Congo - Cabinda Border Police, inmigration and Customs | Customs and Immigration

Money exchange

1.000 CFCA - 1350 KZ

Watch out for the inflation it’s crazy. Also bring enough cash ATMs don’t work/ work well in Angola.

The Customs Chef kept our passavant we got in Ntam. We don’t have a CDP. He didn’t mind too much that the passavant was only valid from Ntam to Ouesso and we crossed the whole country with it 😅

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Congo>Angola - 1 motorcycle.

Congo side easy and fast - no money asked for exit.

Angola side -
1) Immigration - Visa on Arrival with CAD passport,
- passport copy
- hotel booking copy
- yellow fever copy
They give form to fill out. Got 30 day VOA - Zero fees!!
(first free border entry since Morocco for me).

2) Aduana - TIP - paid 6366 kwanza. (Paid in cash at Bank office next door).
Aduana took the longest - 1hr - but nice office with AC to wait.

3) Police - Stamped TIP.

Total time was 2 hrs.

Very good border experience. Folks are all friendly and helpful. Fixers are present but not pushy or aggressive - they offer free guidance for building/office locations if you speak kindly with them - share a few ciggies.

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Congo side was easy.

Angola side : You need a passport and yellow fever photocopy. One of the officer speaks English. They refused to stamp my passport because my passport photo was damaged, so I'm going to try the northern border 🤞
Good luck everyone!

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Sorry for the double comment, I can only modifiy it 😬

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Exiting the Congo is very quick and easy. Immigration is on the left side and customs on the right. The road from Pointe Noire with many holes. Entry into Cabinda Angola was easy. In immigration, a Visa is not necessary (Spanish. passport and other new rules). They stamp your passport only on the day you enter. It is necessary to bring a copy of the passport, a copy of the yellow fever vaccination and fill out a form, where you have to indicate the itinerary that you are going to follow in Angola. In Customs, the CDP is not valid. You have to pay for a Passavant 6,350 Kw, they ask for a driving license and motorcycle documentation. In all process nobody asking me money .

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Coming from Congo to Cabinda. The Congo side very friendly. The police tried to solicit a 1000cfa fee to register my passport. I said they would need to give me a reframe then he let me proceed.
The Angola side was less friendly and took much longer to complete everything. You have to pay 6336 Kwanza for the TIP. Carnet is not used for Angola.

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Passport and CDP stamp out of Congo was pretty fast, however they wanted money for both.
We entered Angola with an e-visa and this went quite smooth. We played the official amount and got our visa sticker.
On the Angola side they did not accept the CDP, and instead issues some other document for 6336kz. We also had to wait for the power to come on, everybody was friendly but really slow.

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Worst border experience so far in Africa coming all the way down from Morocco.
Congo side refused to stamp my passport claiming my visa was invalid even though it still had two weeks left. Then they insisted it was fake . They insisted I would have to go back to Pointe Noire. When I pointed out to them that if they thought I had a fake visa and was in the country illegally they would therefore want me to leave, they didn't care and insisted I left. I refused and waited there. An Angolan guy who spoke perfect English and French came along and tried to help me and offer to translate what the issue was. In response, the male immigration officer grabbed him and pushed him out the door shouting abuse at him. The Angola guy was very calm and I'm sorry that he was treated that way because of me. After 5 hours waiting for them to 'authenticate' my visa they eventually told me I had to pay 30,000 CFA for a stamp out of the country. I don't pay bribes but at this point I'd had enough, paid, got the stamp and left to the Angolan side. On the Angolan side there was no power and the female immigration officer told me to wait. I explained I'd already been at the border 5 hours and could she please just stamp my eVisa instead. She said no and told me they had a generator they could turn on. However instead of turning it on she just continued to sit there on her phone, eating crackers for the next half an hour. I asked why she hadn't turned it on yet and she told me she didn't want to. Useless. Eventually the chief turned up and was far more helpful. He put the generator on, printed my stamp. A useful point to note is that you need a page that is empty on both sides since they leave an impression on the page). Anyway, after 60k paid I went to customs. Weirdly they simply stamped my bikes v5. No other document produced and free of charge. Easy. Finished with the police post who just needed to write a couple of details down. No hassle there. Good luck anyone who has to cross here in the future, I think I'd rather swim into Cabinda from Congo rather that deal with that hassle again.

