THE VISA EXEMPTION

(Article updated on February 13th , 2020)

In 2019, the Cape Verdean government has announced that EU and UK nationals will be exempted from visa requirements for short stays (up to max. 30 days). Then the decision has been extended in 2020 to nationals of the USA, Canada and Brazil.

Now travellers must first register on an official website before departure.

AND THIS MEANS

After being postponed several times, this rule was finally applied on January, 1st 2019.

The tourists concerned by this exemption are citizens of the European Union, the post-Brexit United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. Monaco, Saint Martin and Andorra should join this list soon.

In 2020, nationals of the USA, Canada and Brazil took advantage of this new policy.

Travellers must now pre-register on a dedicated website (link at the end of this article) at least five days prior to their arrival date on the islands.

LITTLE REMINDER

The measure applies only for stays of up to 30 days: for longer stays, obtaining a visa is mandatory and must be the subject of a request on the government website (see link below).

PRE-REGISTRATION

The following travellers are exempted from pre-registration:

1. Children under two years;
2. A holder of the capeverdean passport, his/her children under 18 years old and his/her spouse;
3. A traveller of capeverdean origin (as well as his/her children under 18 years old + spouse)
4. Foreigners legally established in Cape Verde (resident status)
5. Special cases: official journeys, flights with technical or meteorological issues, passengers in transit

Registration is done through several pages where the passenger must provide his identification data, the dates of his stay, his contacts (phone and email) and the place of residence (hotel).

At the end of the registration form, the passenger must pay the TSA.

TSA

What is TSA? This is the Airport Safety Tax, officially it is to contribute to the financing of the services provided to the traveller, such as means of security, border controls etc.

Basically, Cape Verde has done a little magic trick, replacing the visa with a new, more expensive, tax.

Travellers who do not benefit from the visa exemption have to pay twice: payment of the visa (25 EUR) + payment of the TSA (3400 ESC / 30.5 EUR).

Specifically, TSA applies to the international flight to Cape Verde and must be paid by credit card on the pre-registration website. During the first few weeks of application of this new measure, exceptionally, the TSA can be settled upon arrival at the international airport.

TSA applies to all passengers, except those listed above (paragraph "CONCRETELY").

In addition, all passengers (without exception) must pay a reduced TSA (150 ESC / 1.1 EUR) on domestic flights.

OFICIAL SITE

To register and / or pay for the TSA, please connect to the following address: www.ease.gov.cv (or direct page).

The form is available in French, English and Portuguese (click on the corresponding flag) and you have 20 minutes maximum to fill it out. You have to register each traveler individually and pay the corresponding TSA, the procedure can be a little long for large families, arm yourself with courage and patience...

Update of February 13, 2020: some passengers continue to experience difficulties in connecting to the pre-registration site, which experiences some problems several times a day. We advise you to insist and retry your chance, even if it is actually annoying to see a site hang in the middle of a form.

In the worst case, you can still check in and pay the TSA when you arrive at the international airport, but the wait may be particularly long. You can also contact the support service of the official platform at the following address: ease-support@cv.zetes.com

Please note, the site you are currently on is an information site, it is not an official site and it has no link with the Cape Verdean administration, we do not have access to registered forms on the official platform ease.gov.cv and unfortunately we cannot help you if you encounter a malfunction during your registration.