The Department of Immigration services has granted approval for Cameroon, Senegal and Mali to move from category 3 to category 2 of visa application. This means that nationals from these countries will now have their visas issued on arrival at the port of entry, through an online application or at Kenyan Missions abroad.
Nationals whose countries fall under category 3 of visa are required to to have referral visas before they can be granted entry into Kenya. This means that they have to submit a paper based application to the department of immigration services and await approval from the director for immigration before they can enter Kenya. They are not eligible for an eVisa. The countries under this category include; Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Formerly North Korea), Eritrea, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan and Yemen.
Other factors that may require an applicant to have have a referral visa include:
- Applicants against whom there is some local objections or doubt in the country where the application is made.
- Stateless persons or persons not holding valid passports or other travel documents issued by their own country of nationality, including recognized refugee holders of the United Nations Refugee Travel Documents.
- Prohibited immigrants as enumerated under Section 33 (1) and (2) of the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act, 2011.
The referral visa fee is USD 10 which is non-refundable and the application process takes about 6-8 weeks.
Citizens of countries which belong in category two require a visa to enter to enter Kenya but they do need to go through the department of immigration. While citizens of countries belonging to category one do not need to a visa to enter Kenya. You can find out the countries that belong to category one here.