Another senegal visa question
 

Hi everyone
I know this topic has been discussed a few times, but I am still unclear so any help would be gratefully appreciated

I'm looking to cross into senegal from mauritania and head into Mali. Am I right in thinking I can apply for the visa online and collect it in mauritania? Also I plan to drive straight through, or possibly camp one evening, so I don't have any hotel bookings or an address for family. How do I go about getting the visa with out these?

Thanks in advance for your help

Yes, Noakchott is a visa-issuance place (as is Rosso, on the border, I think) so they will do the biometric visa there. You can do it in advance but if you do it en-route it works just as well (I filled mine out and printed the sheet 5 minutes before I walked into the office).

You need to put something in the visa application, but I have never heard of them actually checking. I sent a screenshot of an email that informally confirmed a hotel reservation. Some friends visiting me here did the same thing. You could fabricate something, or create and then cancel a hotel reservation. Of course the safest thing to do is to just make the reservation and then keep it. I have also heard of people putting expired plane tickets from previous flights in the "return ticket" section, but you should put the vehicle registration document in that section.

If you are only spending a single day and going to Mali why don't you just go straight to Mali from Mauritania? Rosso is considered one of the most expensive (corrupt) and frustrating borders in Africa. A single day in Northern Senegal is not worth that hassle in my opinion. The borders between Mali and Mauritania are fine.

Thanks for the advice Jordan. The reason for travelling through senegal is due to the fact we thought the mauritania and Mali border was shut
Africa Border Monitor

Do you mean we don't need to apply online, and can just go straight to Nouakchott and apply?

It's very unclear if the Mauri/Mali border is actually closed or not.

It was definitely closed for a while at the height of the Ebola outbreak. even then it was only mentioned that Mauri closed the border if coming from Mali, it was never mentioned if that was the case going the other way around.

Africa Border Monitor is sometimes inaccurate, they sometimes Tweet information that is many months out of date.

You must apply online. That's also how you pay.

As long as it's not changed I've put visa information on my website:

http://longbikeride.co.uk/visas-tour/




Gary
www.longbikeride.co.uk

Hi,

Here's another input on the Mauritania-Senegal visa/border crossing. I applied for the Senegal visa in Nouakchott.
See #3 in the link below.

www.voodoochile.se/.../Beyond Borders

Thanks guys, both your blogs are a big help :)