India eVisa: The $25 Form Scam Sites Charge $89 For
Kenya eTA: The $30 Form Scam Sites Charge $150 For
Most eVisa scams follow the same script: charge $80 for something that costs $20, pocket the difference, deliver the real authorization. You overpay. You’re annoyed. You travel.
Kenya is different.
The Kenyan government’s own eTA portal FAQ is explicit: “Applications submitted through third party websites will be automatically denied and may lead to fraud and loss on your part.” Not delayed. Not flagged for manual review. Automatically denied. You pay a scam site $100 to submit your application — they do submit it — and Kenya’s immigration system rejects it on the spot because it came through an unauthorized channel.
The $30 fee is gone. But so is the eTA. And if you built a Masai Mara safari around that application, so is the trip.
The official portal is etakenya.go.ke. It takes ten minutes to apply. It costs $30. The scam sites charging $80 to $150 for the same form don’t just steal money — they get your application automatically rejected by the country you’re trying to enter.
Quick Facts — Kenya eTA 2026
Detail Info Official cost $30 USD Official portal etakenya.go.ke Who needs it US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, and most other non-African nationals. Most African countries exempt since July 2025. Stay allowed 90 days per entry Processing time 24–72 hours; apply at least 2 weeks before travel Application window Up to 3 months before arrival What scam sites charge $80–$150 per person Automatic denial Yes — Kenya’s government confirms third-party applications are automatically denied Official domain Ends in .go.ke — Kenya’s government extension In one sentence: Kenya’s eTA costs $30 at etakenya.go.ke — applications submitted through any other site are automatically denied by the Kenyan government, making this not just an overcharge scam but a trip-cancellation risk during peak Masai Mara season.
What Is the Kenya eTA?
Kenya’s Electronic Travel Authorization replaced the old visa-on-arrival system in January 2024. Every foreign national planning to enter Kenya must have an approved eTA before boarding their flight. Citizens of most African countries have been exempt since July 2025. There is no fallback. No visa on arrival. No sorting it out at the airport.
The authorization is issued by Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration Services through etakenya.go.ke. You fill in your passport details, enter your travel information, pay $30, and wait up to 72 hours for an email approval. Present that approval at check-in. Present it again at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Done.
The system works cleanly when you use the official portal. The problem starts when travelers search “Kenya eTA” or “Kenya visa online” and click a sponsored result that isn’t etakenya.go.ke.
Why Third-Party Applications Are Automatically Denied
This is the part most travelers don’t know, and it matters more than the price difference.
Kenya’s immigration system validates eTA applications against a record in their official database. When you apply at etakenya.go.ke, your application enters that database and receives a real authorization number. When you apply through a third-party site, one of two things happens: the site submits your application through an unauthorized channel and gets it rejected, or the site creates a fake-looking confirmation document without ever submitting anything to the Kenyan government at all.
Either way, Kenya’s official FAQ states the outcome plainly: third-party applications are automatically denied.
Malindikenya.net has tracked the fake portal ecosystem since the eTA system launched, documenting sites like KenyaVisaOnline.net and Kenya-eTA.com that charge $80 to $150 per person and mimic the government portal’s visual design closely enough that a quick scroll doesn’t reveal the difference. The domain name does: anything that isn’t .go.ke is not Kenya’s government. But most travelers aren’t reading the address bar when they’re in booking mode.
The Sharp Daily’s reporting on how fake eTA sites are affecting Kenya’s tourism industry documents the downstream effect: safari operators receiving calls from clients who were denied boarding at international airports and demanding refunds, with no legal recourse against the scam site and no time to reapply before their departure.
The Safari Deposit Problem
For most destinations, an invalid authorization is recoverable. You scramble, you reapply, your trip is delayed not canceled. Kenya’s situation is different because of how safari bookings work.
Masai Mara camps during the Great Migration (July through October) fill up 9 to 12 months in advance. Non-refundable deposits run 30–50% of total cost, with full payment due 60–90 days before arrival. Bush-plane transfers from Nairobi to Masai Mara airstrips run on small aircraft with fixed manifests — a missed Nairobi connection doesn’t result in a rebooking, it results in a forfeited seat.
