Tanzania’s official eVisa costs $50. You apply at visa.immigration.go.tz, the Tanzania Immigration Department’s government portal. Fill in your passport details, pay the government fee, wait a few days for approval. That’s it.

The problem is what comes up when you search “Tanzania eVisa.” The first results are frequently not the government. Sites like tanzaniavisas.org, africantravelling.com, and other portals with official-sounding names charge $130 to $150 or more for that same $50 form. africantravelling.com has been documented charging travelers €169 (~$190) for the same authorization. The Embassy of Tanzania in Tokyo issued a formal public warning specifically naming eVisa.com and Africantravel.com as fraudulent websites, directing all applicants to the official portal at eservices.immigration.go.tz.

Tanzania also abolished visa-on-arrival at all ports of entry. Every visitor must now apply online before departure — there’s no border fallback, no airport processing window, no sorting it out on arrival. That policy change made the scam window significantly larger. When a fake portal was just an overpriced shortcut, a traveler could recover by applying directly at the border. That option is gone.

This matters most in the next four months. July through October is peak Serengeti Great Migration season — Mara River crossings, camps booked a year in advance, and safari search traffic spiking exactly when scam sites are buying search placements for Tanzania visa keywords.

Quick Facts — Tanzania eVisa 2026

Detail	Info
Official cost	$50 single entry (most nationalities); $100 multiple entry (US citizens — required)
Official portal	visa.immigration.go.tz
Who needs it	Most foreign nationals; visa-exempt countries listed at immigration.go.tz
US citizen requirement	Multiple-entry visa only, valid 12 months, max 90 days per stay — $100
Stay allowed	Up to 90 days per entry
Processing time	Up to 10 business days; apply at least 2–3 weeks before travel
Application window	Up to 3 months before arrival
Visa-on-arrival	Abolished — all visitors must apply online before departure
What scam sites charge	$130–$190+ per person
Embassy warning	Tanzania Embassy Tokyo names eVisa.com and Africantravel.com
Official government domain	.go.tz — Tanzania’s government extension

In one sentence: Tanzania’s eVisa is $50 (or $100 for US passport holders) at visa.immigration.go.tz — visa-on-arrival no longer exists, fake portals charge up to $190 for the same form, and the Embassy of Tanzania has issued a formal warning naming specific fraudulent websites.

What Is the Tanzania eVisa?

Tanzania’s eVisa is an electronic authorization issued by the Tanzania Immigration Department through the official portal at visa.immigration.go.tz. It replaced earlier systems — visa-on-arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport, Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, and other ports — which no longer exist.

The Tanzania Immigration Department’s visa fees page lists the $50 ordinary visa for most nationalities visiting for tourism. US passport holders are a specific exception: they’re required to purchase the multiple-entry visa at $100, valid for 12 months with any single stay capped at 90 days. This isn’t an upsell — it’s a bilateral policy distinction — and it’s one that scam sites often obscure while charging $150+ regardless of what the traveler actually needs.

The application asks for the standard set of details: full name as it appears on your passport, passport number and expiry date, travel dates, purpose of visit, and an email address where the approval document gets sent. Processing runs up to 10 business days. During peak safari season, that window may extend — which is why applying three weeks out, not three days out, is the right habit.

Why Abolishing Visa-on-Arrival Changed Everything

Before 2024, a traveler who got burned by a fake Tanzania visa site could recover. Embarrassing, expensive, but fixable: present at the airport, pay the border fee, get stamped, continue to the Serengeti. That path no longer exists.

Tanzania’s decision to eliminate visa-on-arrival at all ports of entry — airports, land crossings, ferry terminals — means the pre-travel online application is the only pathway. If your eVisa document doesn’t clear an airline’s check-in system when they scan it, you don’t board. The camp in the northern Serengeti doesn’t know you missed the flight until you don’t arrive. The bush plane from Arusha to the airstrip near the Mara River waits for no one.

Scam sites were already operating before the policy change. After it, their potential impact scaled up sharply. An overpriced fake visa that nonetheless worked was one thing. A fake portal operating in a system where there’s no backup processing creates a different category of problem.

What Does the Tanzania eVisa Cost?

Tanzania’s eVisa costs $50 USD for most nationalities applying for a single-entry tourist visa, paid directly through the official portal at visa.immigration.go.tz. US citizens are required to purchase the $100 multiple-entry visa — the single-entry option isn’t available for American passport holders. Both fees go directly to the Tanzania Immigration Department. There are no service fees, processing charges, or additional costs on the official portal.

