Are you a national of the United Kingdom or Ireland? If so, you need an eTA for a holiday, business trip or to visit friends or family in Kenya. Travellers with the nationality of Switzerland and all countries in the European Union also need to apply for a Kenya eTA before departure. This visa requirement applies to travellers of all ages, including minors.

In January 2024, the e-visa was replaced by the eTA (electronic Travel Authorisation). From then on, all travellers going to Kenya must apply for an eTA. The eTA is therefore a mandatory travel authorisation for all tourists and business travellers. Whenever this website mentions the visa for Kenya, it refers to the eTA.

Are you only transferring in Kenya on your journey? If you do not leave the transit zone of the airport in Kenya during your transfer, you do not need a visa or eTA.

Since 2021, visas for Kenya can only be applied for online, so you do not need to visit an embassy or consulate. Apply for your visa easily with an online application form. Once your visa has been granted, you will be able to start your journey without any worries.

Apply for a Kenya visa (eTA) now

Since 2021, the Kenyan consulates and embassies have stopped issuing physical visas. At the beginning of 2024, the electronic visa (e-visa) was also abolished and can no longer be applied for. Instead, travellers must apply for an eTA.

You can apply for the eTA for Kenya for business or tourist purposes, as well as for visiting friends and family in Kenya. When applying for the eTA, you can specify the purpose of your trip. You will then automatically receive the correct travel authorisation. The Kenya eTA allows you to stay in Kenya for up to 90 days.

Apply directly for your eTA for Kenya

The visa (eTA) is valid for 90 days from the moment it is issued. It can be used for one trip only and it allows you to stay in Kenya for up to 90 days. After your arrival in Kenya, you can extend the permitted duration of stay up to 180 days at the Department of Immigration Services in Nairobi.

You can apply for your eTA long before you leave for Kenya. You will need to indicate your expected arrival date in the application form. If you apply for your visa more than 30 days in advance of your expected arrival date, your visa application will be put on hold. Exactly 30 days before the expected arrival date, you will be able to submit the required documents and your application will be automatically processed. This is to ensure that the validity of your visa has not already expired by the time you arrive in Kenya. The Kenya visa is granted on average within 9 days. Find out more about the delivery time on our page covering costs and delivery times of the Kenya eTA.

The date of issue and expiry, indicating the beginning and end of the validity of the eTA, are shown on the visa. You can arrive in Kenya immediately after your visa has been granted. Therefore, you do not have to stick to the expected arrival date that you indicated on the form. You may arrive in Kenya at any time during the entire 90-day validity period, which means that you can also postpone your trip for up to 90 days after the date of issue. Regardless of your arrival date, you are always allowed to stay in Kenya for 90 days, even if you only arrive in Kenya on the 90th day after the day of granting of your eTA.

Submit your Kenya visa application now

For your visa application, you first need a passport. That passport must still be valid for at least six months when you arrive in Kenya and must have at least three blank pages left. Your passport must have been issued by the United Kingdom, a country in the European Union or Switzerland. Do you have another nationality? Then check which visa type you can apply for on this page.

You may also use an emergency passport or a diplomatic passport. But you cannot apply for a Kenya visa with an ID card, residence permit or refugee passport. Take note: children up to 15 years old do not need a visa for Kenya, but they do need their own passport. A German child passport is also allowed.

The visa, which you can easily apply for online, is suitable for tourist, business and medical travel purposes. This includes visiting friends and/or relatives living in Kenya. However, you are not allowed to be employed by a Kenyan employer on a tourist or business visa. Volunteer work is also not allowed. If you want to work in Kenya, you must apply for a work permit from the Kenyan Directorate of Immigration Services.

To apply for a Kenya visa, you do not yet need to know exactly when you will be travelling. On the Kenya visa validity page, you can read how flexible you can still be with changing your travel dates after applying for your visa. However, when applying for the visa, you should already know where you will stay after your arrival in Kenya. You need to provide the address details of that on the application form. If you are staying overnight in a hotel or another type of accommodation, you must also provide the booking confirmation with your visa application. If you are staying overnight with friends or relatives, you must provide an invitation letter from them.

