The Uganda e-visa and e-immigration system

What the system does

The Ugandan embassy in Washington says the government introduced the electronic visa and permit system with effect from 1 July 2016. Travellers for tourism, business, study, visits or medical reasons must apply online before boarding ¹.

Thales, the system's supplier, says on its provider page that the client is the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control. It says the system covers single and multiple entry visas, business visas, special passes, work permits and the East Africa Tourist Visa ². Thales says the system holds a central traveller database secured by fingerprint matching, checks applicants against a control list and has an alert system ². Thales reports 12,019 applications in the first month, of which 9,404 were visa applications ².

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said in April 2021 that the e-Immigration System handles visas, work permits, passes, residence certificates, citizenship and border management ⁴. It said the system was deployed in Mbarara, Jinja, Mbale, Gulu and 16 missions abroad ⁴.

Step by step

• Log on to the portal, start a new application and accept the disclaimer ⁶.
• Choose the type, category and subcategory, then fill in the form ⁶.
• Upload the documents. The system gives a six-digit application ID ⁶.
• Pay online where prepayment is required ⁶. Payments made to an embassy bank account are non-refundable ¹.
• An immigration officer reviews the file and may ask for more information through the portal ¹.
• If approved, the approval letter arrives by email. Print it and travel with a passport valid for at least six months ¹.
• At the airport or border, report for biometric capture with the passport, letter and receipts ⁶.

At the border

Thales says the barcode on the electronic travel authorisation is scanned at the border post or airport and the traveller's fingerprints are taken. After the fee is paid, a visa is printed and placed in the passport ². The embassy says the travel authorisation does not guarantee entry and a second check may be needed before the visa is issued ¹.

The approval is valid for 90 days from the day of approval, according to the NCIC tourist visa page ⁶. The embassy page says applicants should apply at least 5 working days before travel. The 2021 directorate notice says at least ten days ^1,3.

Outages and the temporary exemption

An undated NCIC notice says an upgrade of the e-immigration system left travellers unable to use the online visa service. It told airlines to let travellers bound for Uganda board without prior e-visa approval and said visas would be issued on arrival until the system was restored ⁵. The notice does not give a date, so this guide cannot say whether it is in force ⁵.

Fake sites

The embassy in Washington warns that fraudulent websites charge extra processing fees and tells applicants to use only the official portal ¹. NCIC lists the single entry visa at US$50 and the East Africa Tourist Visa at US$100 ^6,7.