How To Get A Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 Visa Online

“Last Minute.com” – Martha Lane Fox.

First up, quell the fake news from fake tourists, extremists, unbackpacked governments and social media keyboard wizards. Burkina Faso is open, it’s friendly and it’s welcoming. Although, I almost called this post “How To Get A Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 Visa Online (Just About!)”

“I shot myself hoarse for your supernatural powers” – Space.

The amount of excrement I received online in the month leading up to my time backpacking Burkina Faso, was nuts. There are a lot of online groups, mostly full of rich white “westerners” (I hate that word, but as a northerner, I’m just glad I’m not one) who scaremonger loyal to fellow tourists wishing to backpack Africa Away.

In the lead up to my trip, I was blocked from many online social media keyboard wizard tourist groups. Keyboard wizards who have no clue how real travel works. You travel, you meet happy locals, you enjoy. 99% of the time, nothing bad happens. Shame on the extremists, scaremongers and radicalists.

“Go and tell it to the man who cannot shine” – Noel Gallagher.

The UK government, the Irish government and the Polish government all advised against backpacking Burkina Faso in December 2024. It’s lucky I’m Northern Irish and ignored the nuts hattrick then. I grew up in a terrorist warzone, there was no way Ouagadougou could be worse than Belfast in the 1980s and early 1990s. Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

“Masked gunmen shouted trick or treat, then opened fire” – Halloween Night, Greysteel 1993.

It was time to get this visa and prove the keyboard wizard extremists were wrong. Especially since I’m an AFC Bournemouth fan and we’ve got Dango Baby – Dango Outtara from Burkina Faso!

I knew they’d be. Later, they lost 0-1 in their social media cup final.

The Website For The Online Visa

The website to get the Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 visa is here –

https://www.visaburkina.bf/en/home/#
This is where you go to get a Burkina Faso visa online, it’s the official channel, so go here.

The website states –

Complete your application in 3 simple steps

The eVisa is a protocol that certifies that the holder is authorized to enter and stay in Burkina for a maximum of 90 days. Applicants may complete their application online, including the fees payment and obtain their visa.

Get some Internet and click on the link, simple as that. A sample evisa when confirmed looks like this…

Applying for the Burkina Faso Visa Online

Go to the website, click on it, then register for the visa.

At the time of applying, my travel mate Marek and I both wanted a multiple entry tourist visa, which was supposed to be $70 USD. However, for some reason, in December 2024, the only multiple entry visa option was a Conference Work And Study visa, so we went for this one. In French it is known as “Visa Conference Et Etudes (Court Sejour) – Entrees Multiples. Sadly, there was no other option – you get used to such drama when backpacking Africa.

Once you’ve chosen the visa you require, move to the next page.

Fill in all your details. I won’t go into this, as I’ve done over 100 visa applications in my life so I’m used to them. You’ll need a hotel reservation. They didn’t ask for a Letter of Invitation or flights in and out. We had flights in and out already booked anyway.

For Destination always write Ouagadougou. It’s the capital city and the safest bet. We were flying in and out of here twice anyway.

Once you’ve done all that, you go to pay online. The cost for us was 105 Euros. You will get a payment confirmation from the bank, in our case it was Orabank. Now you’re done and you play the waiting game.

Your profile update will also say Processing Payment. This can take a while, it was a few hours.

The Waiting Game for the Burkina Faso Visa

Once you have applied, you can check your application immediately, and anytime when you login. You will also receive an email confirmation that your visa has been submitted. That looks like this, in French of course –

The application can be downloaded as a PDF and printed. As always, I advise printing all your documents, especially visas ahead of your trips. I printed it immediately, and then I played the waiting game for confirmation. On your profile, as below, it will say “Submitted”.

24 hours, no news.

3 days, no news.

7 days, no news.

Did the stress begin? Not quite, but in travel you never know what can happen.

Note the contact details from the official website – 

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Sis à l’avenue de l’indépendance
Tel : (+226) 70 84 68 60 / (+226) 53 97 76 61
Email : [email protected]

The Pushing Game for the Burkina Faso Visa

After 7 days, with my trip looming, I sent an email to 3 different Burkina Faso embassies. In the email, I attached all my flight tickets in and out, my visa application, a copy of my passport photo page, a passport sized photo and confirmation of my hotel stay. These are the email addresses I sent it all to –

[email protected] (Official Evisa Email from here – https://www.visaburkina.bf/en/home/#)

[email protected] (Official Burkina Faso Embassy in Paris, France – my nearest passport one – https://www.consulatburkinaparis.org/)

[email protected] (Official Burkina Faso Embassy in Berlin, Germany – my nearest living one – https://www.embassy-bf.org/)

I still didn’t get any replies. However, in the meantime, my travel mate Marek Bladowski received confirmation via BERLIN, that his evisa had been approved. I then figured that mine would also be going through either Paris (nearest to Ireland – my passport) or Berlin (nearest to Poland where I live). So I waited and then pushed.

A week before my first flight into Burkina Faso, I emailed all 3 again to say that it was urgent and that my travel friend, Marek already had his visa. We were both travelling on European Union passports (mine Irish, his Polish).