If you apply for the visa online, you may only arrive in Kenya at one of a limited number of locations. You can find an overview of all airports, seaports and land border crossings where you are allowed to enter the country on an e-visa here.

All the documents you provide with your visa application should also be printed and taken with you on your trip. You may have to show these to an immigration officer when you arrive in Kenya. Also, upon arrival, you will already have to present a return ticket for the flight on which you will leave Kenya again.

Are you on a business trip? If so, your visa application must also include an invitation letter from the company you will be visiting in Kenya.

Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Then you do not meet the requirements of the Kenya visa. Traffic fines are usually not a problem, as these are usually not indictable offences. Have you ever been deported from a country as a result of a (visa-related) law violation? Then you cannot apply for a Kenya visa.

I understand the requirements and want to apply for my visa

The Kenya visa application form asks whether you have ever been criminally convicted. For this, it does not matter in which country you were convicted. You must answer this question truthfully. If you answer "Yes", you are not eligible for the eTA for Kenya. You should then contact an embassy. Have you only received a traffic fine? Then you can still apply for a visa for Kenya online.

No, since 2021, visas are no longer granted by Kenyan embassies or consulates. You can only apply for your visa online, using a digital application form. After your application is approved, you can print your visa yourself. This means you can easily arrange everything from your home.

Do you find applying for a visa via the website complicated? You will find many explanations on this FAQ page. You can also find more guidance on the page explaining the Kenya visa application form.

If you want to visit another country in the region besides Kenya, you will probably have to apply for another visa in addition to your Kenya eTA. Check the visa policy of each country you wish to visit sufficiently before your departure. If you leave Kenya to visit another country and then return to Kenya, you will need a new eTA for your second entry into Kenya. The Kenya visa is in fact a single-entry visa and only allows you to enter Kenya once. Once you leave Kenya, the validity of the visa expires.

An exception is made for travellers who leave Kenya, travel to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania or South Sudan and then return to Kenya. If you leave Kenya to enter one of these neighbouring countries, your Kenya visa remains valid. If the validity of your eTA has not yet expired, you can enter Kenya again using the same eTA you used the first time. However, the day by which you must leave Kenya remains the same as if you had not left the country in between.

The coronavirus measures have been changed a lot over time. That is why it is highly recommended to check the page with the recent coronavirus measures in Kenya well before departure, and right before departure.
Check what coronavirus rules you need to keep in mind

On this website, you can apply for the eTA for Kenya, the mandatory travel authorisation for tourists and business travellers. You begin the application process by opening the application form. The form consists of three sections: your contact details, travel details and details of each traveller for whom you want to apply for a visa. Fill in all the details carefully and take special care to ensure that each travellerʼs passport details are copied 100% correctly. Filling in the application form usually takes about ten minutes.

Open the Kenya visa (eTA) application form

Once you have filled in all the details in the form, you can pay the cost of the Kenya visa. This can be done easily and securely with Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal. Once the payment is completed, you will receive a confirmation by e-mail. This will also contain a link to your personal status page. On that page, you can check the status of your application at any time. The page will also inform you about any steps you need to take to complete your visa application.

After filling in the details and making the payment, you will be asked to provide some documents digitally. For each traveller for whom you are applying for an eTA, you must provide a passport photo, a photo or scan of the passport, a booking confirmation of the flight to and from Kenya and a booking confirmation for the first overnight stay in Kenya. Are you staying with friends or family in Kenya? Then you must provide a letter of invitation instead of the booking confirmation of an accommodation. Are you travelling to Kenya for business? Then you do not need to provide a booking confirmation of your accommodation, but you do need to provide a letter of invitation issued by the organisation you will be visiting in Kenya.

