Mwami Border | Customs and Immigration

Zambia -> Malawi

This border was a breeze. Didn't time it but way less than an hour.

Zambian immigration and customs (CPD) were rapid and friendly.

Malawi immigration took a few minutes late only (visas no longer required for Canadians, Americans and many more).

Malawi customs stamped CPD quickly then sent me to pay for toll and carbon tax at the bank window. Toll was US$20 (cars and motorcycles) and they needed a pristine bill (same story as anywhere in Zambia - no nicks, ink, stains etc. so so weird because in the US unblemished bills are super rare).

4000 MWK for motorbike carbon tax. For both toll and tax they have you fill in a slip in quadruplicate (!) using carbon sheets.

The ATM did NOT work with our US card. Seemed to work (did not decline) but did not issue bills (and did not charge).

Money changers within the one-stop border area gave the proper rates for both Zam kwacha and USD (way way better rate than in Chipata).

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From Zambia to Malawi. No e-visa. No CPD.

Everything in the same building.
Zambia : stamped our passports to exit and we gave to the zambian customs our TIP. 2 minutes, no problem.

Malawi :
- Visa On Arrival possible for spanish and french passports : 50$ cash per people for 30 days, single entry. No hotel booking needed, just filled a form, waited 30 minutes, very simple.
- Customs for the car : very long, be patient !
11500 zambian K for carbon tax (only cash, only zambian K).
20000 zambian K for TIP (only cash, only zambian K).
20$ for road tax (only cash, only dollar).
you pay these 3 taxes to the bank inside the building, after you come back to the customs and it is done !
ATM inside the building to withdraw Zambian Kwatchas so you dont need to exchange ;-)
- For the insurance : it is mandatory and you will find plenty of police checkpoints to go to Lilongwe so better to buy at the border, not to pay fines on the road. 2 men approched us when we were at the customs. They wanted 45000 zambian K, we bargained at 25000 zambian K for 1 month for a 4x4 with Prime Insurance.

Just park well at the car park in front of the building (white lines), otherwise the police can fine you. ;-)

Totally 3 hours :-(

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From ZAM to MALAWI. Extremely easy crossing and procedures! Zambian side cleared in about 15 minutes (took time only because just before us were two overlanding trucks and their passengers ;), stamped passports out, cancelled TIP.

VOA with Finnish passports in Malawian immigration desk took about 20 minutes, TIP maybe half an hour or so. All officials were very friendly and efficient. ATM was working.

Payments made:
$50/pp for single entry visa on arrival
31500 mk (processing fee 20000 mk + carbon tax 11500mk for our Defender)
$20 toll fee

We bought Comesa for Malawi and Tanzania from Chipata (Golden Insurance, opposite Spar in yellow building, 2nd floor). Also changed some Zambian kwacha to Malawian kwancha at the Spar, got 6500 mk for 100 zk (so the rate they gave was 65 when asking for their ”best offer” ;).

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i stayed one night before the border. perfect olace to do that.
i was not alowed to camp on my truck, i had to take a small cabin. do not expecr to much.
i payed 200 k, and if you want to use the pool (looks very nice) you have to pay 50k extra.

restoran is cheap,

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When you apply for visa at the border (without the e-visa), bring good looking USD bills. Malawi emigration guy refused to accept our USD. Luckily some people helped us and changed our bills.

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Our E-visa ($50 - UK passport) application was accepted in three days so perhaps they’re getting more efficient. For the ‘letter of invitation’ we just made a refundable hotel reservation online and included a screenshot of that. You can print your application off at the bus station at Chipata. Once at the border we were through in about 25 mins.

For fellow cyclists there’s a shower here - 400 Malawian Kwacha.

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Both borders on same place. Exit Zambia easy and fast. Malawi side: VOA for Italian passport. 50usd for visa + 20usd for Road Tax + 11500 Malawian kwacha for my van.

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Zim-Mal. Relatively easy one-stop border. Well signposted, took us ~1.5hrs on UK and Norway passport, including visa on arrival.

We talked to other travellers who said the border officers know how bad and difficult the e-visa application is. Go through the application and bring screen clips showing you've tried. The visa process took maybe 45 minutes but we had no problems. Bring USD for visa and road tax, $120 all told for us. Working ATM with Malawian kwacha in the building.