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Direction - pointe noire to Cabinda

Think I got lucky. Arrived at 3pm at the border and was all done and gone by 5pm which is when they close!

I’ve heard they try to get 120$ out of you but they only asked for 70$ from me but it should have been 50$ as it states on the Angola evisa but I didn’t care because I only had 20 mins left to get through.

If you have to wait once you give them your passport then clear off to dournes and sort your car docs out which takes around 45 mins. All fine for me at this border!

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Angola -> Congo with car.

Angola side:
Wanted to do this one myself. Yelled at the hustlers to leave me alone.

Immigration wanted copies of passport main page and Angola visa page. My car has a printer but someone said a copy shop is nearby.

For the car, they stamp the import paper. My paper was erroneous as it had a saida stamp instead of entrada stamp. Customs and police stamped it.

Congo side:
Pretty chill. Money change hustlers gave exchange rate Kwanza to Francs close to xe.com middle rate and didn't try cheating.

First booth is douane for the car. They make autorisation d'entrée for 10000 Francs. Asked for and stamped carnet de passages.

Immigration quick with entry stamp.

Police nothing unusual.

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Also no electricity when we were there. However the officers were quite eager to find a solution so that we wouldn’t be stuck at the border for days (which our friends were a week earlier). They ended up putting our entry stamp on the back of our printed eVisa and let us go — without the proper visa in our passports. They called their colleagues on the DRC side to let them know about it. We had no issues at checkpoints and also when exiting Cabinda/ entering DRC. At the Angola border in Matadi they also couldn’t print the visa so we ended up having to go to the airport in Luanda to get the proper visa. This saved us a lot of money though, because at the airport you only pay 36k kwanza per person (~40€) and not 120$. So if you get to this border and there is no electricity it’s quite annoying but it might save you a lot of money :)

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We arrived nice and early, getting through the Gabon side reasonably quickly. But it all slowed once we hit Angola. arriving around 11am there was a three hour power cut meaning they couldn't process our e-visa. The staff were apologetic about it and even provided access to the locked toilet when asked. Once the power came on and everything was sorted they then needed copies produced which they themselves couldn't do, which was a small faff. Once we escaped there we had to go to the customs office for the passevent (probably misspelled) since they don't take the carnet. We finally left around 4:30/5pm and had to drive in the dark to Cabinda. A long day, but at least everyone was friendly (although the customs manager is a seriously grumpy chap, steer clear).

My Portuguese is non existent but with some Google Translate, lots of smiling, and handshakes everyone was happy, even the police.

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Was stuck at this border for 3 days because my Angolan visa didn't show up on their system. Apparently it's a fairly common problem. If this happens to you then stick with it because the customs chief is able to sort the problem out given enough time, it just takes a lot of phone calls to Luanda via his boss I think.

Had the usual morning without electricity stopping play, and this time a bank internet failure when paying for the TIP costing two hours.

It's the luck of the draw here it seems and I got unlucky, though I did see two Spanish and five Portuguese go through without too many issues.

I hope they are able to improve things at this border.