After you submit all the required documents, the visa specialists at e-Visa.co.uk will check whether they meet the requirements. You will receive an email stating whether everything is in order. If something is wrong with your application, you will be given the opportunity to correct it. After submitting all the details and documents in good order, you do not need to do anything else. Your application will then be processed by Kenyaʼs immigration service. On average, the eTA is granted after 9 days from that point. Did you submit an urgent application? Then you will receive your eTA after an average of 3 days. Please note: these are average delivery times, not maximum delivery times.

For each traveller for whom you are applying for an eTA for Kenya, you must provide a passport photo, a photo or scan of the passport and a booking confirmation of your flight to and from Kenya. The passport photo should be sharp and in colour. The traveller should have a serious facial expression and should look straight into the camera. The background should be even and light. It does not have to be an official passport photo. A selfie also suffices if it meets the above requirements. Photographing or scanning the photo from the passport is not allowed.

Are you going on holiday to Kenya?
If so, you must also provide a booking confirmation from your first overnight address. This may also be an informal, handwritten confirmation, or a screenshot from an email or app. The booking confirmation must always include: the travellersʼ names, the address of the accommodation and the dates of arrival and departure at this accommodation. Will you be staying at more than one place in Kenya? You only need to provide the confirmation of your first accommodation address.

Are you going to stay with friends or relatives living in Kenya?
If so, you do not need to provide a booking confirmation for accommodation. However, you do need to provide a photo or scan of the passport, ID card, or Foreigner Certificate of the friend or relative you will be staying with in Kenya. This person must be of Kenyan nationality or must have a Foreigner Certificate (also referred to as an Alien Card). You must also provide a letter of invitation written by this person. This may also be an informal email or handwritten letter. The letter of invitation does not need to be signed, but it should always include:

• the full name of each traveller for whom you are applying for a visa
• the full name of the person who has invited you to stay
• the dates of arrival to and departure from the hostʼs residence
• the address and phone number of your host

Going on a business trip to Kenya?
If so, you do not need to provide a booking confirmation for accommodation. However, you do need to provide a letter of invitation written by the organisation in Kenya you are going to visit. Are you going to attend a fair, conference or congress? Then a ticket or invitation to this event will also suffice. A letter of invitation must always include:

• the full name of each traveller for whom you are applying for a visa
• the reason for making the trip to Kenya
• the date(s) of the business meeting or appointment in Kenya
• the name, address and telephone number of the organisation inviting you

You can apply for your visa for Kenya as soon as you have booked your accommodation and your flight tickets to and from Kenya. You must enter an expected arrival date on the eTA application form, but you can deviate from these dates even after your eTA has been issued. You may arrive in Kenya from the moment your visa application is approved, up to a maximum of 3 months afterwards.

You can submit your application as long in advance of your departure as you like. Your application will never be approved more than 30 days before the expected arrival date you entered, which means your visa will still be valid when you travel. You can read more about this on the Kenya visa validity page.

On the Kenya visa application form, you must already fill in the address of one place where you will stay overnight. If you are traveling to Kenya by plane, you must also enter your flight numbers in the application form. You only need to fill in the address of one place you will stay overnight, even if you plan to stay at several locations in Kenya. You must have already determined the location, of which you will need to provide a booking confirmation (or invitation letter) during your visa application. If, after applying for your visa, you decide to stay at another location, or plan to arrive in Kenya on a different day or on a different flight, that is no problem at all. You do not need to communicate these changes before departure. Simply take the confirmation of the final accommodation location and the ticket for your return or onward flight from Kenya with you on your trip, so that you can present it upon arrival in Kenya.

You can, if that person has given you permission to do so. After filling in the form, read it to the person for whom you are applying for the visa. If they confirm that everything has been filled in correctly, you can submit the application on behalf of this traveller. If you are applying on behalf of a minor child, only the parents need to give their consent and verbally confirm that the form has been filled in correctly.

On the Kenya visa application form, you can also add several travellers at the same time. You will then not have to re-enter travel details and contact details each time.

A British passport number is solely made up of digits. This means that the letter O can never appear in a British passport number. It will always be the number 0.

