Malawi Visa and Entry Requirements

The quick answer

You need a visa, and unlike many countries you can get one on arrival. Your passport must be valid for at least six months after the day you arrive. Bring US dollars in cash to pay for the visa, and complete the Traveller Health Check form before you fly if you can.

These rules are set and enforced by the Malawian authorities and they change. Check them again in the two weeks before departure.

Passport validity

Your passport must have an expiry date at least six months after the day you arrive in Malawi. You will be denied entry without a valid travel document, or if you try to travel on a passport that has been reported lost or stolen, even if you have since found it. If that has ever happened to yours, replace it.

The visa, and what it costs

Single and multiple entry visas can be obtained on arrival, and the FCDO advises bringing US dollars in cash to pay. The published fees are:

• 50 US dollars for a single-entry visa
• 150 US dollars for a six-month multiple entry visa
• 250 US dollars for a one-year multiple entry visa

E-visas are also available in advance through the Malawi Immigration website, which is worth doing if you would rather not arrive holding several hundred dollars in cash. Whichever route you take, bring clean, undamaged notes: worn or older US bills are refused more often than people expect across the region.

If you intend to live, work or study in Malawi, a tourist visa is not the right document and the immigration service publishes the alternatives.

The Traveller Health Check form

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation requires arriving passengers to complete a Traveller Health Check form. You can reach it on arrival through a QR code, or complete it in advance. Do it in advance. It is the difference between walking past a queue and standing in one after a long flight with a phone that will not connect.

Vaccination certificates

Two certificates can be required at the border, and both are conditional rather than universal.

• Yellow fever, if you are arriving from a country listed as a transmission risk. The CDC adds the detail that catches people routing through a third country: this includes airport transits or layovers of more than 12 hours, and applies from age one.
• Polio, in some circumstances.

⚠ Note the distinction that matters. The CDC does not recommend yellow fever vaccination for travel to Malawi on health grounds, and it is not required for direct travel from the United States. The certificate requirement is about where you have been, not about Malawi. Those are different questions and they have different answers.

Vaccines the CDC does recommend

Separately from any entry rule, the CDC recommends hepatitis A for unvaccinated travelers aged one and over and typhoid for most travelers to Malawi, and advises that everyone going to Malawi takes prescription antimalarials. Speak to a travel clinic at least eight weeks before departure, which is also the FCDO's advice. See Malawi Travel Safety Guide.

Traveling with children through South Africa

If your route passes through South Africa with anyone aged 17 or under, South Africa has its own documentation requirements for minors that apply in transit. Check them before you book the routing, not after.

Customs

There are strict rules on what may be taken into and out of Malawi, and anything prohibited or subject to tax or duty must be declared. Two prohibitions worth knowing in advance: it is illegal to buy uncut precious gemstones, and illegal to buy, sell or carry protected wildlife products, with ivory illegal outright and prosecution likely for anyone caught with it. A carving offered at a roadside stall is not worth a prison sentence.

Before you book

Read Malawi Travel Safety Guide for the advisory position, which is milder than most of this region, and Malawi Currency and Money Guide for how to carry the cash the visa needs.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Malawi entry requirements: passport validity, visas on arrival and their fees, and the Traveller Health Check form. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Malawi health advice, including cholera and the standard of healthcare. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Travelers’ Health, Malawi: malaria, schistosomiasis, cholera, rabies and routine vaccination. Accessed 14 September 2026.