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Congo > Cabinda

Congo Side : fast and easy, friendly staff. one building for passeports (immigration) and one for your CPD (customs)

Angola Side : WORST BORDER EVER !
we arrived at 09Am on the 12th and left on the 13th around 10AM
We started with the Tip (paper for your véhicule, no CPD accepted) in the customs building because they had electricity there. In 30 minutes we had the paper. Fast, easy, friendly officers !
For passports (visa and stamp) it was a real nightmare. At the beginning they told us to wait for 1 hour. Then 2h. Then, told us that the generator was broken, that we would probably had to wait for a week ... INSANE ! Anyway ... we waited all day long and around 5PM, electricity came back ... Police officers finally told us that they didn't want to start the generator earlier because we were "only 4 customers" (needed Visa printed) and that was not enough for them ... SERIOUSLY???
They needed again 1h to print our visas. And around 6PM they told us that we will get the stamp the next morning because it was too late now (the stamp guy already left ...). So we slept on the parking.
13th morning, 8AM : we went to get the stamp BUT for that they needed a copie of our visa. They asked 1000 Kz per copy. We almost laughed at their faces....
We decided to go back to Congo Side to do our copies (25 CFA per copy) but had to wait around 9AM because no electricity before ...
FINALLY went back to Angola Immigration. Got the stamps and left at 10 AM ...

After 16 borders in Africa, we never saw that before...

-

Prices :
- 6336 Kz for the TIP
- 120$ for the visa (on the evisa it says 36.000 Kz but apparently the official paper is wrong ... haha of course..)

GOOD LUCK :)

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Congo > Angola I guess we were lucky, 2 hours in total for this border (on a Sunday morning). Nothing to add to the previous comment except on Congo side a guy in uniform told us we should go to the gendarmerie and pay 5000 CFA. We said no, asked to customs who said it’s not official. So if anyone ask you for money to go out of Congo, just say no ! Changed 9000CFA for 7000kz, visa printing worked fast (lucky us). Didn’t need any fixer. Congo side : police / immigration / custom Angola Side : immigration / custom / police :)

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Congo side :
A lot of people will approach you to change money, better to have CFA for the best rate. (We changed 20 USD for 8000kz).
Exit stamp is only done after you go to have your evisa reviewed on Angola side, quite fast when you get back.
Customs stamp also fast.

Angola :
Much more patience required.
Visa process is long, they ask you for a photocopy of the visa once it is done so you have to figure out yourself where to get the photocopy (pay at the market or request Customs to do it for you).
Customs, they do not work with CPD, 6336kz for a TIP is mandatory and looks legit.

3 hours in total.

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Awful border, we have waited 4 hours as there was no electricity and not possible to do Angola visa... We didn't know if we were gonna spend the night at the border, but by chance the electricity came back at 3 am.
Busy border on saturday, hundreds of locals crossing to go to the markets.
Complicated border because there are lots of building, but we were helped by a fixer who told us were to go otherwise you get lost. We told this guy we didnt need his help and we werent gonna pay him. But he was nice and kept helping us though.
Also at the custom we gave our CPDs and they took 30 min to finally give us passavants that cost 6336 kz. We spent 10min explaining we didn't need passavents and in all other contries they just stamped our CPD and it was done in 5minutes... What the custom chief said was that "Angola" wasn't written at the back of the CPD, so Angola can't accept CPD. Aaaarrrrgggg, no way he changed his mind, so we finally paid for the passavants. In the comments below, lots of people write about the TIP but no-one say : CPD is juste NOT possible for Angola, only TIP. No we know.
Then the guy who helped us came back and said immigration asked 500kz per photocopy of the angolan visa. OMG, we began to argue a bit that there was no freakin way we paid 1000kz more because we had already paid 120$. So the officers at the custom made us the photocopies. Such a joke to ask people to pay for photocopies that they want to keep. 🤦‍♀️
(We finally gave 2000 kz for the guy who helped us and facilitated a lot during all the day bc without his help it would have been even more difficult to go everywere and manage to do it before the night).
So, after all this exhausting waiting and explaining, we finally arrived at Cabinda when the night came.
What a day. The longest border we have faced. Awful border, we have waited 4 hours as there was no electricity and not possible to do Angola visa... We didn't know if we were gonna spend the night at the border, but by chance the electricity came back at 3 am.
Busy border on saturday, hundreds of locals crossing to go to the markets.
Complicated border because there are lots of building, but we were helped by a fixer who told us were to go otherwise you get lost. We told this guy we didnt need his help and we werent gonna pay him. But he was nice and kept helping us though.
Also at the custom we gave our CPDs and they took 30 min to finally give us passavants that cost 6336 kz. We spent 10min explaining we didn't need passavents and in all other contries they just stamped our CPD and it was done in 5minutes... What the custom chief said was that "Angola" wasn't written at the back of the CPD, so Angola can't accept CPD. Aaaarrrrgggg, no way he changed his mind, so we finally paid for the passavants. In the comments below, lots of people write about the TIP but no-one say : CPD is juste NOT possible for Angola, only TIP. No we know.
Then the guy who helped us came back and said immigration asked 500kz per photocopy of the angolan visa. OMG, we began to argue a bit that there was no freakin way we paid 1000kz more because we had already paid 120$. So the officers at the custom made us the photocopies. Such a joke to ask people to pay for photocopies that they want to keep. 🤦‍♀️
(We finally gave 2000 kz for the guy who helped us and facilitated a lot during all the day bc without his help it would have been even more difficult to go everywere and manage to do it before the night).
So, after 5 hours of all this exhausting waiting and explaining, we finally arrived at Cabinda when the night came.
What a day. The longest border we have faced.