Any website charging more than $50 (or $100 for US citizens) is not the Tanzanian government. The documented overcharges:

• tanzaniavisas.org — charges approximately $150, three times the $50 government fee
• africantravelling.com — documented charging travelers €169 (~$190) for a form that costs $50 officially
• eVisa.com — formally named in the Embassy of Tanzania warning alongside Africantravel.com

The markup isn’t the only problem, though it’s the most visible one.

How the Scam Works

The mechanism here is identical to what runs around Kenya’s eTA and Egypt’s eVisa: buy search ad placements targeting “Tanzania eVisa,” “Tanzania visa online,” and “Tanzania Kilimanjaro visa,” mimic the official portal’s layout closely enough to avoid a second look, and charge three to four times the government fee.

Someone in booking-execution mode — flights confirmed, camp deposit paid, departure six weeks out — searches for the visa and clicks the first result. The site looks official. It asks for the right information. The pricing sounds plausible because the traveler has no reference for what a Tanzania eVisa actually costs. They pay $150 and receive… something.

What that something is varies:

Some third-party operations actually submit the application to Tanzania’s immigration system on the traveler’s behalf, paying the $50 government fee themselves and pocketing the difference. The traveler receives a valid authorization — but their passport data traveled through an unauthorized server, and they overpaid by $100.

Other operations generate authorization-looking documents that have no corresponding record in Tanzania’s immigration system. An airline check-in agent running the document through their verification system gets a failed check. The flight leaves.

The Embassy of Tanzania in Tokyo’s warning is explicit about where all applications should go: eservices.immigration.go.tz. Any other domain is not the Tanzanian government’s processing system, regardless of how the site presents itself.

The US Citizen Complication

American passport holders face an extra layer of confusion built into this scam.

Most nationalities applying for a Tanzania tourist visa are offered the $50 single-entry option. Americans aren’t. US citizens must purchase the $100 multiple-entry visa — a 12-month authorization allowing multiple entries, with individual stays capped at 90 days. The Tanzania Immigration Department is explicit about this: US nationals visiting for tourism or holiday are required to apply for the Multiple Visa, not the standard tourist visa.

Scam sites typically don’t explain this distinction. They show a single price — usually $130 to $150 or more — without clarifying that US citizens have a different underlying government fee. A British traveler paying $150 to a scam site is overpaying by $100. An American paying $150 is overpaying by $50. Same scam, different overpayment amounts, no disclosure about why.

For most safari itineraries, the 12-month multiple-entry authorization is actually useful — it covers a Tanzania main trip plus a Zanzibar extension, or a combination safari that crosses into Kenya. But the price is $100 set by the Tanzanian government, and any site charging $150+ is taking money for nothing.

How to Apply for the Tanzania eVisa

The only portal that produces a valid Tanzania eVisa is visa.immigration.go.tz. The broader Tanzania Immigration Department e-services hub at eservices.immigration.go.tz is the official parent system named in embassy guidance. Both carry the .go.tz domain extension — Tanzania’s government equivalent of .gov. No legitimate Tanzania eVisa portal exists outside this domain.

Step-by-step application:

1. Go to visa.immigration.go.tz — type it directly, don’t search for it. Check that .go.tz appears in the address bar before entering anything.
2. Select your nationality. US citizens will see the $100 multiple-entry requirement confirmed. Most other nationalities see $50 for single entry.
3. Enter personal details: full name exactly as it appears on your passport, middle name included if it’s in your travel document. Passport number, issue date, expiry date, nationality, date of birth.
4. Enter travel information: intended arrival date, departure date, and the email where the approval will be sent.
5. Review the fee. US citizens: $100. Most other nationalities: $50. Any figure above that, on any site, is not the government.
6. Pay by credit or debit card. No service fees on top of the government charge.
7. Submit. You’ll receive a reference number immediately and the approval document by email within up to 10 business days.

Save the approval in three places: email inbox, downloaded file on your phone, printed copy in your travel documents. Airlines scan it at check-in. Print it.

When to Apply

Apply within three months of departure — the authorization has a validity window, so applying too early creates an expiry problem. For peak safari season, the sweet spot is 6 to 8 weeks before departure: inside the three-month window and with enough buffer for any resubmission if a name discrepancy or passport quality issue requires correction.

If you’ve already locked in Great Migration camps for July through October — the right call, given how fast those fill — set a calendar reminder for the 90-day mark before your travel date. That’s when the application window opens and when you want to be first in, not scrambling a week before departure when processing queues run longest.

The Domain Rule That Ends It

One check prevents the entire category of problem.

Tanzania’s government operates on the .go.tz domain extension. The eVisa portal is visa.immigration.go.tz. The immigration department is immigration.go.tz. The e-services hub named in embassy warnings is eservices.immigration.go.tz. Every legitimate Tanzania government resource ends in .go.tz.

