In an Public Notice published on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, the Tanzania Immigration Services Department announced that its immigration system is currently unavailable following a technical incident.
Authorities have not specified the exact nature of the problem or how long the interruption may last.
“The Department apologizes for any inconvenience caused,” the statement said, adding that technical teams are actively working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
Visa on arrival in Tanzania remains available for eligible travelers
Despite the temporary disruption, Tanzanian authorities emphasized that visas on arrival continue to be fully available.
The system affected by the technical issue is the one used to process and issue electronic visas (e-Visa). As a result, the online application procedure is temporarily inaccessible while the outage persists.
In this context, immigration authorities remind travelers that eligible foreign visitors can still obtain a visa directly upon arrival, in accordance with the country’s immigration policy. This option remains available at major international entry points, particularly at airports.
For many visitors, this therefore provides an alternative solution that allows them to proceed with their travel plans despite the difficulties currently affecting the online system.
An e-Visa portal that has already been difficult to access in recent months
This incident comes after several months during which many travelers and travel professionals have reported recurring difficulties accessing the official e-Visa application portal, available at visa.immigration.go.tz.
According to several accounts, access to the website can be challenging, and processing times for e-Visa applications sometimes appear unpredictable. In some cases, electronic approvals have been issued very late, sometimes the day before or even the day of departure, despite applications having been submitted several days or even weeks earlier.
While these situations vary depending on each case, they have led some travelers to favor the visa-on-arrival option, which remains an official alternative under Tanzania’s immigration policy.
What if your Tanzania e-Visa application is already in progress?
For travelers who have already submitted and paid for an electronic visa (e-Visa) application but have not yet received confirmation, the authorities have not outlined any specific procedure in their statement.
In practice, it is generally advisable to keep all supporting documents related to the application, particularly the “Application ID” assigned when the request was submitted through the official portal.
Depending on the circumstances, this reference number may help demonstrate that the application process was already initiated online and, when possible, avoid having to pay again for a visa on arrival. Final decisions, however, remain at the discretion of immigration officers at the point of entry.
