My experience traveling to West Africa with the Visa Touristique Entente

I’m off to West Africa with the Visa Entente!

Hello all from the Casablanca airport! I didn’t bring my computer with me and so forgive any weird editing problems!

I am on my way to West Africa for a bit of a last minute adventure!

I got the special Visa Entente today and I’m so excited. I am going to travel with the Visa Touristique Entente and check back in and report how it went.

In this post I am going to describe the process of getting the visa and my experience traveling with the Visa Entente.

What is the Visa Entente?

Well let’s back up a second..

The Conseil de l’Entente is a regional cooperation between several West African countries. These countries are: Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

So one thing that makes traveling in West Africa rather difficult is the fact that the visas are sometimes ridiculously complicated and expensive to get for each country.

Unless you have a passport from certain African countries,  visiting West Africa can be a potential  bureaucratic nightmare.

But that’s where the Visa Entente comes in to save the day!

With the Visa Entente, you are *supposed* to be able to travel freely between Niger, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast with just one visa. It covers multiple entries to each country for 60 days as long as you don’t leave the Entente Zone.

This means you can’t go to Ghana and expect to go back to Burkina Faso on the Visa Entente. Ghana isn’t in the Entente Zone.

Considering that a visa to each country could cost over $100 dollars EACH, the Visa Entente is a good deal.

Depending on where you get it, the Visa Entente should cost somewhere around 100€ but it varies greatly.

How to get the Visa Entente?

Until, well, today (May 2, 2018), it was possible to just to waltz into the Consulate of Benin in Barcelona and get it for €100, an application, some passport photos, and proof of flights.

I did just that. I have a Visa Entente in my passport now.

But since I am apparently cursed when it comes to visas (I’m looking at you, France), the whole process did eventually erupt into chaos…

The Consulate of Benin in Barcelona

The consulate is a little office with a friendly lady in it not far from the beautiful tourist sights.

They are extremely responsive with emails and at the time you could give and get a visa on Wednesdays from 10-12.

I did just that, and 45 minutes later while using the free WiFi in the Palau de Música I received a frantic email from the woman at the consulate.

Of course!

Turns out she had received a call from the consulate in Paris saying to I immediately halt all visa processing just moments after I left.

Turns out Benin is beginning an E-Visa scheme and won’t be accepting any visas issued by their consulates after April 27, 2018.

You can check out the consulate’s website and learn about the E-Visa here.

But due to the holiday weekend the consulate didn’t get the memo.

The woman working there found a solution and rewrote my Visa Entente to have it say it started the week before they changed the rules.

Now I was worried that nobody would take it.

Needless to say, at the moment the easy Visa Entente in Barcelona is pretty much dead as of now.

Though it may still be worth sending the nice lady at the Benin consulate an email to give it a try.

I recommend checking out the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forums for Benin, Togo, Niger, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso to see how to get the Visa Entente in these countries. There is plenty of information there, but you will probably have to buy a visa to one of the countries and then apply for the Visa Entente there.

Lots of contradicting information:

The woman at the consulate in Barcelona told me that Ivory Coast is NOT accepting the Visa Entente. She didn’t even write it on the visa.

But then again someone just wrote to me saying that the Visa Entente is indeed being accepted in Ivory Coast, so again you will need to do some research to get updated information before traveling. Or just plan for some unexpected surprises!

In any case, make sure they write Ivory Coast on the visa! If you don’t have it then you have no chance of getting in.

The woman at the consulate also said that she got a report that they didn’t accept it in Togo for some travelers a few weeks prior.

But Togo is the easiest and cheapest country in the region to get a visa. Most nationalities can get a visa on arrival for around 20€ (I am writing in Euros because they often do request that you pay in Euros). The only catch is that the visa is just a 7 day visa.

The Visa Entente lasts 60 days.

But then you can apply for the Visa Entente in Lomé. This website says you have to apply for it at the Togolese Passport Service and it costs 25,000 CFA (which is a little under 50€).

But keep reading because I ended up going to Togo…

Flash forward to a bumpy flight to Benin…

I pulled out my Visa Entente and the border guy took a quick glance and stamped my passport. No questions asked!

Cha CHING!

So the Visa Entente works for Benin.

And did it work for Togo?

YES! No problems at the land border between Benin and Togo. So for me the Visa Entente worked in Togo. I do not know if it would be the same at the airport, though.

The Visa Entente in Burkina Faso…

Yes! Once again no problems here.  I even entered the country twice with the Visa Entente.

Ohhhhh Niger…

So I will address this misadventure in another post, but they do NOT accept the Visa Entente in Niger anymore.

I learned this after taking a bus in the 44° heat for 11 hours to the border between Niger and Burkina Faso. It was a disaster.

Also, according to some forum chat, they don’t accept it at the Niamey airport either.

The other bad news is that they DO NOT give visas at the border or airport anymore. I offered to pay for the visa there but they made a few phone calls to their superiors and refused. Sigh.

You have to go back to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and apply for a Niger Visa at the Consulate there. I heard it is a two day turnover, but I ran out of time and just flew home out of Ouagadougou instead of Niamey.

Turkish airlines was awesome and it only cost me $90 to change my departure city of my flight. I swear that would cost hundreds of dollars with an American airline.

Is the Visa Entente still worth it?

With Niger and Ivory Coast out of the picture, you may wonder if the Visa Entente worth it.

I think it is, at least for me as an American Citizen. At the Embassy of Benin in the USA they cite $75 for a single entry visa. $100 for multiple entry.

For Burkina Faso their Embassy page lists a multiple entry visa (seemingly the only one available) at $140.

I paid 100 Euros for my Visa Entente and I didn’t need to deal with multiple applications and multiple consulates, so I think it was really worth it!

But even though the countries accepted my visa, they seem to all be moving towards E Visas so I am starting to think that the era of the Visa Entente to West Africa is over. But I could be wrong!!

Do your research:

The situation changes a lot in the region. One day a country will accept the visa, and two weeks later it won’t. It is worth doing your research before going on your trip.

Again, the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum usually provides some good tips. Also you can call, for example, the consulate of Niger in Burkina Faso to get updated information. Or any other consulate. Just know that English is not widely spoken in the region.

Enjoy your trip to this amazing part of the world!