• visa.immigration.go.tz — Tanzania’s official eVisa portal ✓
• eservices.immigration.go.tz — Tanzania Immigration Department e-services ✓
• tanzaniavisas.org, africantravelling.com, evisa.com — not the government

If the address bar doesn’t show a .go.tz domain, you’re not on a Tanzanian government site. Skip every search result that doesn’t end in .go.tz. Type the URL directly. Check the address bar before entering passport details. That ten-second habit is worth whatever your Kilimanjaro climb or Serengeti safari cost to plan.

Why Safari Season Is When This Matters Most

The Serengeti Great Migration runs year-round, but the Mara River crossings that draw most photographers and first-time safari travelers happen July through October. Premier camps in the northern Serengeti — particularly those positioned for access to the Mara River corridor — book out 9 to 12 months in advance. Non-refundable deposits run 30–50% of total cost, with full payment due 60–90 days before arrival.

The timing creates a specific vulnerability. A traveler who committed to a safari in November for the following July has every incentive to complete logistics in June — and June is when Tanzania eVisa search traffic peaks. That’s when scam sites spend the most on search placements. A traveler in task-completion mode, already committed to a $7,000–$12,000 trip, encounters a site charging $150 and calculates that it’s not worth scrutinizing relative to the cost they’ve already absorbed. That’s the math the scam depends on.

The fix costs nothing extra. It just requires knowing that visa.immigration.go.tz charges $50 before you search.

If You Already Used a Third-Party Site

Apply again at visa.immigration.go.tz before travel. A valid eVisa needs to exist in Tanzania’s immigration system — a document generated by a fake portal won’t pass an airline’s verification check.

Before your departure, confirm that your approval document:

• Shows Tanzania Immigration Department branding and an official reference number
• Lists your name exactly as it appears on your passport — character for character
• Includes correct travel dates and the right visa category
• Arrived from an official immigration.go.tz email address

Any name discrepancy — a missing middle name, a transposed letter — is grounds for a failed verification. Fix it before the airport.

If you paid a scam site and received nothing usable: dispute the charge with your card issuer. There’s no functional customer service at these operations. Your bank’s dispute process is the realistic recovery path.

Worth noting: the Tanzania eVisa application requires your full name, passport number, date of birth, and travel dates. If that data went through a server that isn’t Tanzania’s government, monitor accordingly.

Tanzania and Kenya: Two Separate Systems, Same Scam Infrastructure

Many Tanzania safari itineraries cross into Kenya — the Masai Mara and northern Serengeti share the same migration herds, and the Mara River crossings that Tanzania-side travelers watch from the Serengeti’s Lamai and Klein’s Camp areas are the same crossings Kenya-side travelers watch from Kichwa Tembo and Rekero.

The entry documents are separate. Kenya’s eTA costs $30 at etakenya.go.ke. Tanzania’s eVisa costs $50 at visa.immigration.go.tz. If your itinerary covers both countries — or if you’re combining a Rwanda gorilla trek with an East Africa safari — each country has its own system and its own set of fake portals targeting the same search terms.

For a Tanzania-Kenya combination, the legitimate government fees total $80 for most nationalities, $130 for US citizens (Tanzania’s $100 multiple-entry plus Kenya’s $30 eTA). Any site packaging “East Africa entry documents” for $250+ is charging for work you can do in 20 minutes across two official government portals.

Apply at each country’s official portal separately. No aggregator is authorized by both governments, and none is needed.

The Bottom Line

Tanzania abolished visa-on-arrival. Every visitor must apply online before departure — no exceptions, no airport fallback, no border processing window if something goes wrong at check-in.

The official eVisa is $50 at visa.immigration.go.tz. US citizens pay $100 for the mandatory multiple-entry version. Both fees are set by the Tanzania Immigration Department and include no additional charges. tanzaniavisas.org charges $150 for the same form. africantravelling.com has charged travelers €169 (~$190). The Embassy of Tanzania in Tokyo has formally warned applicants against fake websites and named specific fraudulent portals by name.

The domain is the entire check. If the address bar shows .go.tz, you’re on a Tanzanian government site. If it doesn’t, you’re not.

Great Migration season runs July through October. The camps fill up. The crossings happen on their own schedule. The only variable that’s within your control is whether you have a valid eVisa before you board.

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Official Tanzania eVisa portal: visa.immigration.go.tz. Tanzania Immigration Department: immigration.go.tz. Embassy of Tanzania in Tokyo warning naming fraudulent websites: jp.tzembassy.go.tz. Information current as of June 2026 — verify current fees and requirements before travel.