Getting further along in the planning and i hear lots of issues with the Sudanese tourist Visa; just planning a drive thru this winter as part of the standard eastern africa Cairo to CT route

the official sudanese USA embassy:

Entry Visa

do you need a sponsor or hotel or how do you get this visa?

from what i read this is the ONLY country that does not issue transit visas on the spot at the border; am i wrong on this?

I am not considering this for any other country besides Libya (waiting to see if the Tunsia ferry and land route opens by November; no tourist visas available when i checked recently)

Thanks to all that have gone before me and solved these problems and share their experience

For Sudan you will most likely need to get a letter of invitation from your home country embassy in Cairo. You cannot afaik get visa at the border for Ethiopia, and also Moz if you are crossing from TZ. Details in the overlanders section on site below may help.

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we've visited the Sudaneese ambassy here in South Africa a week ago, because we're heading north with our bikes.

They informed us we can get the visa's easily in Ethiopia, Egypt too.
(you need the visa for Egypt to get the visa for Sudan)

Hi all,
on our way up Ethiopian-Sudan-Egypt (we are in Ethiopia/Addis at the moment) we managed to get the Egypt visa last week, but now the Sudan embassy is insisting on an (invitation?) letter from the Khartoum Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a Sudan visa. We don't have this letter... Any ideas/experiences?

This is a very useful thread.

I am new to this forum.

I would like to confirm something based on the general wisdom on this matter.

Is there any need trying to apply for a Sudan VISA from the UK? Are we concluding that if you are willing to spend some days in Cairo running between embassies that it should be feasible to obtain the VISA in Egypt?

I guess I would only need:

Letter of invitation from embassy of South Africa which would satisfy the "sponsor" requirement on the Sudan VISA application?

The "http://www.sudan.net/travel.php" website also hints at this.

"From Egypt -Cairo is one of the easiest places to get one (usually a couple of hours after application), although for a lot of nationalities it costs US$100 (not payable in Egyptian pounds). You will almost definitely need a letter of invitation/introduction from your embassy, and the time this takes varies from embassy to embassy, e.g. the Canadian Embassy takes 24 hours, the British 15 minutes. The British Embassy charges 315 Egyptian pounds (just under US$50) for theirs and is situated only 200m from the Sudanese one. It is possible to obtain a sponsorship for the Visa from the Cairo embassy and skip the letter from your own embassy, though this depends on who you are dealing with at the embassy."

Hi,
we are currently in Nairobi, trying to get a sudanese visa. The entrance to the visa section is trough an unmarked building left of the parking place. Here are the requirements

• KSHs 5000
• Cover letter with reasons why you wanna travel and where you gonna go
• 2 passport phots
• form plus copy of the form
• copy of passport
• copy of credit card
• copy of carnet (best: Copy of all pages with stamps)
• Letter of recommendation from your embassy (the German embassy doesn't issue this letter for private travellers)

We'll see, how it works without the letter of recommendation. If I don't post anymore in this thread everything worked out.
Update: Today our passports were accepted (without sponsor or letter if recommendation), we'll get them back in 4 days (as is the given duration of process for foreigners, Kenyans 3 days, US Americans several weeks). Hopefully with the visa.

Something to add: when I applied in Berlin, the 'sponsor' was no issue, but they wanted a detailed itinerary or 'program'. I.E. on which precise date you will be where and doing what. I pulled together the best I could from the Sudanese embassy website, Wikipedia, and Google Maps with plenty of historical sights and monuments to visit, and made sure to avoid and places too close to South Sudan, and that did the trick nicely. Just make sure the itinerary is as long as you want the validity of the visa to be.

Enjoy Sudan, it's a great country with some of the friendliest people around, great desert camping, and a feeling of safety you're likely not encounter anywhere else soon ...