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we could get our visa at the boarder, also there is an ATM, so you don't need to change money on the street.

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The Malawian and Zambian borders have been combined into one building - more organised and much easier to navigate

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Granted a visa on arrival. Though is is not advisable. they really pushed as to why we didn't come with the evisa and told us that we could pick any airport for port of entry.

We were very lucky that they didn't turn us away.

carbon tax: 15,500 kw
tip: 20,000kw
road tax: 20usd

insurance:45000kw

you can exchange USD at the border with the money changers there. They are less pushy than those outside the border post and our guy, Peter, was very respectful and gave us space. Rate was 1usd:1000kw which we verified on xe.com

Generally a pleasant experience, building is new and clean, quite crossing around midday on Saturday. Took us 2hr30mins with our visa complication.

After being processed and heading into Malawi the guy at the gate was looking for cash, gave him some bananas instead.

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Information below still correct. Whe had a printed confirmation of the e-visa so no problems in obtaining the actual visa at the border. Very friendly. To add:
- Although approved for 90 days online, you only get visa for 30 days, which you can extend without costs later at an immigration office in Malawi.
- Only confusing about roadtax we had to fill in our own receipts (or something like that) before paying roadtax and carbontax. Without any explanation what to fill in we got two empty receipts from cassierdesk. Kind of strange. After asking for explanation multiple times at the cassier (without result), a different woman walking around with some kind of badge filled it in for us eventually. Worked quick but ofcourse wanted a small tip for it.
- Kwacha you can change outside to pay carbontax. Rest is in dollar.
- Zambia out and Malawi in, all in all 2.5 hours. Quite smooth.

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Need to do online visa in advance
However we did not received after 6 days
We showed up at the border and they delivered us live
Carbon 15000 kw
Tip 20000 kw
Road tax 20 USd

Managed to negotiate the insurance down to 35 USD instead of 45 USD. Insurance in chipata was closed due to week end

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Here is the Malawi Border.
To enter to Malawi:
- you need a visa or a e-visa
- road tax : 20us$
- carbon tax : 11500 MWK
For the change, you can do at the border ou in Chipata. (be carefull at officiel rate)
-

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Arrived at the border without e-visa as could not complete the process online. Managed to get a visa (British passports) at the border after a little convincing. Process took about an hour.

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BE AWARE - new process requires that you apply for Malawi tourist visa online in advance. The application is a pain in the butt and requires passport photos and a ‘covering letter’ from your host and from your agent/accommodation. For ‘port of entry’ it is a drop down with only airport options. Apparently it is fine if you just chose any airport at random, but include your vehicle reg. above. You will need good internet to complete it as it is slow to complete and you can’t save as you go along. Not sure how long it will take to be approved - some parts of process say 5 days, some say 3 days. We’ll update when we know more…

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You can only enter with the online visa. Very strict. No control of covid test / vaccins so waste of time or money.

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Having read about the insurance scams coming into Malawi we bought 3 countries 60 days comesa cover (477 kwacha) at Madisons General Insurance in chipata. Some guys tried to sell us and told us because we have a SA vehicle its not valid which was just a lie. Only once we were asked by cops on the way to Lilongwe, we showed the yellow form and it was fine.

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Visa 75$, road tax $20, Carbon tax 11.500kwacha, processing fee TIP 10.000 kwacha.

Money Exchangers around. straight forward proces.

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Tip cost: 10,000 Malawi kwacha
Carbon Tax: Based on engine size 4,000 to 15,500 Malawi kwacha

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Exiting Zambia, entering Malawi by 4x4 with CdP

Great advice about insurance scam when entering Malawi (thanks!) - they tried to charge us 35,000 Malawian Kwacha (almost 50 US$) for 1 month’s insurance in only Malawi. We bought 3 months for 3 countries (COMESA yellow card) for just under 40 US$ at Madison General Insurance in Chipata (listed on ioverlander).

British passport - 75 US$ single entry visa
Road tax - 20 US$

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if crossing from Zambia to Malawi be warned you will be ripped off for insurance on the malawian side, I am going to buy Comesa insurance in Chipata and will update how it goes, update: Went to Madison's insurance, very professional and I bought insurance for local and comesa for Malawi at half of what they wanted in Malawi border side, not open on Sundays

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Travelling from Zambia into Malawi.
Travelling on British passports with CPD and COMESA.