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To exit Congo is easy, no cash asked.
To enter Angola you must have 120 usd, other valuta is not accepted, except for euro. Your evisa must be printed on A4. Our paper was smaller and this was not accepted either. And you need proof of vaccination.

In the end, you do get a good looking visa!

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We may have set a new record waiting 7.5 hours at border as the system was down and our online visa couldn’t be processed. They eventually let us continue to Cabinda and promised to deliver our passports to the hotel in the morning so we could make it on time for our boat. That never happened. We waited 3 days for the passports, still no visa and we have to go to Luanda now to get it processed there. Heard from locals who host overlander a that this never happened before but it’s a slow border anyway so it’s worth getting to the border at 8am if you are planning to take the boat the next day 🤞🏻

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Congo→Angola. Friendly officers on both sides. No one asked for money. No other documents needed than Evisa. Make sure to bring 120 USD in clean new bills they check both sides for marks or defects. Unfortunately I had to wait several hours because of power shortages. But the officers are helpful and offered to deliver visa next day to a hotel. I couldn't except because of ferry next morning so I waited until power was restored. They ask 1000cfa for a copy of visa but just declined.

Angola TIP for motorbike is 6350 Kwanza. Plenty of dudes around who can exchange 10.000 CFA. So all in all easy border.

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This is not a border to try late in the day - I arrived about 3:30pm and they tried to tell me it was too late already. After some discussion they did let me through though.

I didn’t have any issue with them asking me for photocopying and they were all very kind and friendly.

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Congo to Cabinda. Congo side very easy. Cabinda side, easy process too but a bit longer because they have to process the Evisa. They only asked us our printed Evisa, nothing else. They didnt even checked our yellow fever vaccins... dont know if we got lucky or what ? We could pay in euros, in 20s and 10s, no problem but at a bad rate (1$ / 1€ instead of 1.07 for that day) but we prefered to keep our dollars for the next countries.
We changed a few kwanza in the street to pay the TIP, about 6300.
Immigration is still asking for money to print copies of the Visa they just printed for 120 $... Ridiculous. One traveller we met at the border decided to pay for us without questionning so ... they got what they wanted. But i m sure there is a way to not pay the "fee".

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Congo Brazzaville to Cabinda.
Very easy border. Friendly staff. No bribes in each side.

Congo Brazzaville side.
Customs, police, immigration : 15 minutes. Just the customs asked us to open the car for inspection.