Are you applying for a Kenya visa through e-Visa.co.uk? Then we will always check that you have not swapped the letter O and number 0. If this mistake is noticed, it will always be corrected immediately, so you can still travel without any problems.

Have you submitted a visa application through another website? If so, in most cases this error will not be corrected and your visa may be invalid. It is not possible to change a passport number after you have submitted the visa application; you will have to apply for a completely new visa.

The cost of a visa application for Kenya is £64.95 per person. This is the total price, which consists of the consular fee, e-Visa.co.uk processing fee and necessary taxes. If you submit your application using the application form on this website. You can make the payment using Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal.

Do you already need your visa for Kenya at short notice? Then you can select the ‘urgent deliveryʼ option in the application form. There is a surcharge of £17.50 per person for this. Your application will then be checked and processed faster by the visa specialists at e-Visa.co.uk.

Read more about the Kenya visa costs and average delivery times.

The Kenya visa has an average delivery time of 9 days. Do you want to receive the visa as soon as possible? In this case, you can also opt for urgent delivery. If you use this, the average delivery time is 3 days.

Take note: delivery times are calculated from the moment you provide all data and documents in good order.

Also bear in mind that this concerns average delivery times, not maximum delivery times. Often, applications are approved even faster than these average delivery times. But it also happens that applications remain pending longer. For example, if, as a result of a spot check, the application is reviewed more extensively by Kenyaʼs immigration authorities. Public holidays in Kenya, exceptionally high workloads at the immigration office, or technical failures can also sometimes cause delays.

The Kenyan government recommends applying for your visa at least three weeks before departure. The earlier you submit your visa application, the more likely you are to receive your visa on time.

Apply for the Kenya visa now

Due to the varying processing times of visa applications submitted to the immigration service of Kenya, e-Visa.co.uk cannot guarantee the maximum delivery time. Are you submitting an urgent application? Then it will be checked by an e-Visa.co.uk visa specialist within 24 hours at the latest, but usually within an hour. If an error is detected in the process, you will be informed immediately about how to correct it. Once your application is accepted by the visa specialist, it is submitted to the immigration department in Kenya for inspection. From then on, e-Visa.co.uk has no influence on the processing speed of your application, even for urgent applications. Visa applications are always processed per person. Even if you have submitted a group application for several people at the same time. It is normal for there to be a significant gap between when the first and last visa application within a group is reviewed. An application that remains pending longer does not have a higher chance of being rejected.

You will receive at least three emails about your visa application for Kenya. Once you have made the payment, you will receive a confirmation of this. As soon as the documents you submitted have been checked, you will also receive a confirmation of this. And once your visa application has been approved, you will receive another confirmation of this.

Each e-mail contains the same link to your personal status page. On that page, you can always see the status of the visa application for each traveller. Once the application is approved, you can download and print the visas from your personal status page. The visa for Kenya is a pdf document. It can be downloaded and viewed on a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.

You will need to print the visa and keep it with your hand luggage during your trip to Kenya. Alternatively, you may also save the visa on your smartphone or tablet and show the QR-code on the visa upon arrival.

When you arrive in Kenya, you must be able to present the following at the airport:

• your visa, printed or in digital form
• the passport you used to request your visa
• all documents you also provided with your visa application
• the booking confirmation of the flight on which you will leave Kenya again

Have you not yet received any e-mail about your visa application? First, check the folder for unwanted messages on your e-mail programme (the spam folder or ‘junk mailʼ folder). In it, look for an e-mail with the subject line "Documents required for visa application Kenya" or "Visa application Kenya received". Are you unable to find any emails with these subjects here either? Then check the status of your application via this page.

Did you receive an e-mail? If so, click on the link in that e-mail to open your personal status page. On your personal status page, you can view the status for each traveller in your application. Is your visa application taking longer than expected? First, take note that the Kenya visa delivery times mentioned on this website are always averages and not maximum delivery times. Also keep in mind that the delivery time only starts from the moment you have submitted all required documents in good order. Has your application been pending for much longer than the average delivery time? If so, you can respond to an e-mail you have received from us to ask whether any particularities have been noted. Usually, however, it is not possible to influence the processing speed of pending applications.

