Border to Guinea Conakry!

The early bird

We were excited to leave early and reach the border of Guinea Conakry as soon as possible because we had heard that there were a lot of checkpoints to go through, and it could take a lot of time.
 
Crossing the border was a mix of hassle and excitement. The exit of Senegal was quick and took us only 10 minutes to go through the necessary documents. However, the border of Guinea was a different story. It took us more than 2 hours to go through all the checkpoints. We had to go through many offices, from scanning the car to the police station, military check, passport stamp, fingerprints, and many others. Each task had its own office to visit, and it felt like an endless and tiring process.
 

What’s needed?!

As we didn’t have a CDP (Carnet de Passage), we got a Passavant, which was valid for two months (10 EUR). Fortunately, we still had the coverage from the brown card insurance we made in Senegal.
 
Guinea was the first country on our journey where we had to apply for a visa. Bettina had to apply online pre-arrival for a visa as she has a German passport, while Houssain, with a Moroccan passport, is allowed to enter the country visa-free for three months. The online visa could be a headache for some people as it could take a lot of time to receive. We paid $80 for the online visa and had to take two copies of the print with us, as they keep one for their documents.
 
After going through all the checkpoints, we went to the last office to get the fingerprints and pictures done. However, as Houssain didn’t need a visa, they tried to get some money out of him, but we stood our ground and refused to give in.
Border Guinea
Guinea B1
Border Guinea
Border Guinea
Border Guinea

Tips & Tricks: 

eVisa: 
  1. Apply for the visa well ahead of your travel, as it can take time until you receive the visa approval.
  2. The visa costs 80$ for a single entry for a period of 3 months.
  3. To upload your visa documents, you need to compromise the documents’ size to 500kb.
  4. Make sure you have a 3D secure credit card to apply for the visa.
  5. While traveling put as an address the country where you are at the moment in case of problems you can contact the embassy
  6. To apply for the visa, you need to upload your yellow fever, hotel booking, and personal documents.
  7. It is recommended to print two copies of the visa before entering the country, as you need to keep one for your documents.
  8. IMPORTANT NOTE: The online visa print is officially not valid for longer than seven days. Usually, you are obligated to go to Conakry airport to receive the Visa sticker if you stay for longer than seven days. As we left for Ivory Coast we took the risk and didn’t get the sticker and we didn’t have any problems. The border between Guinea and Senegal is a different matter, they want to see the sticker, and if you do not have the sticker they will ask you for an 80$ visa payment again.
Some other tips
 
  • Try to reach the border early as they have a lunch break.
  • No CDP (Carnet de Passage): It is possible to receive a Passavant for three months, we paid 10 EUR.
  • The border crossing can take 2-3 hours with a lot of checkpoints.
  • Buy a sim card at the border and also directly charge it with some data. Note: we had Orange which has a good reach 
  • You can change your money at the border.
  • The insurance (brown card) covers many West African countries.
  • Get enough cash as not many places accept card payment.
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