It’s possible to get your Guinea-Bissau visa in Senegal near the border in Ziguinchor. We acquired ours on the 21st of March, 2025.
Research into the Guinea-Bissau Visa
My original digging I did into the visa for Guinea-Bissau led me to believe we could get a visa on arrival (VOA) for 90 days, at a cost of €85 per person. Or an eVisa, but no official website link to get it. Once we were on the ground in West Africa, the stories from fellow travelers were wildly different. Some said it was necessary to get it at the embassy in your home country in Europe. Others said the Guinea-Bissau VOA only exists at the airport. It’s still very unclear to me how and what the visa policy of Guinea-Bissau is like. The Wikipedia seems outdated.
However, through the West Africa traveler’s Guinea-Bissau-themed WhatsApp group, stories came in from people getting it at the consulate in Ziguinchor, Casamance region, southern Senegal. They said it was very simple. In and out under 10 minutes, just hand over your passport, wait, and pay €40 or 25000 XOF. West African Franc (XOF) is better, because Euros are difficult to replenish. No pass photos or anything required. Much simpler than getting the Mauritanian eVisa.
Our temporary travel buddy Zach did it a few days before we wanted to try, so the reports were all very recent. He told us that the Guinea-Bissau visa is a full-page sticker visa. So you need to have a full page in your passport available.
Location + Opening Times of the Guinea-Bissau Consulate in Ziguinchor
Google Maps has the location of the “Guinea-Bissau Embassy” in the correct location, as does OpenStreetMaps. It’s on the corner of one asphalted street and one unpaved street. The Bissau-Guinean flag 🇬🇼 flies above it, so you can’t miss it. If you prefer coordinates, this is it: 12.580549311345234, -16.26767824726281
As for the opening times, it’s unclear. My experience with embassies and consulates is that they’re not open very often. Your best guess is always going on a weekday between 9:00 and 11:00. However, Zach went on a Saturday after 17:00 and had to call a phone number on the gate and had success. There are also reports of people obtaining it on a Sunday.
Here are the phone numbers on the gate, which I protect from spam and abuse since they’re a bunch of nice people:
Main number: 775316228
Secondary number: 773716669
If you know you’re trying to get the visa on the weekend or late in the day and don’t spend more than one night in Ziguinchor, maybe contact the guy beforehand. They are also on WhatsApp.
Our Experience Getting the Guinea-Bissau Visa
After a 15-minute walk from our accommodation in Ziguinchor, we arrived at the consulate at 10:47. It’s easy to find. The gate was open, so we walked through a garden to a building with a shield saying Republica da Guiné-Bissau — Consulado Geral. I said bom dia and one guy said it back and pointed us to some free seats. There was one man at a desk, while there were four other people around in the waiting area. We were the only tourists.
One man came to us and said that the consul is out, but to wait for a bit as he’ll arrive soon. We sat down and scrolled for a bit, until a man in white prayer attire on the phone walked in through the building. One of the men in charge of operations said we should follow and go in. I said obrigada and the man found that funny.
At 10:55, Jonas and I sat in different seats in the office, which was nice and airconditioned. I grabbed my passport and gave it to Jonas. Jonas handed over the stack to the consul, who was still on the phone, which laid on his desk. Not on loudspeaker. I couldn’t hear the other side. When people speak Portuguese fast, it’s still sweet little nothings to me.
He grabbed two sticker visas and started filling in the details from our passports. I don’t know how he maintained a conversation on the phone while writing down all these weird passport details. He then grabbed a cool machine that made a 3D imprint on the sticker visa. It looked like cork device for wine bottles. Then he got the adhesive protection off and carefully attached the visa sticker to both our passports. He seemed to have a system to not get them switched up.
The consul handed our visas back and we both had a quick look over it. The 3D effect of the stamp was really cool. I saw someone else had put a sticker from their overlanding Africa journey on the bottom of the desk. AbenteuerRallye.info. He managed to put this there… with permission?
Anyway, the details were correct. It said we were welcome to Guinea-Bissau for 30 days starting from today, until the 20th of April 2025. We were out of the building at 11:03. That’s 8 minutes in total, not 5 like Luise and Alex had. Absolutely the best real full-page visa experience I’ve ever had. All the others were a pain in the ass.
Once outside, we snapped a few pictures and then were off to find an ATM. The cool thing is that Senegal and Guinea-Bissau (and a bunch of other West African countries) use the West African Franc (XOF) as their currency. Like a little Eurozone. Very practical for us travelers. Jonas had already withdrawn all his money from Wave at a Wave Agency (coordinates: 12.582500270029964, -16.267744397859456) since you can’t use Wave in Guinea-Bissau (but they have Orange Money). Then it was time to eat breakfast at Hotel Le Perroquet and celebrate this small victory.
Getting a 60 Days or 90 Days Visa to Guinea-Bissau
One person in the Guinea-Bissau WhatsApp group chat got back to me and reported she received 90 days at the consulate in Ziguinchor. She paid 40000 XOF (€61) for the pleasure of (legally) staying in Guinea-Bissau as long as possible as a tourist. She reported that 60 days will set you back 35000 XOF (€53). So if you’re unsure about how much time you want or need in Guinea-Bissau, you can get a longer visa. Just make sure the consul isn’t on the phone so you can ask him for the longer visa.
How to Travel from Ziguinchor to Bissau
Here’s my main post about our border crossing experience between Mpak, Senegal, and São Domingos, Guinea-Bissau (and how to get to Cacheu by boat!)
Mpak – São Domingos Border Crossing by Taxi, Motorbike and Canoa
I advise you to get the visa right before leaving Ziguinchor, as the date you get the visa is your official entry date and the days start counting down. Just in case you love Guinea-Bissau and want to maximize your days there without having to figure out how to get a Guinea-Bissau visa extension. If you plan to visit Cap Skirring as well as Ziguinchor, first do Cap Skirring and then get the visa on return to Ziguinchor.
At the gare routière in Ziguinchor (coordinates: 12.584027877160649, -16.261825076234633) are many buses, minivans, and sept-places going all sorts of places. There’s one area with a roof where the transports to Guinea-Bissau gather. People will shout their destinations at you. Once you find an acceptable vehicle, you can negotiate a price.
Some prices we’ve heard from other travelers from Ziguinchor to Bissau: 4000 + 1000 XOF for bags, showed up at 7:15 and departed at 9:15 and arrived in Bissau at 15:00. Another person arrived at 8:00, didn’t depart until 10:30, and paid 6000 XOF for the pleasure of arriving during the hottest part of the day in Bissau. Someone from Romania managed to pay 1000 XOF from Ziguinchor to São Domingos and 2500 XOF from there to Bissau, but were quoted an extra 500 XOF for the one vehicle option from Ziguinchor to Bissau.
The bus terminal in Ziguinchor is my least favorite part of the city. I was there when I arrived from the Soma border from The Gambia and needed to switch to Cap Skirring. It’s very busy and hot in the middle of the day. Besides, I think we’ll try to get from Ziguinchor to São Domingos right across the border and hopefully catch the pirogue to Cacheu. The first 18 kilometers from Ziguinchor to Mpak will probably be were in a taxi. See blog post tagged above, because the boat worked!
Note that the road between São Domingos and Bissau gets progressively worse until basically the airport. If you want to dodge the rollercoaster of a main highway, I can highly recommend the boat from São Domingos to Cacheu, then a van to Canchungo, and then another van to Bissau. Most of these roads were splendidly tolerable. Thing of yer spine!
Good intel? Consider buying me a bissap!
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