Madagascar Visa and Entry Requirements
- Country Madagascar
- Guide Visa and Entry
- Reviewed 29 October 2026
- Sources 2
- Length 2 min read
Credit Z thomas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last reviewed 29 October 2026
Madagascar is straightforward to enter and awkward to research, and those two facts are worth separating before you start. The rules themselves are simple and are applied at the airport. The problem is that the government websites which ought to explain them have been unreachable or not to be trusted, so check anything you read against a second source.
The visa, online or at the airport
Every visitor needs a tourist visa, whether the stay is fifteen days or ninety. You can buy it online before you fly or on arrival at the airport, and the online service states that the price is the same either way. You must also be ready to show an onward or return ticket.
The short stay used to be the cheap option, and older guides describe it as visa free with a small administration fee. In February 2026 the fee for a stay of up to fifteen days tripled, so treat any figure in an older guide or blog as out of date.
At the airport you can pay in United States dollars, euros or ariary. A shorter visa can be extended inside the country to a maximum total stay of ninety days. You can also apply in advance through the Malagasy embassy or consulate accredited to your country.
Before you fly
Make sure your passport is actually stamped on arrival. It is the record of the day your permitted stay begins.
- A passport with an expiry date at least six months after the day you arrive.
- At least two blank pages in it.
- An onward or return ticket you can produce at the desk.
- Cash in euros or United States dollars if you are buying the visa on arrival.
- A yellow fever certificate if you are arriving from a country with a transmission risk.
- Travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation.
Why this page does not link a Malagasy government site
It is worth being direct about this. When this page was written, the national electronic visa portal did not load, the main government domain did not resolve, two ministry sites served invalid security certificates, and the site presenting itself as the national tourism board carried injected advertising spam for gambling, escorts and counterfeit goods. An electronic visa site was loading again in October 2026, but we could not confirm from a government page which address is the official one, and look-alike visa sites that charge extra are common.
So this page links none of them. The Malagasy embassy accredited to your country is the practical place to confirm current entry requirements before you travel.