Cabinda side.
- Customs / TIP for 1month (avalaible in Cabinda and in Angola) 6.336 kz for a 4x4. Official price, no bribes. You had to pay in the bank, only in kz. So we exchange outside 20€ for 8.000 kz to a disabled man. He proposed us 7.000kz for 20$, that we refused!
- Immigration / Come with all the copies you can (made in Pointe Noire for 25fcfa each copy) : yellow fever, covid vaccine, booking hotel, proofs of livelihoods, evisa... and 120$ to obtain the evisa. Long because they had to connect ! And be strong when 1/ they asked you big billets $ (we had only 10$ but they prefer 50 or 100$!!!) and 2/ when they asked a copy of your angolan visa that they just printed because it is 1$ the copy. So we refused saying it is stupid : finally they paid themselves! ;-)
Police registration / 2 minutes.

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Cabinda to Congo
for Angolan immigration you need to bring copies of Picture page, Angola visa and Congo visa. possible to make copies at small shack on the right of the entrance of the border (200 kw per page). No need to cancel TIP.
Congo side we skipped the health check by driving the car through the boom first: the health check is located at the pedestrian entrance. they shouted at us a few times we had to come but we said we would do immigration first and then they didnt see us anymore since they were busy.. immigration officer friendly but a bit drunk, he stamped us out instead of in, so check he takes the 'entry' stamp!
CdP filled by customs, asked for payment (but no receipt available..) first asked for 10k CFA, but we settled on 5k CFA. last stop is police, writing our story on a loose paper. all in all 1.5 hours through both borders.

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From CG to Angola: The whole procedure was quite simple and straightforward. No bribes requested, except at the congolese health check. In addition to the PCR test and the standard yellow fever vaccination card, they wanted to see an "african" vaccination card (which I actually had from Benin). They then asked me CFA10,000 “for the stamp”. I gave them CFA3000.
Just after exiting the Angolan immigration gate, on the right hand side, there are shared taxis that go to Cabinda for KWZ1900 (US$4.5). Fifty meters further, there is a Unitel store where you can buy SIM cards and money changers.
Between Massabi and Cabinda, there are some check-points where you have to show your passport. Very easy, no bribes.

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They also asked for Covid PCR Test they asked 20000 cfa, 30 euro, per person. After big discussion we paid 15000 cfa per person. They gave us the covid test paper without making the test. WhatsApp a thieves!

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On Congo side they asked for PCR COVID test, performed not far from 48 h. Copy of E.U. vaccination, not accepted. First they asked 20000 cfa (30 euro) per test (we were 2 people). Finally and after big discussion we paid 15000 cfa, each. Entering an small and dusty room they hand over to us a "test paper", WHITHOUT really performing any PCR test. What a Thieves!. On Cabinda side they asked for "covid paper" and accepted "PCR test" on Congo side with no trouble. Important making copies on the Congo side, better on any shop far from border line. Closest are really expensive: 1 euro = 1 white and black copy.

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We crossed the border from Congo to angola. make sure that you have your dollars for the angola visa. the exchange rate for dollars at the border is around 15% (for 100 dollar you have to pay 68 cfa after a lot of bargain, normal rate 60 cfa)the rate to change xcf to kwanza at the congo side is around 7000 for 10.000 cfa. we didn't change because the high rate. if you are out of congo and are in noman lands you can walk to the gate of angola, ask for the money fixer and the rate will be 8900 kwanza for 10.000 cfa. you need the kwanza cash for the road registration.
when we crossed the border some money changers stayed stick to use from congo side to the Angola side. they didn't believe that we had dollars and they will say that you only can change kwanza money with them.
we think that the immigration of Angola was working with them together (because they had a lot of contact). when we had our Visa they asked 4 photocopies of everything. we where well prepared and had from everything they asked more then four. the guy was a bit surprised that we had literally from everything more than four photocopies. then he found out that we had to copy the visa (what he just made for use). hey asked the money changers to do it for use. We immediately interfered him and a said it was nonsense. after a lot of arguing he made one photocopies of the visa by himself. and we still think it was a show.
when you go out of congo you also need to go to a doctor on the border before the check out of because of the Carono virus. he will check your temperature.

