Santa Clara border crossing Nam-Ang | Customs and Immigration

Angola

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Verified:
8 days ago
Altitude:
1132.8 masl

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Border crossing is not too difficult. In and out of Namibia is fast. Into Angola will take a bit longer, but going out is fast.

This is currently the only Nam-Ang border that accepts Angola e-visa entry.

Namibia side open from 8am to 7pm
Angola side open from 8am to 6 pm (Note: Angola time)

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Namibia > Angola (French people)

NAMIBIAN side is really easy 5 minutes
ANGOLA side you can manage to do it without fixer but you need to follow this process :
When you are done at namibia side, drive to angola side
1- park your car on the right (big parking) and go to the building on the left to get your passeport stamp (no visa anymore for European). >5 minutes
2- get your Angola fiscal registration paper, you can do it for free next to the car park > 5 minutes
3 - you need to have all the following copies printed:
- driving licence
- licence disk (for Namibian and South African car, you can take a picture and print it)
- passeport
- police clearance (even for rental car !!! Be careful it’s MANDATORY and if you do it at oshikango police the service is only open from 8h till 13h and it takes 2 days to get it)
- registration paper of the car
- pictures of the 4 sides of the car (black and white ok)
- Angola fiscal registration paper
Go to the police desk by walking they will take all this paper. You will need to pay around 6300 kwanza / 150 NAD in total for the car. Have cash because for us the card machine was not working..
4 - welcome in Angola ;)

If you all the papers it can be quite fast.

Don’t hesitate to ask to police officers, they were really helpful and nice, some speak English. We managed without fixers

For the car insurance needed in Angola, they did not ask and we bought it as ensa seguros (10000kz for a month) in Ondjiva

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Namibia to Angola with German truck with CdP:
not much traffic at border on a Tuesday around midday. It took us two hours with the local support of Lucas (whatsup: +264 81 227 7785) who did a good job to lead us through the various (!) desks at both borders. We gave Lucas NAM$ 200 for his support. Despite the CdP we got a TIP which costed Kwanzas 6.300 for which we chanced money with the money changers at border. We received more Kwanzas from ATMs in Ondjiva.

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Johannes helped us, it was easier but the discussion about the money always frustrating at the end. We had no copies of our documents and no Fotos of our truck out printed, he organised it. the best rate for money exchange what we got, was 950 for 1 US$.

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Angola -> Namibia

TIP is valid for the same time as your passport stay. For us 90 days (German and USA). It’s free.

Road tax doesn’t cover car insurance. It’s only for the tax. I confirmed with the police, you don’t need a third party car insurance in Namibia. It sounds crazy but it’s true. Road tax is valid for 90 days.

We don’t have a CDP, we left the car in Namibia, flew out and will come back before our TIP expires. If flying out causes us any troubles I will post another post here. Otherwise everything went well and we will have come back and left Namibia to SA with no problems.

Watch out for the road and traffic regulations in Namibia. Police lives to give tickets! Don’t forget to always drive with your lights on!

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Heading towards Namibia. Very easy and orderly border in both Angola and Namibia. We arrived 3 days out of time but no one told us anything. At the Namibian border we filled out the form and paid the road tax with MasterCard without problems. Many fixers that are not necessary. Less than 1 hour for the 2 borders. TIP is not necessary

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Angola - Namibia
We changed our money with the dudes in Santa Clara. They also wanted to scam us and give us lesser money than agreed. But at the end we handled it.

For us one of the easiest borders so far.
Have some cash for the road tax as the card machine didn’t accept our visa card. Fyi: In Namibia no insurance is by law needed. Atms are in most fuel stations

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Angola visa extension:

Today I tried to extend my visa. So far I know you cannot do it somewhere else. So I went to the border and tried to figured out how long the car can stay in the country. After everyone told me it can stay for three months i decided to go by foot.
You have to stamp out, walk to the Namibia side, stamp in and fill in the form, walk around the building, fill out the foam again and stamp out. Walk to the Angola side again and stamp in again.
The woman on the Angola side was not sure if everything is right, took my passport and went away for 20 minutes. Probably because the date. But after this time she came back, handed out my passport and I could go.
I just parked on the parking lot at the left, it seems it’s the one for the workers, but they told me it’s saver there.

