Getting Visas for Somaliland, Djibouti, Sudan, and Egypt in Addis Ababa

I spent a lot of time in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, just getting visas for my next destinations, so I put together this post to hopefully help other travelers on the same mission. Here’s my guide to getting visas for Somaliland, Djibouti, Sudan, and Egypt in Addis Ababa.

If you’re heading to Kenya, check out this Kenya E-Visa Guide.

⚠️ Please note: Regulations, embassy locations, and fees can change quickly in Africa, so I can’t guarantee that everything here is still accurate.

Egypt Visa

I started with Egypt because, in order to get a visa for Sudan, you’ll need your Egyptian visa first if you plan to travel overland. I also thought this one would be the easiest since Egypt usually offers visas on arrival and I actually didn’t need to get the visa beforehand if I was just traveling to Egypt. How wrong I was…

Here is what you need:

• 700 + 400 Ethiopian Birr
• ATM receipt
• Two color passport photos with a white background
• Printed hotel booking confirmation
• Copy of your passport and yellow fever certificate
• Completed application form

The visa section is open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and I went there feeling confident, thinking it would only take 10 minutes. I had 700 Birr, a copy of my passport, and passport photos. After filling out the application form and handing it to the woman at the embassy, she told me I would also need a hotel reservation and an ATM or currency exchange receipt for the money.

I had asked my taxi driver to wait outside to take me back to my hotel, since I thought this would only be a quick errand. Instead, we spent the next two hours trying to find an ATM that actually printed receipts. Most of them were out of paper, and some didn’t even give a warning. I ended up withdrawing far too many Ethiopian birr just by testing different machines. Finally, we ended up at the Hilton Hotel, which turned out to be the best option—they had plenty of working ATMs, and I also managed to get a copy of my yellow fever certificate there.

On the way back to the embassy, I booked a hotel in Egypt (which I later canceled) and thought I finally had everything sorted. But no—when I arrived, I was told I needed to print the hotel booking confirmation, and my black-and-white passport photos weren’t acceptable. They required color photos. With only 20 minutes left before the embassy closed, my taxi driver rushed to find a place that could do passport photos on the spot. Luckily, we found one, I got the photos done, and then hurried to an internet café to print my hotel booking confirmation.

I made it back to the embassy at exactly 12 o’clock, and this time everything was in order. I left my phone number with them, and they promised to call once the visa was ready.

It took three days before I finally heard back, and when I went to pick up the visa, I was told to pay an extra 400 Birr due to newly changed regulations. I hadn’t expected that, but I was so relieved to have the visa in hand that I didn’t really care.

Somaliland Visa

Getting a visa for Somaliland turned out to be the easiest of them all—you can even get it on the same day! The hardest part was actually finding the embassy, since no one seemed to know the exact location. I had two addresses, one from Google Maps and another from an offline map app, but both were wrong.

Fortunately, my taxi driver eventually figured it out. Since street names aren’t commonly used in Ethiopia, I’ll explain as clearly as I can: if you use Google Maps, search for the Embassy of Malawi. Coming from Cameroon Street, you’ll pass the Embassy of Malawi first, and the Embassy of Somaliland is just after it, on the same side of the street.

Check out the exact location here.

Here is what you’ll need:

• $100
• One passport photo
• Copy of your passport
• Completed application form

I submitted my application in the morning, and just three hours later I was able to return and pick up my visa and passport. Easy! Be sure to ask for a receipt—this can be very useful later when entering Somaliland.

Djibouti Visa

This was the second hardest visa to get after Egypt, which is ironic since you can actually get it on arrival at the airport. However, I had planned to travel overland, and I had heard too many stories of people running into problems at the border without a visa, so I didn’t want to take the risk.

Here is what you’ll need:

• $80 (or $95 for same-day processing)
• Printed hotel booking confirmation
• Flight ticket OR a letter from your embassy
• Completed application form

If you plan to travel to Djibouti overland, you’ll need a letter from your embassy. I never really figured out what the letter was supposed to say. The woman at the Djibouti embassy told me that my own embassy would know what to write. I rushed to my embassy, but after half an hour of arguing, they told me they had never heard of such a letter and refused to provide it to me.

When I returned to the Djibouti embassy, the same woman showed me an example letter from a Dutch traveler—apparently, some nationalities have better luck than others. She explained that without the letter she couldn’t issue me a visa, which left me with only one option: buy a flight ticket.

If you find yourself in the same situation, here’s the workaround:

1. Go to any Ethiopian Airlines ticket office and buy a flight (make sure it’s refundable).

2. Take the booking confirmation to the Djibouti embassy along with your application.

3. After submitting the application, go back to the airline office and cancel the ticket.

Visa applications are accepted in the morning from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m., and visas can be collected in the afternoon after 2:30 p.m.

Sudan Visa

Getting a visa for Sudan can be more expensive and complicated for Americans. This was my experience applying with an EU passport.

Here is what you’ll need:

• Copy of your passport
• Copy of your Ethiopian visa
• Copy of your onward flight ticket OR a copy of your visa for the next country
• $68
• Two passport photos
• Completed application form
• Sponsor details: name, address, phone number

The easiest option is to apply for a transit visa. For that, you’ll need either an onward flight ticket or the visa for your next country (in my case, Egypt) if you plan to travel overland. The transit visa is valid for two weeks and must be used within one month of issue.

You’ll also need sponsor details, which you can usually get by emailing a hotel. I stayed at Corinthia Khartoum, and they provided me with the required information.

I had heard horror stories about how difficult it was to get the visa, but maybe the regulations have changed, because for me it was ready just one day after I submitted my application. Be prepared to wait a long time when dropping off your paperwork, though—this was by far the busiest embassy of the four. Hundreds of Ethiopians hoping to move to Sudan for work were also applying for visas, so the place was packed. The staff at the embassy, however, were very friendly, and I didn’t really mind the wait.

Some General Tips:

•  Buy a local SIM card in Ethiopia. For example, the Egyptian embassy will call you when your visa is ready, and having a local SIM just makes life easier overall.
• Hilton Hotel is everything. I didn’t stay there, but I went countless times to make copies or use their ATMs, which reliably give receipts.
• Travel with a USB stick. Printing documents can be tricky—connections are unreliable, and some places only print files if you provide them on a USB stick.
• Bring US dollars before traveling to Ethiopia. I can’t stress enough how important this is. Trying to get dollars in Ethiopia is a pain in the ass.
• If you run out of dollars, try the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (head office). You can find it at the intersection of Churchill Avenue and Yohanis Street on Google Maps. For the exchange process, you’ll need: an ATM receipt (must be from Commercial Bank), an onward flight ticket (which is tricky if you are traveling overland), your passport, a completed application form. Sounds like a lot of work just to exchange money, right? And to make matters worse, you can’t get more than $100 at a time. Honestly, it’s much easier to bring enough dollars with you from home—you don’t want to repeat this process three times like I did.
  

• Always ask for receipts. For all your visas, exchanges, and ATM transactions, always ask for receipts and keep them. You might not need them, but in Africa people love their paperwork and bureaucracy, and sometimes a single piece of paper can save your day. For example, when I was asked to pay extra fees while entering Somaliland, I showed my visa receipt and was allowed to pass without paying.

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