After completing the application form, you are asked to carefully check that all details are filled in correctly. You can still make corrections until the Kenyan immigration services started processing your application. This usually happens almost immediately after you submit all the required documents. If you notice any errors at a later stage, it is no longer possible to correct them. In many cases, this is also not necessary.

In these cases, your eTA remains valid and you do not need to apply for a new visa:
• You wish to arrive in Kenya on a different date than the one you specified*
• You wish to arrive in Kenya on a different flight or leave the country on a different flight than the one you entered in the form
• Your accommodation address has changed
• Your address or contact details are incorrect

* You may change the arrival date even after your visa is granted, and you do not have to report it. However, you must arrive in Kenya within 3 months from the moment your visa is granted.

However, some errors in the application form may cause your visa to be invalid. In this case, you need to submit a completely new visa application for Kenya. You do not need to cancel the previous visa, which will be automatically overwritten when you submit a new application.

In these cases, your visa is invalid and you must apply for a new one:
• Your name on your visa does not matche the one at the bottom of your passport**
• The passportʼs issue and/or expiry date were entered incorrectly
• The gender on the visa does not match the gender on your passport
• Your nationality was entered incorrectly

** Your name should be the same on your Kenya eTA as at the bottom of your passport in the machine-readable zone, between the ‘<<<’ characters. Also read the question ‘My name is misspelled on the visa, what now?’.
Submit new Kenya visa application immediately

Have you started using a new passport after you applied for a visa for Kenya? If so, the visa is invalid. Submit a new visa application with your new passport and make sure the details you enter reflect the new passport details.

Do you have an accent or punctuation mark in your name, like an ü, ä, ö, ç, é, è, ê, ñ or ß? These letters are changed automatically. Special characters in the name, such as umlauts and diaeresis, are not accepted by the immigration serviceʼs system. The name is therefore converted as it appears in the machine-readable part of the passport. These are the two lines containing many “<<<�” characters at the very bottom of the plastic or laminated page in your passport. The top of these two lines contains your name (right after the country code). Is your name in that section spelled in the same way as on the visa? Then everything is in order and you can travel to Kenya without any problems.

Does the misspelling have nothing to do with a punctuation mark? Then you probably misspelled your name yourself and the visa is invalid. Is someone elseʼs name on your visa, or is part of your name missing? This may be a consequence of your browserʼs autocomplete function. You are responsible for providing the correct data. On the verification page, just before paying, you were still given the chance to check all the details. The only way to correct this is to apply for a completely new visa for Kenya.

You can still cancel the visa application until it is processed by the Kenyan immigration service. Almost immediately after you provide the necessary documents, your application will be processed and handed over to the immigration service. From then on, it is no longer possible to cancel a visa application.

No reconsideration or revocation period applies. There are two reasons for this. First, a visa is personalised and cannot be transferred to another traveller after cancellation. Secondly, visa applications usually cannot be processed until a reflection or withdrawal period has expired. Therefore, just before making the payment, you are explicitly asked if you want to waive the reconsideration period and revocation period by ticking a box, which you had to do to submit your application.

If a visa application for Kenya is rejected, it is important to find out the reason for rejection. This is not an easy task, as Kenyan immigration service usually does not give a reason for a rejection. Often, a rejection is due to one of the following reasons:

• You do not meet the requirements for the Kenya visa
• The application form has not been filled in correctly
• The application form has not been fully completed
• The documents provided do not meet the requirements

Checking the data you have entered
Initially, it is advised checking that all the details in the application form were filled in correctly. Most of the details can be found in the first confirmation email with the subject line "Visa application Kenya received". Can you find an error there? That is probably the reason for the rejection. In that case, submit a new visa application with the correct data.