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As said this border its easy and ok if you have all the papers print before. there is nothing at the border to do.
BUT be very careful all the people around telling you that they want to help you with the border or to change money are scamers. Too bad we saw that too late. We saw days after on the gopro that they stole money from us...

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Easy crossing border from Angola to Namibia . The exit from Namibia , stamp passport , and You have to deliver the passavant at customs. In the side of Namibia , fill form in Inmigration , pay tax road ( motorcycle ) 230 ZAR ( it's possible to pay with credit card ) and go to Custom ti stamp Carnet Passage . All very fast and easy. You can change KW to ZAR

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NAM->ANG
German passport with car with CdP

The process is not too complicated and very manageable without fixer. (Just read the previous posts)
For us (i think all G20 countries) no more need of a visa. So the only thing we paid were 6400 Kwacha for the TIP (CdP not valid in Angola)
Beware of all the fixer which will surround you on the NAM side and tell you its impossible without them. We clearly told them we don't want them, but they followed us to the angolian side and tried to make the process more complicated for us:
1. First they advised us to skip the long queue at immigration for paying the officers N$100 - we refused of course.
2. They tried to make a big problem out of the fact we didn't have photos of our car for the TIP. They offered us to make the photos and print it for us for N$100, but we refused, took our photos on our own and gave the officer our USB stick with the photos which was completely fine for him to print it out (for free)
3. They tell you the payment for the TIP is very complicated, but in fact it was just changing money and 2min in the bank across the street to deposit the right amount.
4. They helped one of the money changers to scam us.

My advice for this border is not to trust the fixers too much.
I changed money on many other borders, but at this one, here i got scamed. Be extremely aware.
The scam works as follows: After negotiations of the rate, they count the money, but when you count it yourself you will discover its a bit to less money then you expected. So you hand it back to them and they will count again and tell you you were right. Now the trick: They add the missing bills clearly visible for you on top of the stack in their hand and hand the stack over to you again. What you don't see is, that they remove more bills from the bottom of the stack without your notice.
So make sure you then count the money again and just after this hand over your cash!
The scammers agreed on a rate of 1 USD = 1100 Kwacha. We tried this with more of them, and the trick was always the same. One honest guy changed then 1 USD = 900 Kwacha (official rate was 1=825).

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From Namibia to Angola

In total, we spend 20 minutes at the Namibian site and 3 hours on the angolan. To get into Angola smoothly, this informations may help you:

1.) Apply for an Angola pre e-visa online here: https://www.smevisa.gov.ao.
+ Additional information: instead of a flight ticket, we wrote a letter with our planed road.
2.) Two days later, you will get the e-visa confirmation as PDF from the goverment per e-mail. Print the document incl. all submited ones and copy your passport. Print also your car documents and add three printed fotos from your car (front, side and back) for the TIP.
3.) If Angola still wants a covid-test, do it before you reach the boarder. In Oshikango they ask 350 N$ with receipt. At the boarder you will pay 400 N$ without.
4.) You can pay the visa fee at the boarder either in US$ (=120 US$) or in Kwanza (36‘600 KZ). You see, you will get through with Kwanza much more cheaper. If you can, try to get some Kwanzas before you reach the boarder; you can also change USD or Euros at the boarder, but then make sure the officers have no hands on it, otherwise they will ask you more for the visa fee (for their own pocket!)
5.) For your car, you will need a TIP, which will cost you another 250 N$. They will ask here for the three fotos and the copies of the car documents mentioned above.