The eTA check happens at your departure airport, not at Nairobi arrivals. Airlines verify eTA approval before issuing a boarding pass. If the authorization in Kenya’s system is rejected — because it came from a third-party site that got it automatically denied — you don’t board. You also can’t call the scam site you paid $100 to fix it at 6 AM at check-in.
A $30 form submitted to the wrong website, at $150 from a fake portal, has voided a $6,000 to $12,000 safari that cannot be refunded with less than a day’s notice.
This is the version of the scam you need to understand. Not the price markup. The automatic denial.
What Does the Kenya eTA Cost?
$30 USD, paid at etakenya.go.ke — Kenya’s official portal, operated by the Directorate of Immigration Services. The domain ends in .go.ke: Kenya’s government extension, equivalent to .gov in the United States. No service fee, no processing fee, no tiers. One flat $30 charge. Any site charging more than $30 is not the Kenyan government.
How to Apply
- Navigate directly to etakenya.go.ke. Type it in; don’t search for it. Check the address bar before entering any information.
- Create an account with your email address.
- Enter your passport details: full name exactly as it appears on your passport, passport number, nationality, date of birth, expiry date.
- Enter your travel details: intended arrival date, first address in Kenya (hotel name and city is enough), purpose of visit.
- Upload a scan or photo of your passport’s biographical page.
- Pay $30 via credit or debit card.
- Submit. You’ll receive an immediate reference number and an emailed approval within 24–72 hours.
Save the approval email, download a PDF copy, and screenshot it into your phone’s camera roll. Airlines check it at check-in. Kenyan immigration checks it on arrival. Three copies is not paranoid for a trip that cost this much to plan.
When to Apply
At least two weeks before departure. Processing typically runs 24 to 72 hours, but Kenya’s immigration system recommends two weeks as a buffer for corrections — a name discrepancy, a passport quality issue, anything that needs to be resubmitted before the approval clears.
The eTA is valid for 90 days from the date of approval, so apply within 90 days of your departure date. For Great Migration bookings where you’ve locked in camps a year ahead, set a calendar reminder for the 90-day mark before travel. Don’t apply at the 11-month mark or your authorization will expire before you use it.
Who Needs One
Every foreign national except citizens of most African countries. Since July 2025, Kenya eliminated the eTA requirement for most African passports (Libya and Somalia remain the exceptions), granting visa-free entry for up to 90 days. But US citizens, UK citizens, EU passport holders, Canadians, and Australians all need one. There is no alternative pathway — no visa on arrival, no embassy appointment route, no entry without an approved eTA in Kenya’s system.
This catches Americans off guard because prior to January 2024, Kenya offered both an eVisa portal and visa-on-arrival at JKIA. Those options no longer exist. The eTA-only system replaced them entirely.
The Domain Rule That Settles It
One detail prevents this problem entirely.
Kenya’s government operates on the .go.ke domain extension. The official eTA portal is etakenya.go.ke. The Directorate of Immigration Services uses immigration.go.ke. Every legitimate Kenyan government resource ends in .go.ke.
- etakenya.go.ke — Kenya’s official eTA portal ✓
- immigration.go.ke — Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration ✓
- etakenya.com, kenya-eta.com, kenyavisaonline.net — not the government
If the address bar doesn’t show a .go.ke domain, you’re not on a Kenyan government site. That’s the entire checklist. Don’t click search ads. Type the URL directly. Check the address bar before entering passport details. That ten-second habit is worth whatever your safari cost.
Kenya Embassy Vienna echoes this: only applications submitted through etakenya.go.ke are valid. Embassy guidance is consistent across Kenya’s diplomatic missions — there’s no authorized third-party pathway.
Why June Is When This Matters
The Masai Mara Great Migration is the bucket list event for East Africa. Wildebeest and zebra cross the Mara River from July through October — specifically the dramatic Mara River crossings that turn up in every safari photograph — and the camps that provide front-row access to those crossings fill up fast.