Has your visa application been rejected for another/unknown reason?
Are you unable to find any error in the data submitted? Then there is no point in submitting a new application as it will probably be rejected again. In that case, you can contact the Kenyan Embassy. There, you can apply for a so-called ‘referred visaʼ.

If your visa application through e-Visa.co.uk is rejected, you will receive a full refund of the purchase cost of your visa. This applies to all applications, with the exception of applications from travellers whose visa applications for Kenya have previously been rejected. e-Visa.co.uk is not responsible for any possible damages resulting from a visa application being granted late or rejected. You can read more about this in the general terms and conditions.

The visa for Kenya can be extended once by 90 days, allowing you to stay in Kenya for a maximum of 180 consecutive days. This can only be done through an immigration office at Nyayo House in Nairobi. Before visiting the office, you need to fill in an application form. This English-language form can be found on the website of the Kenyan immigration services. It is not possible to extend the visa via e-Visa.co.uk.

Unwilling or unable to go to the immigration office? Then you also have the option of leaving Kenya and reapplying for the e-visa from abroad.

Apply for your e-visa for Kenya now

Children and babies need their own passport and travel authorisation (eTA) to travel to Kenya.

Is a child travelling to Kenya without a parent or other legal guardian?
There are special rules for minors travelling abroad without one or more of their parents/legal guardians. The child must take a written authorisation from all legal guardians on the trip. It is further advised that minors always also carry a copy of the ID card or passport of each custodian. These arrangements are in place to prevent child abduction. Find out more at https://www.gov.uk/permission-take-child-abroad.

You are advised to ask your doctor what vaccinations are recommended for Kenya. No medical advice is provided on this page. This information was not written by a doctor.

A visa never guarantees that you will actually be allowed to enter Kenya. Upon arrival in Kenya, the immigration service conducts another check of every traveller. If the immigration service notices anything suspicious, they may carry out a more thorough check of a traveller. However, this only happens in exceptional cases and has the function of ensuring security in Kenya. If you meet all the requirements for travelling to Kenya and do not pose a security risk, you will be allowed to enter the country.

You are allowed to take medicines on your trip, but you should be aware of some rules. In many cases, you need a special licence. You can find out how to obtain this and which medicines are concerned on the website of the NHS.

Would you like to offset the CO₂ emissions from your trip to Kenya? You can easily do so by ticking the ‘offset CO₂ʼ option in your visa application form. The surcharge charged for this will be transferred directly to a VCS-certified project. Read more about this on the page about the Kenya visa costs.

VCS is one of the most well-known and trusted certifiers of climate projects. This ensures that your contribution will actually deliver the desired climate effect. Among the types of projects, you can think of reforestation campaigns in Zimbabwe, developing renewable energy sources in Uganda or installing more energy-efficient cook tops in India.

The amount of the surcharge for CO₂ compensation is calculated on the basis of the CO2 emissions of your outbound and return flights, depending on your destination. So with the CO₂ compensation, you fly completely CO₂-neutral. You can read more about the CO₂ compensation via e-Visa.co.uk in this article.

A lot of personal data is processed on this website. This includes sensitive personal data, such as passport numbers and photos. You can expect it to be handled with care.

e-Visa.co.uk guarantees that your data is protected in accordance with applicable privacy regulations (GDPR). To this end, both technical and organisational precautions have been taken. Your data will only be processed through secure connections and stored encrypted. Your data will also be deleted immediately when its storage is no longer necessary. e-Visa.co.uk has designed and reviewed its privacy policy in collaboration with Taylor Wessing, an internationally renowned law firm.

Your personal data will only be processed in the execution of your order; applying for a visa for Kenya. Your data will not be sold or used for other commercial purposes. Nevertheless, processing personal data always involves risks, also if all precautions are followed. Your personal data may need to be shared with various government agencies in order to obtain a Kenya visa. They assess whether you might pose a security risk and whether your application will be approved. e-Visa.co.uk cannot influence these government bodies and what they do with your personal data. You can read more about this in the privacy policy.