Visa

All visitors require a passport, return or onward tickets and sufficient funds to cover their stay in Botswana.

If you need a visa for Botswana, then you must get one before you arrive in country. Contact your local Botswana embassy or high commission who are the best source to verify that the information here is still current.

Currently, visitors holding passports from the following countries do not need a visa:

• All EU (European Union) countries
• USA, South Africa, Scandinavian countries, Uruguay, Western Samoa and countries from the former Yugoslavia.
• All Commonwealth countries (except Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Mauritius – whose citizens do need visas).

Citizens from these countries will be granted a one-month entry permit on arrival.

Passport and visa requirements are liable to change at short notice. Travellers are advised to check their entry requirements with their embassy/or consulate or the following Botswana Tourism Organisation website.

Travelling with children under 18 years of age

Immigration requirement for travelling to Botswana.

Parents travelling to Botswana with children under 18 years old are required to produce an unabridged birth certificate (including details of the child's father as well as mother) for all children travelling in addition to their valid passports.

In the event that one parent is not travelling with the child, the other parent's affidavit consenting to such travel should be availed. However, an affidavit will not be required if the father's name does not appear on the child's birth certificate.

Adults travelling with children under 18 years old who are not the parents must produce a signed affidavit from both parents stating that the identified adult has been given their authority to travel with their child, said adult will need unabridged birth certificate of all children in their care.

Passing through Customs

All persons arriving in Botswana must unreservedly declare all goods in their possession to a Customs official on duty on a baggage declaration document, Form J.

Customs has a duty to protect Botswana from illicit goods; therefore, checks may be made on travellers and their baggage.

Duty Free Allowance

Customs duties are not charged on the following goods imported as accompanied or un-accompanied passengers’ baggage:

The following articles and consumables (excluding any goods the importation of which is prohibited), declared at the place where the traveller enters Botswana and not imported on behalf of other persons or by way of trade, may be admitted free of duty and, where applicable, Value Add Tax (VAT).

• Wines - 2 litres
• Spirituous and other alcoholic beverages - 1 litre
• Cigarettes - 200
• Cigars - 20
• Cigarette or pipe tobacco - 250 gms
• Perfume - 50 ml
• Other new or used goods of a total value not exceeding (from outside SACU) - 3000 UA*
• Other new or used goods of a total value not exceeding (from SACU) - 500 UA*

*UA is equivalent to One South African Rand.

Prohibited Goods

The importation of, among other things, the following goods into Botswana is completely prohibited. It is illegal to be found in possession of prohibited goods and may result in seizure and prosecution. These include:

• Narcotic, habit-forming drugs and related substances in any form.
• Military firearms, ammunition and explosives
• Indecent and obscene material such as pornographic books, magazines, films, videos, DVDs and software

Currency

Although there is no restriction on the cross-border movement of bank notes in Botswana, there is a need to monitor the movement of money into and out of Botswana for various purposes. Therefore, when you enter or leave Botswana, you are required to declare pula and/or foreign currency bank notes in your possession, which equals or exceeds an equivalent of ten thousand pula (P10000). However, you need not declare traveller's cheques and other monetary instruments.