Not sure if you need a fixer to do the payments for the visa and the TIP. In our case, it was weekend, and the bancs were closed. We payed the fixer 250 N$. You can call Frendrick Andrew (+244 945 569 225). He seems to be quite famouse among the overlanders.

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1 hour 15 in total, it was a busy day.

Angola side was 15 minutes, first stop is for passeport at the booth on the left, drive a little further to hand out you too to the booth on the right.

Namibia, go inside to get the form, fill it in and queue in line to get your stamp.
Pay the road tax in the same office, master card was OK.
Office next door for CPD or TIP.

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when entering Namibia, make sure to write longer than you need on the immigration form. they only give you the time you write so which won't allow for flexibility. asking them to extend it after was annoying but successful

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French travelers
Angola to Namibia

Out of Angola very easy. Stamped Passeport and customs they wanted the TIP of the car and that it.

Entering in Namibia, easy too. Immigration 5 minutes. Filled a form with all informations. Stamped Passeport and that all.
In the same building you have to go to the RFA desk to pay the road taxes 337NAD, you can pay with credit card. After that the customs, you fill a form again and that it.
Took like 1 hour in total.
Easy and very nice.

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Just crossed the border to Angola from Namibia at Oshikango. I wanted to cross at Ruarkana, but they don't process visas, they only stamp.
So went to Oshikango. The exit from Namibia was quite easy. Immigration stamp, Carnet stamp, then road tax exit receipt. Then I could leeave. No checks or controls. Entry Angola also quite easy, just a bit confusing.
Nobody asked for my PCR test (which I paid 800 Nad for🤬) Bug masks are required still.
The person handling the visas was extremely friendly and professional and even walked me to the customs office when we were done at immigration.
He needed the printed e-visa, my passport and my name, contact number, mother name, father's name, and my destination on a piece of paper. No copies of anything else.
You have to pay 120 USD for the visa. That is supposed be done at a bank, but it's not next door. So the visa guy let me give him the 120 USD and then send the receipt via Whatsapp. He is not supposed to do this, and whether the money ends in his pockets I don't know.
The people stamping passports were not very friendly and were busy talking to other people rather than looking at your passport.
After the stamp, I went back to the visa process guy to get a copy of my passport and visa and entry stamp. This I needed for customs.
At customs they also wanted registration paper, copy of driver's license (both sides) (Wasn't interested in the International drivers license) Photo of motorcycle from both sides, photo of license plate.
They do a TIP. No Carnet handling. Then you get a payment order of 6600 Kwanza which you bring to a bank and pay at the ATM. This was not easy as the ATM's didn't accept my credit card. A fixer helped me find a local guy who paid with his card, then I gave him 240 Namibian Dollars.
Back at customs the processed the papers and went out and checked the Vin number on the bike and asked me to open my bags. But he never looked into them.
There are lots of guys who will change money for you. I changed 100 USD for 35.000 Kwanza.
Once past the border you come to a roundabout (right side driving in Angola!) And if you take a left in that roundabout, then right after, there's Unitel.
You get I think it was 6 GB for 5000 kwanza valid for 30 days. Simcard was under 400 kwanza.
I Normally don't use fixers, but here Lukas helped me, and it would have been hard to handle the payment thing without him.
They don't speak English - except the visa processing guy.

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Border crossing from Namibia to Angola.

We arrived at 9 am on a Sunday and the procedure on Namibia side was straightforward and quick.

On Angola side however a different story altogether. Officials can not understand or speak English (or pretend not to). Even though we never use fixers, it’s almost impossible to find out what is required, without someone that can interpret.

Huge grey building on left is where your passport gets stamped. A covid negative test result is required. A rapid test can be done at the border post for 22 560 Kwanza - cash only as their card system is foreign. Certificate gets issued immediately, but better to arrive with a certificate.

Then to building straight ahead for vehicle registration. Here the computer was off-line and we had to wait 45 mins before the paper work could resume. They need a hard copy of photos of front, rear and side view of the vehicle. Road Fund was 6250K.

