal wording is where the confusion comes from.

When. Apply at least 2–3 days before your visa expires — they often ask for corrections and you’ll want a buffer. Arrive early in the morning; the system goes down semi-regularly and getting there early gives the day time to recover.

What to bring.

• Your passport, plus a notarised photocopy of the bio page and the page with your entry stamp.
• A letter from your first hotel in Mozambique, signed and stamped with the hotel’s official stamp — the stamp matters; immigration won’t accept a plain signature. It must come from your first hotel even if you’ve moved on since. (This is a separate document from the Boletim de Alojamento — you need both.)
• Printed copies of your arrival and departure flights.
• Your original ETA or e-visa approval, plus the entry payment receipt you received at the airport or border.
• A letter requesting the extension, notarised.
• Your Boletim de Alojamento — this one is critical. See the next section for what it is and why you need it.

How to get things notarised. Documents are notarised at the Conservatória dos Registos e Notariado — a public notary office found in most towns. You hand over the document and ask for it to be carimbado (stamped). Small fee, usually in just a few minutes.

On the day. They take a photo — hair tied back, face clear. Dress modestly: shoulders and knees covered. They keep your passport for about a week while the extension is processed, so don’t plan flights, border crossings, or anything else that needs your passport during that window.

Cost. Around MZN 650 for the extension itself, plus notary fees for the photocopies and letter.

The Boletim de Alojamento (guest registration)

The Boletim de Alojamento is the legally required registration of where every foreign visitor is staying in Mozambique — a guest-registration record the law obliges all foreign nationals to have filed, not only those planning to extend their stay. Filing it is the job of whoever provides the lodging: the hotel, lodge, or guesthouse for a paid stay, or your host if you’re in a private home. Mozambique’s National Migration Service (SENAMI) reiterated in 2026 that communicating where a foreign guest is staying is obligatory, and that the responsibility sits with both the institutions and the private citizens doing the hosting. At a hotel or lodge you’ll barely notice it. Where it gets real is staying with friends or family.

At a hotel or lodge. The front desk fills the Boletim in at check-in and either runs it to immigration themselves or hands you a stamped slip to keep. Ask once at check-in who’s doing what, photograph the slip when you have it, and that’s the end of it. You only need one — from your first place of stay; later hotels don’t generate new ones.

Staying privately — the work falls on the host. Anyone with the right documents and confident Portuguese can do the filing; it doesn’t have to be the host or the guest in person.

Do you really have to, even for a short tourist trip? Yes — there’s no tourist exemption. The obligation covers every foreign guest from the day you arrive, whatever your nationality and however short the stay. In practice, at a hotel the front desk files it for you, so you barely think about it, and the realistic enforcement risk to a one-time visitor who never deals with immigration again is low — but that’s leniency, not exemption, and it evaporates the moment you stay privately, extend in-country, come back, or aim at residency. So confirm your hotel has filed it, and if you’re staying in a private home, make sure your host does. Sooner or later, it shows up.

The deadline is five days, counted from arrival to submission inclusive. No working-day arithmetic; public holidays don’t extend the clock. Land on a Thursday with a Friday holiday and you’re still due Monday.

What to bring. Everything on paper — phones and laptops won’t fly.

From the guest:

• Photocopy of the passport bio page
• Photocopy of the entry-fee receipt from the border
• Photocopy of the entry approval — your printed e-visa, or the A4 sheet immigration handed you on arrival
• Photocopy of the passport page with the entry stamp
• The original passport, in case any photocopy is hard to read

From the host:

• Proof of address. A water or electricity bill is the gold standard; bank statements usually don’t pass. If the place is rented and the utility is in the landlord’s name, a copy of the rental agreement works as a fallback. If neither is available, the host can ask the bairro chief for a certificado do bairro — allow a day or two
• A Letter of Invitation. Not strictly required, but offices vary, and travellers get turned away without one often enough that it’s worth carrying

The petition:

• Two printed copies of the request letter, signed in wet ink. Big-city offices are unforgiving on layout — that’s why we put together a template

Where to file it. In a city with a SENAMI immigration office, that’s where you go. In a small town or anywhere SENAMI doesn’t operate, the local police station handles it instead — usually quicker and less fussy than a city office. Vilanculos is in the second bucket — no SENAMI in town, so plan around the police station.

At the office. Submit the pack, keep your originals, hand over only photocopies. The officer reviews, retains the copies, and stamps one of your two request letters before handing it back. That stamped copy is your receipt — file it somewhere safe. Mozambican immigration’s records aren’t always synced; if anyone later asks whether you registered, the stamp is what you wave.

Photocopy shops cluster near every SENAMI office and will run off pages — or even retype the letter — for around MZN 5 a sheet. Useful to know if you turn up missing something.

If you don’t register. The standing penalty is MZN 1,000 per day, calculated from the day you arrived. If immigration decides on top of that you weren’t supposed to enter the way you did, the daily figure can climb to MZN 3,000. Out on the street the rule is barely enforced; at an immigration desk, it’s not something you want to be missing.

What’s changed, and when

Mozambique’s entry system has been rewritten repeatedly since 2023, which is why so much advice online contradicts itself. Here’s the dated timeline of what actually happened:

• 31 March 2023 — Decree No. 10/2023. Abolished tourist visas for 29 countries and, under Article 4, created the legal basis for the ETA — an online pre-registration to be filed at least 48 hours before departure.
• 24 April 2025 — the 48-hour ETA pre-registration took effect for those 29 visa-exempt nationalities, run through the eVisa platform.
• 16 May 2025 — SENAMI suspended the ETA pre-registration after technical failures on the platform stopped travellers from submitting properly. Visa-free entry continued in the meantime; the underlying decree stayed in force.
• February 2026 — evisa.gov.mz relaunched, bringing the ETA and the e-visa back under one online portal — the system this guide describes.

Because Decree No. 10/2023 never went away, expect the ETA to keep evolving. Always confirm the current rule on evisa.gov.mz before you travel.

Common questions

Where to go once you’re in

The paperwork’s the boring part. This is the trip you’re actually coming for.

Still not sure?

Mozambique’s visa rules are a moving target. If your situation doesn’t fit cleanly into the four buckets above, or if the portal is giving you grief, send us a message on WhatsApp — we help guests through this every week. Tell us your passport country and your rough travel dates and we’ll point you at the right path.

Once you’re in, the rest is the easy part — that’s what we’re here for.

Last reviewed: 3 August 2026 (entry rules re-checked row by row against evisa.gov.mz). The system was last overhauled in February 2026 and the government continues to adjust it — always confirm on evisa.gov.mz before you travel. Legal basis: Decree No. 10/2023 of 31 March 2023 (Article 4), which established visa-free entry for 29 countries and the ETA. Sources: evisa.gov.mz (official), Serviço Nacional de Migração (SENAMI) 2026 statement that communicating foreign guests’ accommodation is obligatory for institutions and private citizens (video), US CDC — Mozambique (yellow fever and malaria), Government of Canada travel advice for Mozambique (currency declaration, entry requirements), IATA Travel Centre (airline-side entry rules), South African Department of Home Affairs (under-18 rules at SA borders), DriveMoz (SA road-trip checklists for vehicle papers and equipment), gov.uk travel advice for Mozambique.