In January 2025, Mauritania rolled out its e-visa or eVisa regime for tourists to this West African nation. Here’s the ins and outs of obtaining your Mauritanian eVisa, which is the only way you can enter the Islamic Republic
Contents
- 1 Mauritanian eVisa Changes
- 2 Applying for Our Mauritanian eVisas
- 3 Crossing the Border into/out of Mauritania
- 4 How Long Does it Take to Receive your Mauritanian eVisa?
- 5 Entering Mauritania with your eVisa by Air
- 6 Extending Your Mauritanian eVisa
- 7 Overstaying Your Mauritanian eVisa
- 8 Helpful post? Consider buying me an itay!
- 9 Sharing is caring!
Mauritanian eVisa Changes
Mauritania is a country where things change on the daily. Yes, even in bureaucratic procedures. You need to build in multiple contingencies and try to get info that is the most up-to-date.
In early January 2025, the government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania changed its tourist visa policy. Now, all nationals who require a visa to enter Mauritania need to obtain one through their eVisa portal. This is everyone except Algerians, Chadians, Ivorians, Gambians, Libyans, Malians, Nigeriens, Senegalese, and Tunisians. If you didn’t see your nationality in that list, you’ll need an eVisa before trying to enter Mauritania. Yes, even Moroccans – Mauritania’s direct neighbors through the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara – don’t get to visit for free.
It doesn’t matter how you arrive in Mauritania; whether by road, sailboat, cruiseship, or plane, you’ll need a Mauritanian eVisa. Lots of people missed the memo that you can’t get a visa on arrival at the border anymore. On the north-south winter migration in West Africa, lots of people got stuck at the Moroccan-Mauritanian border for exactly this reason.
However, as of February 2025, the price of the eVisa has remained the same as the visa on arrival: €55 per person to be paid in cash. It’s valid for 30 days. This is unless your passport comes from “The Arab World and Africa”, in which case 30 days will cost you €40.
Can you pay for the Mauritanian eVisa in other currencies such as Mauritanian Ouguiyas, Moroccan Dirham, Senegalese West African CFA Franc, or US Dollar? That depends a little on the border and the day. On the government website, the price is listed in Mauritanian Ouguiyas (2000 MRU), Euros (55 EUR), and US Dollars (60 USD). However, our recent land-border experience from Morocco taught us that US$ was not accepted, only Euros. And no one in our group already carried Ouguiyas with them.
It appears that paying 2000 MRU is a lot cheaper than €55, with a difference of about €7. But if the exchange rate is off, the border officials will simply charge more in Ouguiyas (e.g. 2200 MRU) on the day. You can try to outsmart them, but always make sure you have Euros on you.
So the lesson is as such: if you can, bring Euros. And make sure to have the cash amount exact as the border officials are unlikely to give change.
Applying for Our Mauritanian eVisas
On Sunday evening, four days before our bus to the Moroccan-Mauritanian border, we sent in our application. We assumed it was necessary to have a confirmed bus ticket and hotel booking for our visa application, but it was not a requirement. In fact, I recommend you only book your bus and hotel when you have received the Mauritanian eVisa.
The visa portal is ANRPTS.gov.mr. Go to the website and select the 30-day visa. It also says you can apply for a 90-day, 360-day, and 720-day visas, but those are for residents, expats, and drivers from neighboring countries (allegedly). Even though you can click the drop-down box and select ‘tourism’ as your reason to travel under the 720-day visa for the bargain of €270… Expect this to change right after this article gets published.
So, you’ve clicked the visa valid for 30 days and now have an online form to fill in. You might notice that the English is a little off. For example, under number of entries, it says “unique”. That’s because it’s a French translation.
Fill in your email address, phone number, reason for travel (tourism, always), arrival date, single-entry, address in Mauritania (your first hotel/hostel/guesthouse), and a description of reason for travel (give them a rough route with entry and exit points).
Since we entered Mauritania, they added another requirement, which is uploading a supporting document for your application. The examples they give are letter of invitation or certificate… People in the WhatsApp group freaked out, but this field isn’t mandatory. I’d simply book a refundable hotel in your first place of arrival (usually Nouadhibou or Nouakchott) and upload a screenshot of the booking confirmation. Or simply leave it empty.
Next you have two screens to input data like your passport number (under 10 digits), place of issue, name, date of birth, nationality, profession, etc. We filled this in in English.
Then the two big steps that require some preparation from your side: pass photo and passport scan. We took new pass photos with a smartphone in front of a white wall of our Airbnb in Dakhla. Then we used GIMP (you can also use Canva) on our laptops to crop it to the correct size of 480×640 pixels and exported it as a file under 400KB in .JPG file. Then upload it to your Mauritanian eVisa application.
You can also use ImageResizer on your phone in the browser, but the program crashed on me once. You need to select “crop” and not “resize” to get the proper dimensions for your pass photo. Get the pass photo well-framed before you download, and make sure the size of the end result is under 400KB.
The passport scan is a similar process. We used one actual color passport scan and one photo since my passport is very new and I didn’t have a scan yet. I used an A4 paper to make a white background. We also made sure to crop it according to the requirements and then uploaded it and hoped for the best.
Now that you’ve uploaded everything, you’ll get to an overview page of the data you’ve filled in. Once you’ve looked that over, click send.
This will send you to the page with your tracking code with your passport number. At first, it will say that your eVisa application is still under review. Copy the tracking code and save it somewhere else, because you need to manually check the status of your Mauritanian eVisa application. They won’t send you an email (as of yet). To periodically check the status of your visa, go back to the website and find the “track your request” button. Enter your tracking code and passport number to see if your visa is available.
