Since 25 May 2026 a visitor to Ghana who needs permission to enter gets it online, before the flight, from the GIS. Visa on arrival has ended. The system has two products, and your passport decides which one is yours:
| Your passport | You need |
|---|---|
| An ECOWAS country, or Mali, Burkina Faso or Niger | Nothing. Enter with the passport, for up to 90 days |
| Any other African Union country | The ETA, an electronic travel authorisation. Free |
| Anywhere else | The e-visa. $260 for a single entry |
Both are applied for at the same official address: evisa.immigration.gov.gh.
Use the official address and nothing else
Searching “Ghana e-visa” turns up sites that look official, charge more, and either pass your application on or never file it at all. The real one ends in .gov.gh. A site that ends in anything else is not the Ghana Immigration Service, whatever its logo says.
What the e-visa covers
The e-visa is for tourism and business visits: holidays, family visits, meetings, conferences. It does not let you work, study or live in Ghana. Those need a permit, applied for separately. — Work permits
How long you may stay is set by the officer who stamps your passport at the airport, not by the e-visa. Read the stamp when you get it.
Before you start
Have these ready, as files you can upload:
- Your passport, valid for at least 6 months after the day you arrive, with blank pages. A scan of the photo page
- A passport photograph, on a plain light background
- Where you will stay: a hotel booking, or an invitation letter from whoever you are staying with, with their address and phone number
- Your flights in and out
- For business, a letter from the company in Ghana you are visiting
- A card to pay with, for the e-visa
Applying
- Open evisa.immigration.gov.gh and choose the e-visa or the ETA.
- Fill in the form exactly as your passport reads. It cannot be changed after you submit it, so a typo means a new application and, for an e-visa, a new fee.
- Upload the documents and pay.
- Wait. Standard processing takes up to 96 hours, so do not apply the night before you fly.
- The approval arrives by email. Print it, and keep it on your phone.
An airline checks for the approval before boarding, and the immigration officer at Kotoka checks it again. An approved e-visa does not guarantee entry: the officer can still refuse you, as at any border.
At the airport
Bring the printed approval, the passport you applied with, and your yellow fever certificate. The certificate is checked by Port Health before immigration, and without it you will be vaccinated there at your own cost or turned back. — Vaccines and the yellow fever card
Staying longer than the stamp
A visitor can extend a stay at a GIS office before the stamp runs out. The GIS charges ₵65 a month, or ₵39 for an ECOWAS national. Overstaying without one is an offence, and it is cheaper to extend than to explain. — Residence permits
Who needs neither
Holders of a Right of Abode, of indefinite residence, and of a Ghanaian dual nationality card enter as residents. A Ghanaian who also holds another passport should travel on the dual nationality card, not apply for a visa. — Dual citizenship
— Ghanaian visas and entry requirements — Visas for Americans — Visas for British travellers