Uganda Visa and Entry Requirements

The quick answer

You need a visa, and you apply for it online before you fly. Your passport must have an expiry date at least six months after the day you arrive. You may be asked for a yellow fever vaccination certificate, and if you are, it is the physical card that is wanted, not a photograph of it.

These rules are set and enforced by the Ugandan authorities and they change. Check them again in the fortnight before you fly, and check them against the routing you are actually flying rather than the country you think of as your destination.

Passport validity

To enter Uganda your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond your arrival date. This is the rule that most often turns a holiday into a canceled flight, because airlines check it at the departure gate and a passport that satisfies your own country's renewal advice may still fail it.

You will also be refused entry if you travel on a document that has been reported lost or stolen, even if you have since found it. If that has ever happened to your passport, replace it.

The visa itself

Applications are made online. You attach the required documents and certificates, and you may be asked to submit a yellow fever vaccination certificate as part of the application. The immigration authorities then email you a letter of authorization carrying a barcode.

Print that letter. You present it on arrival and border officials issue the visa against it. A phone with a flat battery at the end of a long flight is a bad place to keep the only copy of the document that gets you into the country.

Which visa

There is more than one category and the right one depends on what you are doing. A holiday, a conference and volunteering are not the same application. Check the categories before you start, because changing category after approval is harder than choosing correctly at the outset.

If you are visiting more than one country

Uganda participates in the East Africa Tourist Visa, a single multiple-entry visa shared with Kenya and Rwanda. If your itinerary covers two or three of those countries it is usually simpler than three separate applications, and the country you enter first is the one you apply to. If your itinerary includes Tanzania, it is not covered.

Yellow fever

Yellow fever comes up twice: once in the visa application, and again at the border. Carry the physical certificate and keep it with your passport rather than in your hold luggage.

This is also the requirement that catches multi-country itineraries, because it can depend on where you have been rather than where you are going. A transit through a third country can change what is asked of you. See Uganda Travel Safety Guide for the wider health picture, including the current status of Ebola in the region.

What to have with you at the border

• Your passport, valid at least six months beyond arrival.
• The printed letter of authorization with its barcode.
• Your yellow fever certificate, the physical card.
• Proof of onward or return travel.
• Your accommodation details for the first night.

A note on unofficial help

Because the application is online and unfamiliar, there is a trade in sites that offer to do it for you at a markup, and some of them are not authorized. Apply through the official government portal. If a site is charging you a service fee on top of the visa fee, you are paying for form filling you can do yourself.

How we handle this

We check entry requirements against the routing you are actually flying, not the country in the brochure, and we do it close to departure rather than at the time of booking, because that is when the answer is true.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Uganda entry requirements: passport validity, the online visa and the yellow fever certificate. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Uganda health advice, including the status of the Ebola outbreak. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Travelers’ Health, Uganda: vaccination guidance, malaria and yellow fever. Accessed 14 September 2026.