Sometime later… And voilà! You have your Mauritanian eVisa!
Now it’s time to hit that download button. If you have trouble downloading the eVisa once it’s available, try a different browser. The Mauritanian eVisa looks like this as of February 2025. Yes, there are five QR codes on the page…
Anonymized Mauritanian eVisa
Then put it on a USB stick or something else and bring it to your nearest copy shop to print it out for entry into Mauritania. While you’re there, ask them to copy your passport. Make 5 prints of the eVisa and 10 of your passport ID page. It doesn’t need to be printed in color, but you can do that for bonus kudos at the border if you want. You’ll need the passport copies for traveling overland in Mauritania as well. A copy of your passport is called fiche in Mauritania.
It took us about 48 hours before it was approved. I’m hoping that they will soon start to email us travelers when it’s approved, because checking it manually is nerve-wracking. It’s really difficult to plan around such insecurities.
Crossing the Border into/out of Mauritania
TL;DR: when entering, they check your printed-out Mauritanian eVisa and scan all the QR codes. They also take your picture and finger prints. Then you need to pay for the eVisa in cash (have it exact!). They stamp your eVisa paper along with your passport, which you need to carry around in-country. When leaving, they check the eVisa as well and stamp it again, as well as your passport.
Coming soon, a blog post about taking the Guerguerat border into Mauritania from Morocco-controlled Western Sahara.
Perhaps a blog post about leaving Mauritania in direction Senegal as well.
What is a good day to travel to Mauritania?
Mauritania has something of a three-day weekend: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday see very little activity. The best days to cross the border (going or leaving) are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday*. Friday is especially a big day for prayer. Remember you’re traveling to one of the three Islamic Republics out there and this is probably the most devout one.
*Thursday is still okay, but in the days after your arrival you’ll have troubles getting certain things done, such as getting a Mauritanian SIM card.
Do I have to arrive in Mauritania on the arrival date on my eVisa?
No, it’s on the starting day of your eVisa or in the days after. I wouldn’t push it more than a day or two. Source: people in the Mauritania Backpackers WhatsApp group who entered the day after and had no issue at the border.
If you’re hitchhiking from Dakhla to Guerguerat or Saint-Louis to Diama or Rosso, you might get unlucky and fail to enter Mauritania on the day it says you’ll arrive on your eVisa.
But as always, you might get unlucky and deal with a border agent who interprets your eVisa in a different way.
How Long Does it Take to Receive your Mauritanian eVisa?
This depends on how long in advance you’re applying. They do have a system to prioritize people who will travel to Mauritania in the next week before people who will come in a few months. But it also depends on how busy they are. The ‘busy’ season for travel to Mauritania is winter, which is between December and February.
RUMINT: on Sundays the visa approval people have their day off, so no one receives their visa on that day.
You will not receive an email about your Mauritanian eVisa status. You have to check manually by going to the visa track page and filling in the track ID you received by email.
Our visa validation took 48 hours. Since we only applied four days before departure, we got nervous after 24 hours. Some people received it within 12 hours. We’ve also heard of people waiting for over a week. Conclusion: you can’t draw conclusions—you just have to wait. At least you’re not paying for it online!
Help, my eVisa got rejected. What now?
Apply again. It’s free. But make sure you’re changing up what went wrong the first time.
The only reason we’ve heard people’s applications getting rejected was by not abiding by the photo requirements. Specifically, the 3:4 dimensions of the pass photo, resized to 480×640 pixels and under 400KB. If that’s okay, maybe look at the quality of your passport scan/photo. Everything needs to be readable.
Entering Mauritania with your eVisa by Air
When flying into Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport (NKC), you will also need an eVisa. I repeat, the visa on arrival doesn’t exist anymore in 2025. Once you’ve gone through the application process and received your eVisa, proceed like the land border tourists: print out the eVisa, some copies of your passport, and make sure to bring cash to pay for your Mauritanian eVisa. The airport is easier for paying, since you can pay in both US Dollars as well as Euros. Make sure to have this cash amount exact.
Book the flight first or apply for the eVisa first? I’d say the flight. Flying into/out of Mauritania is very expensive, so try to get the best deal on that as you possibly can. Then apply for the eVisa. Remember, if you apply far in advance, it might take a long time before they process your eVisa request. Just sit tight and make sure your pass photo dimensions are to their current standard.
Extending Your Mauritanian eVisa
The tourist visa is currently (February 2025) not extendable by design.
However, some people reapplied for the eVisa while in Mauritania (see below). I can’t verify whether this works and if it’s a reliable way to extend your visa without getting into trouble later.
Overstaying Your Mauritanian eVisa
I would never recommend to overstay your Mauritanian eVisa, but we know things happen. If you end up visiting the desert and everything takes longer than expected (it will), you might end up overstaying your welcome. We didn’t overstay, so I’m just condensing the experiences from someone who was in Mauritania at the same time who overstayed by a few days. Her problem was that her visa for Senegal wasn’t authorized yet and there was a three-day gap.
She said that she had to reapply for the eVisa and pay €55 again at the office that deals with such things. This is the location of the ANRPTS office in Nouakchott. She went to this office in Nouakchott and explained her situation to an official, who said tourists can’t stay over 30 days (and can’t apply for the 90-day visa). However, she didn’t have to pay for the second eVisa in Nouakchott and crossed the Diama land border to Senegal a few days later without issues or payment. No one even asked her for the second eVisa.
However, there’s a chance this was just her luck. Border police and immigration can have selective attention to detail.
Helpful post? Consider buying me an itay!
Sharing is caring!