I sent the same email again with a few days to spare. I had also received a contact for one of the Embassy Staff on a What’s App number. This was with thanks to a French lady on a Facebook group, who also had the same issue as me. I sent a What’s App message with 3 days to go. This was the number –

+226 70 84 68 60

I sent a final email and What’s App message to them all the morning before my flight into Ouagadougou (from Bamako). I wasn’t too stressed because my travel mate already had his visa confirmed, printed and saved. We had flights in and out booked, a hotel reservation (La Casa – which was excellent) and I had already tried my best to get this visa.

Finally Receiving My Burkina Faso Visa

While Marek already had his Burkina Faso visa in his hand, printed, and on his phone, I didn’t. I would be flying into Burkina Faso without a confirmed visa. Still!!

I cleverly checked in online for the next 3 flights, all with Air Senegal and printed the boarding passes in Nouakchott, Mauritania – this was where our first flight would be out of. We were basically on a 4 airport, triple flight connection. We would have 12 hours in Senegal, and 1 hour in Mali. I was travelling with hand luggage only so didn’t need to go to the counter to check-in in Nouakchott, Mauritania. Marek had a bag to check-in and went to the counter. They checked his Burkina Faso visa at that desk leaving Nouakchott. They didn’t check mine, as I didn’t need to go to the desk.

“Best under pressure, with seconds left I show up” – Usher.

Then the drama…I was sitting in the cafe at Nouakchott Airport and they have Wi-Fi. Suddenly, like a gift from God, the visa was suddenly confirmed and in my email inbox to download. Phew!! We still had three flights in the next 24 hours. I now had my evisa on my phone, but not printed! But we were both relieved and we were both now going to Burkina Faso via Senegal and Mali – the way the flight connections worked out. The email confirmation looked like this –

So I applied for my Burkina Faso online visa on 3rd December 2024 and it was confirmed on 18th December 2024, the day of my first flight on route to Ouagadougou!!

Leaving Nouakchott, Mauritania

They didn’t check my visa when leaving Nouakchott international airport. Nor Marek’s. We boarded the flight to Dakar in Senegal.

Arriving in Dakar, Senegal

After arriving in Senegal late in the evening, we went through immigration and straight to the bar for a Lac Rose (Pink Lake) beer. Neither of us need a visa for Senegal away and this was my fifth time here. Memories came back of the epic Lost Luggage challenge, my time backpacking in Dakar, Lac Rose and land/ferry bordering The Gambia. I double land bordered the brace before finally backpacking both in 2023!!

Leaving Senegal

With both of us thinking everything was good, we went to board the flight from Dakar to Ouagadougou via Bamako, Mali. They asked for Marek’s Burkina Faso visa on boarding. No problem. He had printed it.

They asked for my Burkina Faso visa. I checked in “downloads”: nope. I checked my emails: I was offline. I checked in Screenshots: nope. I had thought I screenshat it, but it wasn’t there. Oops.

There was a stress for 20 minutes before I realised I had sent the Screenshot to my parents on What’s App, and though I was offline now, I could still access the images on What’s App. Finally at last minute.com and with seconds left to board, they let me on the flight!

“Don’t you ever consider giving up; you’ll be fine” – Ace Of Base.

Then we flew from Senegal to Mali, phew!! Here’s what my Burkina Faso evisa looked like –

Fakepacking Bamako, Mali

As I write this in January 2025, there are only two countries I have physically been to that I fakepacked. The first is Turks And Caicos Islands 🇹🇨, where I landed in December 2022 and only transited the country. Of course since this is an honest real travel blog, it counts that I was really there, but I don’t count backpacking it unless I saw the sights, drank in the bars, got a visa or passport stamp or stayed in a hotel unairportic. Same with Bamako in Mali. Below you can see me FAKEpacking in Mali!! We stayed on the aeroplane – the ONLY country on my list I did that in, since Turks and Caicos for 10 minutes I actually left the plane!

Even more nuts at Mali away was the fact that I didn’t even leave the plane! The best fakepacking I’ve ever done!! Then we flew from Mali to Burkina Faso.

Arrival in Burkina Faso

After the final push and visa stress through Mauritania, Senegal and Mali, we finally landed in Burkina Faso. Hello baby.

It was mid afternoon. We filled in the immigration arrival form at the airport and showed our visas to the immigration officers.

We were the only two Caucasian or white tourists here. Of course. The scaremongerers and fake extremists had forced others to believe the hype.

The immigration officers checked the documents, then asked for a photo and fingerprints. After that, we were stamped in to Burkina Faso. Phew! No stress eh?

We even had a multiple entry visa and made use of that by coming back in again after Benin. The second two times it was very very smooth, I think they might have remembered us at the airport as the only other Caucasian / white person we saw was an Australian guy who was there on business.

There was no actual visa or photo in the passport, no extra payments. It was just an entry and exit stamp both times. We were both in, smoothly.

We had booked into La Casa Hostel in Zona Patte d´oie, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. We hadn’t arranged to be collected at the airport this time, but hopped in a local taxi who claimed he knew La Casa, and Fabio our host. That’s a nuts story for another day.

We were now in Burky F Baby!

We actually had planned to visit Burkina Faso thrice on this trip. Once flying in from Mali (done), thence flying in from Ivory Coast (done), thence again flying in from Ivory Coast (changed at the end to source the Central African Republic visa in Abidjan).

Here are some of my photos from backpacking in Burkina Faso. I loved it! Thanks to everyone who played a part in this journey to Burkina Faso!