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busy border. Crossed here with my evisa, paid 120 USD at the border, was all fine. I had to make many copies of several documents including the passport visa by myself, so went to the small village after the border in Angola and came back. A guy sticked with me the whole process, who wanted to change money for bad rate (10.000 cfa for 7.4000 kwanza). Instead I changed money at the sim card shop (10.000 cfa for 9.000 kwanza, higer than rate shown on Google!), which is located on in the busy street on Angola side, one of the last shops on the left side with a sign of Unitel.

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everyone on both sides of the Border work was pleasant and spoke a little bit of English. Angola side was definitely slower. Crossed to cabinda. Do the e-visa MUCH simpler and 2000 cfa cheaper. http://www.smevisa.gov.ao/ E-visa is automatically approved and everything you need to know is on the site. Print the visa and all documemts take it to the massabi border. Someone will be there to create your visa VS trying to get it at pointe noire or Dolisie both we're a complete waste of time.

Be prepared to make 4 copies of the visa - the police won't do it - go to customs across the street or the bank behind customs. We have a copier so sucks to be you. Enjoy congo don't bother with angola visas at consulates.

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Applied for evisa on arrival, when it was time to pay they said they would not give kwanza back in change so make sure you have the exact amount of American dollars ($120pp)

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Congo to Cabinda by bike with Angolan e-visa and no carnet.
Congo side easy, bring a passport copy and it's faster. Angola side took a bit (1 hour and half more or less) as they need to create the real visa, bring 120$ for it. Passavant 6336 kw, valid for 90(!) days.

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If ur going north u NEED a copy of your passport and ur visa if ur leaving Angola

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Cabinda to Congo
On Angolan side needed a copy of passport picture page and visa (there's a photocopier in the BIC if needed). Easy stamp in passport and on TIP.
Congo side, needed to visit police, then immigration building - easy. TIP cost 10,000CFA.

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As stated before. Congo easy. Angola side took some time due to bureaucracy. It is better to bring passport and visa copy from Pointe Noire. We changed money there $1=350kwanzas. We paid 6.336 kwanzas for the TIP.

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Cabinda side: TIP costed us 6350 KW. You have to pay it at the bank at the backside of the building where you get your TIP.

The rest is all as stated. After your documents are stamped by fiscal police and you can drive off: there's 1 last registration stop before you can cross the fence.

All friendly people and helpful people.

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Congo side is easy but takes some time. Also Duane tries to make you buy a new TIP for exiting(no clue why). But you can skip them and pass.

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Easy Border. Congo no Problems at all.
Angola also okay but we brought the Copies. Carnet was not stamped! The Customs Guy knew that Angola is not included in the Carnet System. So we also had to buy a Laissez Passer for 6.336 Kwanza. We changed Dollar here for 1 USD = 340 Kwanza (so the Paper costs us around 18 USD). They told us the Paper will be valid for our second Entry in Angola again (what turned out to be true).

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Easy check out of the Congo. Angola side took a while because they are very slow entering information in to a computer. you need to complete a form and you need copies of your passport and Angola visa (get these in Pointe Noire it's much easier). We don't have a Carnet so had to import 2 motorbikes. Also took a while and cost 3160 Kwanza per bike which you pay to the bank. You get an official document for the vehicle. We changed a little money here for a rate of 330. You can get 360 in Cabinda.

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Carnet stamp ok, inmigration and Police ok

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The Congo side was simple.
On the Cabinda side it makes life easier if you have passport and visa copy. At the immigration a form has to be filled out. At Douane you have to buy a TIP (around 6000 kwanza), even if they stamp into the carnet. You have to stop by at fiscal police, too.

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