Earlier today I laid out how to obtain an e-visa to Kenya. In 2021, Kenya abandoned its visa-on-arrival program. For most nationalities, that means that you need to arrange your visa before stepping onto a flight to Kenya. That little detail slipped my mind, though I was able to save my trip through some last-minute maneuvering.
I Forgot To Apply For My Kenya Visa, But Still Managed To Travel There As Planned
I realized when I checked in for my flights to Mombassa that I needed a visa for Kenya. I’ve been to South Africa several times over the last two years, where no visa is necessary, but Kenya does require one and it is not available on arrival like in Zambia or Zimbabwe.
During my layover in San Francisco, I applied for my visa. I had hoped, like with Thailand during the pandemic, the visa would be generated instantly.
It was not.
When I reached the gate for my Munich flight, I was asked to present my Kenyan visa. Of course, I did not have it. I did have a .pdf confirmation that I applied, but of course, the agent said that was not a visa.
Boarding was 15 minutes away and she was about to offload me from the flight and pull my checked bag from the cargo hold when a bit of inspiration hit me.
I pulled out my laptop and bought a refundable ticket to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines. Transit without visa is allowed in Kenya, so I figured I’d “keep going” to Ethiopia and hopefully by the time I reached Munich my Kenyan visa would be issued.
The gate agent laughed at this solution, telling me that Ethiopia now also requires an e-visa in advance.
I too could not help but to laugh. Most websites online indicated that visas could be obtained on arrival, but I pulled up the information on Timatic via Expert Flyer and indeed, visas on arrival are now only available for those of Ethiopian origin!
So I canceled the Addis Ababa ticket and booked a ticket from Mombasa to Cairo via Addis Ababa. You can certainly still obtain a visa on arrival in Egypt.
The agent smiled. I smiled. She handed me my boarding pass.
Crisis averted…at least until I reached Germany.
Thankfully, by the time I arrived in Germany, the visa had been issued. I then canceled the onward journey from Mombassa and was able to secure my baggage on arrival even though it was now tagged all the way to Cairo (via Munich, Frankfurt, Mombassa, and Addis Ababa!)
This was a stupid move on my part, but I’m thankful I was able to recover with minimal damage. Don’t be stupid like me: apply for your Kenyan visa early. But if you get caught without a visa, think about booking an onward journey to buy yourself some more time…
> Read More: How To Obtain An E-Visa To Kenya
How did you manage to collect your bag early? I thought short checking was verboten?
Wait for the next segment. 😉
MBA is a tiny airport.
this isn’t really short checking as he did not have a through ticket. also at MBA they can probably find it pretty easily as it’s a tiny place and everything is done manually
How do you typically get your bag checked through two separate tickets? Is it easy to do as long as the airlines belong to the same alliance?
It’s generally possible with any full-service airline, as long as there is an interline agreement.
Recently had a big scare with interline baggage check on a different trip, which I will discuss in an upcoming blog post.
Any insight about Hawaiian and AA at LAX? I can’t remember the reasoning of why it was strongly recommended I not rely on the transfer, which I didn’t.
Hah!
I like those events you report.
And that’s instructive too.
Starting a trip to Kenya without a visa is like entering a whore house without a rubber.
Average Republican was better, at least we got some laughs
Last year I had a flight from USA to Dar Es Salaam via Nairobi.
The travel agent booked the ticket. I flew United and Lufthansa to Nairobi via Frankfurt. Once i arrived in Nairobi i had to reclaim my bags to continue with Kenyan Airways. I did not have a visa to reclaim my bags.
I explained this to passport person. He straight up said pay me $50 bribe and it will be ok.
I paid and he stamped and I reclaimed my bags ran back to the entrance and re checked with Kenyan Airways. And made it to Tanzania with no problem.
Stay tuned for part two! 😉
Sad that someone asked for a bribe to do the right thing or is it. But I assume he thought you had good intentions.
Great story! Love the ingenuity.
100%
Ummm Ethiopia needs a visa too. Classic. Flexibility on cancelling with American and United so helpful these days. I booked a trip to Taiwan last week about three hours out. With no return leg. Easy to book an award flight out to London as a placeholder as better options home presented themselves. Incidentally being in Sydney now the partnership between EVA and virgin is awesome for opening better opportunities. The latter a superb option in biz on the 787-10.
Partnership between United and virgin I mean. Flew virgin to Brisbane and then EVA to Taipei.
I’m surprised the gate agent was both knowledgeable and willing to work with you. Generally it seems like helping a passenger is the least of their concerns. I suppose with proof of onward travel she had no right to deny you boarding, but this just seems like the perfect case of a power trip.
Matthew just has a way with people, Jerry.
Leo thing, if worked correctly
So they re-labelled your bag that was already checked in? It’s interesting that they let you check in and only asked for the visa at the gate with your bag already checked in.
We went to Kenya a couple of months ago. Immigration was a shambles. Most painful of all was a woman who had a connecting flight and a transit visa but where we were channelled there was no opportunity for transit. Everyone had to immigrate and she had no immigration visa. Stalemate. Not sure what happened to her. I’m not entirely certain of any of the above but broadly speaking it’s worth checking the process thoroughly.
A few other tips :
It seems that the health screening desk is voluntary (I mean many people pushed past and no one seemed to care)
At immigration and emigration just join the shortest queue. I saw scores of western backpackers at the Kenyan citizens queue and they breezed through.
Nice article and a brilliant inspiration. Wasn’t quite appreciative of what non-Kenyan nationals go through. Having dual citizenship of both Kenya and USA is certainly helpful and makes global travel a lot easier.
Kenya has had e-visa for years, and I always much prefer doing an e-visa over a VOA. It’s more official and less susceptible to the kind of graft issues you mentioned in the transit visa story.
You were really lucky.
I’m waiting for my Kenya eVisa right now and it has been 26 hours. STill have a week, so should be fine, but even though it was never more than 24h for me in the past, it’s not guaranteed.
Good move, though!
Thank you for this post! Your idea saved our trip too when we arrived at DCA for our first leg of our trip to Kenya and they wouldn’t check us in. We booked a refundable ticket to South Africa and managed secure our visas by the time we landed in Nairobi. Thank you!
Glad to hear!