Yes, the VTE restarted at the Service des Passeports on the Bobo road at the beginning of the month!

Fingers crossed it continues

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I once applied for the VTE in Ouaga but was refused because I had only a three day transit visa to Burkina, bought at the embassy in Bamako for 24000 CFA.
They demanded a full visa which was then 48000 CFA.
I hear they now offer visa on arrival at Ouaga airport for 94000 CFA.

Yes, to get the VTE you need a single entry tourist visa for Burkina

The visa on arrival at the airport, you may get IF the airline allows you to board the aircraft! However, it's the same price if you try to get a visa on the border too ... far simpler and cheaper to do it prior to arrival at an embassy or consul!

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Australian Passport:

1. Mauritania at Border – €55 on arrival
2. Senegal in Nouakchott – 10,000 CFA same day (exception) – 2 weeks
3. Mali in Nouakchott – €13 same day – 1 month
4. Cameroon in Dakar – 51,000 CFA, 6 days turnaround – 1 month, with 3 months to present
5. Togo in Bamako – 25,000 CFA 1 day or 50,000 same day turnaround – 1 month with date of entry specified
6. Burkina Faso in Bamako – 48,000 CFA next day – 3 months with date of entry specified
7. Benin e-Visa online – €50 immediate approval

The VTE is not available from the Benin embassy in Barcelona now.

This by email from the embassy itself in November '18;

two days visa in Ivory Coast and in Angola?? wow!! did you make it through the country?? Did you ever exit on an expired visa?? what happened?
thank you very much for this info!! I plan to go to Africa this year.

Two days is the processing time at the embassy, not visa duration.

It's possible to obtain a visa on arrival for Nigeria to enter at the Seme border crossing.

An approval letter must be acquired first before arriving at the border. To obtain the approval letter, either:

1. Apply at Nigeria Immigration Service - Visa on Arrival. There are some reports that the Immigration service did not respond to applications.
2. Apply through a 3rd party agent. The cost was 200.00 USD from Destinali. The approval letter is issued with 48 hours.

Arrive at Seme with printed copies of the approval letter. Note, there are two letters that look similar, and both should be printed. The Immigration Controller needs to sign/authorise this, so there may be a wait of an hour at the border.

To obtain the visa, you must be escorted by an immigration officer to Lagos airport. For Biking Over Yonder, with a motorcycle, and others, this meant the immigration officer rode pillion on the motorcycle. A return taxi fare of 25,000 NGN was required for the immigration officer to return to the Seme border crossing with paperwork completed.

At the airport, you are escorted through different offices and eventually arrive at the visa on arrival office. This is located where flight passengers disembark and arrive in the terminal, which is before passport control. In the visa on arrival office, you pay for the visa using a VISA card. Note: mastercard and cash are not accepted. Alternatively, you can pay online and present the visa payment receipt (and/or visa acknowledgement slip). Be sure to pay for visa on arrival (business) and not tourist visa, even though you may be travelling as a tourist.

This information was learnt from friends who crossed the border before me. I just followed in their footsteps. I've also added the above to wikioverland.org/Nigeria and the West Africa Travellers group on Facebook. Hope it helps!

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interesting, and expensive right? but I have to go there! did you do lots of camping? how long was the trip?

Another approval has been obtained less than a week ago for US$100 through a person with their details on West Africa Travellers. Think three of them went through using this method if I remember reading correctly!

There's always a way through

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Hello Stephen,

Thanks for the info!
I'm in Bissau at the moment, together with a friend driving south.
I know the rain is already present in Nigeria, could you give me some info Which border crossing you took to get into Cameroon?
Do you think this route is doable in the rainy season?

I took the Gembu (Nigeria) to Banyo (Cameroon) route on my motorcycle. This crossing is between Ekok and too far North, which are both unsafe regions right now. The Cameroon embassy asked which crossing and I would take and said to avoid Ekok.

I left Gembu and followed the GPS coordinates on iOverlander through the villages (Mayo Ndaga, Lubatari, Kan-Iyaka). The route was OK with a few small stretches that were slightly more tricky. It's achievable on a motorcycle and with 4x4. It's a beautiful route. The guys at the Nigerian border are super friendly!

A word of warning: Don't take the route from Mararaba to Gembu (via Baissa) unless you have a lot of experience. I'd say this route is for very advanced riders. I took the route and couldn't complete it. Locals rode my bike for me. A huge lesson for me. Instead, approach Gembu from Bali, which I hear is much better. Full story of my predicament on my blog.

Arriving at Cameroon, the Bounjoukoura village is where customs and immigration are located. The route from the border to Banyo was OK for me in the dry. There are some river crossings that could be more tricky in the wet. I don't think it would be extremely difficult, but just more challenging. I say doable!

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Thanks Stephen for sharing information.

Btw: I enjoyed reading a bit of your blog. Unfortunatly I am not able to go to further pages due to a Error 404. Maybe its just me

@moosi O no! Thanks for letting me know about the 404. I've cleared the cache, which sometimes causes this. If you get any more problems then send me the URL, and I can investigate further. Thanks again!

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Stephen,
Once again, thanks for all the info, this will help for sure.
Hope you have a safe travel down south!