No need for exchanging local currency unless you want to as both visa (USD 75 pp for 30 days- extension available in immigration offices) and road access fee (USD 20) payable in USD. May be different if travelling on a TIP and need local vehicle insurance.

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ATM was not working and bank was closed!
Visa (50$) and road toll (20$) you have to pay in USD.
Carbon Tax you have to pay in Kwacha. Because we couldn't get money of the atm and we didn't want to change money on the road (bad exchange rate: 1 USD =11.5)
custom allowed us to pay carbon tax in the next city and they wrote it down on our carnet.
Chipata City Council fee would be 50 Kwacha but we told that we don't have local money because of the atm and pay next day in Chipata. We could leave but of course we did not pay afterwards!

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KAZA visa not possible to get :( ONLY on airports or border with Zimbabwe.
Malawi side friendly and easy.
Zambian side horrible!
Totally unfriendly custom officer wanted to charge us for carbon tax 550 kwacha which is more than 50$ !!! Printed price list shows 275 but it's only when you go back to Malawi. If you transit to another country there is new price list, he printed new one:
engine
motocycles and engine 0-1500 cc - 140 kwacha
1501-2000 cc - 280 kwacha
2001-3000 cc - 400 kwacha
more than 3000 - 550 kwacha
payed ONLY in kwacha.
ATM outside working on Visa card, no charges.
Then city council 40 kwacha.
And road tax probably 20$ but we dodn't pay and nobody checked.
Crazy money!!!

Edited: fines for speeding in Zambia:
if speed limit is 40: you pay 300 kwacha if you go between 50-100 km/h you pay the same amount!
If you go more than 100 km/h you pay 480 kwacha.
On main roads speed limit is between 80/100 km/h

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Malawi to Zambia.
Zambian carbon tax is now doubled for transit vehicles (exiting at different border). 2-3L engine 400ZKW, 3L+ 550 ZKW. Because this didn’t make sense to us and the old prices were displayed on the window we insisted on some sort of proof of this new rule. They showed us a government print out where this was stated, seemed legit. Unfortunately...it’s freaking expensive. Even the friendly road tax guys (another $20) were surprised that we had to pay that much (but couldn’t lower the price, other department). No ATM at Malawi or Zambia side.

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Reasonably quick. A 1-hour crossing.
We weren’t asked for a health check.
Walked to immigration. Paid USD50 each for a single-entry visa into Zambia. Had to fill in our names and passport details into a registration book that was lying around. Got our passports stamped and then in the window to the left, we had to pay ZMW275 for carbon tax (highest category has over 3L engine). Upon receipt of payment you’ll be given a Gate Pass.

Next, we had to pay for Road Toll Tax which cost us USD20 which exempts you from having to pay at tolls. Finally, we had to pay ZMW40 for a Border Crossing Fee to Chipata City Council.

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We crossed from Zambia into Malawi in a ZA-registered car with a carnet. Still had to pay $20 road tax for Malawi.
We got a 7 day transit visa for $50pp which we will try to extend in Monkey Bay. The officials tried to limit the transit visa to only 2 days, but after some discussion gave us the 7day version. After all quite an easy border.

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Crossing the border from Malawi to Zambia. Malawi exit is a bit of a mess but officials are very helpful. Took 5 minutes to exit with TIP and two Dutch passports.
Entry Zambia was not easy to find due to amount of trucks parked. After that entry was a dream. Bought visa for US$ 50 each, 5 minutes work. Used CDP for the car, another 10 minutes. Paid carbon tax, 275 kwatchees. Insurance 200 Kwatchees from Madison. Friendly guy and quick. He also arranged council tax for 40 kwatchees and the road tax for US$20.
Longest wait was for the receipt for the carbon tax as the officer was distracted. All in all 90 minutes, could have been half. Best border post ever

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Easy border, no hassle.

Pay $75 for visa (Indonesian) 30days single Entry
Pay $20 for Road tax (If you have comesa then no Need i guess)
Stamp carnet.
TIP for motorcycle 18.000MK

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Slow, but not complicated for South Africans. Stamp the passport and carnet and negotiate third party insurance with one of the organizations just past the border. We paid 25000 MK for a months TPI. You need to have MK for this, but can change at the insurance company.

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50 USD single entry, 30 days for me with UK passport.
Multiple entry 80USD 90 days

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