June is when the booking window peaks. Travelers who committed to a safari earlier in the year hit June and start executing logistics: visas, flights, gear, vaccinations. Kenya eTA search traffic spikes accordingly. Scam sites track this and buy search placements targeting Kenya entry keywords precisely when planning intent is highest. A traveler who just transferred a $3,000 deposit and is now in task-completion mode clicks the first result without scrutinizing the URL.
Combine a year’s planning with a July departure window and an automatic eTA denial — and you understand why this version of the scam hits harder than the Egypt eVisa fake portals or Turkey’s eVisa scam sites, where a denial at the border is genuinely terrible but at least replanning is possible. A missed Masai Mara migration window can’t be replanned until the following year.
If you’re combining Kenya with a Rwanda gorilla trek — a natural East Africa pairing — both countries have separate entry requirements. Kenya’s eTA handles the Kenyan leg. Rwanda has its own system. Budget for both.
If You Already Used a Third-Party Site
Apply again at etakenya.go.ke before travel.
If the third-party site submitted your application to Kenya’s system through an unauthorized channel, it was automatically denied. If they generated a document without submitting anything, that document has no record in Kenya’s database. Either way, the check-in agent verifying your eTA will hit a record that doesn’t clear, and you won’t board.
Apply through the official portal now. A valid Kenya eTA in Kenya’s system — with an official government reference number — costs $30. Yes, on top of whatever you already paid.
Before you travel, confirm your approval document:
- References etakenya.go.ke and Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration
- Includes an official government reference number
- Lists your name exactly as it appears on your passport, character for character
- Was sent from an official @immigration.go.ke email address
A middle name difference between your passport and your eTA application is enough to cause a problem at check-in. Fix it before the airport, not at it.
If you paid a third-party site and received nothing usable: dispute the charge with your card issuer. These operations don’t have functional customer service. Your bank’s dispute process is the realistic recovery path.
The passport data issue is worth noting independently. The Kenya eTA form requires your full name, passport number, nationality, date of birth, and travel dates. If that data went through a server that isn’t Kenya’s government, it’s sitting somewhere unknown. Monitor accordingly.
The Wider Pattern
This isn’t isolated to Kenya. The same fake-portal infrastructure targets Cambodia’s eVisa, Turkey’s eVisa, Egypt’s eVisa, and a dozen other destinations where a government charges a modest direct fee for electronic entry authorization.
The mechanics are identical: buy Google search ad placements targeting “Kenya visa” or “Kenya eTA,” mimic the official portal closely enough to avoid a second look, charge 3–5x the government fee. What makes Kenya’s version more consequential is the explicit automatic denial policy — most other destinations’ fake portals overcharge and still deliver the valid authorization. Kenya’s don’t.
For the full picture on how these scams operate across common bucket list destinations, our guide to travel scams to avoid covers the wider pattern.
The Bottom Line
Kenya’s eTA is $30. The official portal is etakenya.go.ke. The domain ends in .go.ke. The application takes ten minutes. Processing runs 24–72 hours; apply at least two weeks before travel and within 90 days of departure.
Scam sites charging $80 to $150 for this form don’t just take the markup — Kenya’s government has confirmed that applications submitted through third-party sites are automatically denied. You lose the $30 government fee that was paid on your behalf. You lose whatever you paid the scam site. And if you’re booked into a Masai Mara camp during the July–October Great Migration, you lose a non-refundable safari deposit you waited a year to use.
The countermeasure is one URL and one habit. Type etakenya.go.ke directly. Check that .go.ke is in the address bar. Skip every search result above the official portal. Apply, pay $30, save the approval document in three places, done.
The wildebeest will cross the Mara River whether you see it or not. The only variable is whether you’re there.
Official Kenya eTA portal: etakenya.go.ke. Kenya’s automatic denial policy for third-party applications: etakenya.go.ke FAQ. Fake eTA site documentation: Malindikenya.net. Information current as of June 2026 — verify current requirements before travel.