We could finally enter Angola at 12:30. One of the more complicated border posts in South and East Africa.

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Quick and easy border, lots of fixers that want to help you out going north. But there is no point. Went through immigration in the last building. Got our Carnet stamped out in the first building. Went around to the immigration side to get our road tax cancelled (don’t really understand why) and then drove to Angolan side, took less than 15 min in total.

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Angolan side fine, you have to show your PCR test, get stamp. Customs straightforward too.

## On the Namibian side this border is officially closed! ##
The immigration officer wouldn't let us go through, after some talking (no bribing required) he agreed to give us a 4days transit visa. However if you get to Botswana or SA and back in you should be allowed the usual 3months again...complete nonsense. 72h PCR (be careful they count Day 1 as the day you have been tested regardless of the time) and temperature check, plus sanitary form.

Customs have implemented a road tax that will be your TIP for foreigner vehicles since June 2021, see picture for prices. We payed N$215 per motorcycle,(you can pay with Mastercard too).

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Going out Angola very quick. To enter Namibia it took us 1.5 hours due to many people, but process also easy.

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From Angola to Namibia by bicycle. Only one time you show your passport to the Angolan customs to get exit stamp, then go to Namibia side and fill in a form they give you at the desk, then they give you 3 months visa. All very easy and no extra documents required, I was through the border in about 20 minutes.

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Entering Angola, you can pay for your visa in USD or NAD (no card).
As of today it's 1637 NAD, which makes it almost 10 USD cheaper...
Easy and friendly officials.

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Namibia to Angola

Namibia: leave tip/stamp cdp at customs, fill in exit paper and stamp passport at immigration, cancel your car-fee-document at the police window. Easy and fast.

Angola: take the small building just before the parking lot for immigration. They only accepted usd (120) and nd (1637), nd works out cheaper. Go to second small building after parking lot, you need: copy passport, copy visa with stamp (so you’ll have to get a copy at the roundabout in Angola), copy drivers license, copy car documents, photos of the car (front, back, side). Pay fee at the bank (about 6400 kwanza). Bank is open 8-18, mon-sun. Took 3 hours.

Current kwanza rate is 4000 kw for 100 nad or 65000 kw voor 100 usd.

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From N to A:
It was quite fine and relative fast for us.

Namibia 1 h: a bit chaos, but ok.

Angola 1,5 h: with eVisa (worked fine), very slowly processes, but ok as well.

Just a look from outside into the truck (because I insist of put off the shoes and he didn‘t want).

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We know that somewhere and others cannot be judged by other's experiences alone. We always consider this when reading and writing reviews; however we feel we must be honest and warn others of what has happened, and potentially could happen again.

The Namibian side of this border was full of hasslers; some agressive, drunk, pushy and rude. We have lived in Namibia for 3 years and never had such a bad experience on a border crossing.
We are travelling with our dog; the people outside were antagonizing him, in the extreme heat this was very frustrating and worrying.

If you are travelling with your OWN Namibian vehicle, you must ensure you have a POLICE CLEARANCE Certificate of owner and vehicle. This must be obtained at a police station and can sometimes take a while to be processed. The police can refuse anyone arriving after 1pm, make sure you obtain this certificate no less than 24hours prior to arriving at the border. We paid $100NAD and fortunately had a police officer who sympathized with our situation.

On contrary; the Angolan side was clean, tidy, very official and organised. It took a long time to process our visas but we were dealt with pleasantly; one officer commented 'Your happiness is our mission'.

You can pay with credit card but it's actually more expensive than if you pay in cash. The money changers outside the border can give you a good rate; just check a currency converter before you go if you wish to exchange.
Overall this experience taught us many lessons; but unfortunately left a bitter taste in our mouths leaving the country we have called home for a number of years.

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Angola don't accept Carnet de Passage so you have to make a TIP like others said.
Namibia/Angola side tooks more than 3 hours. We had documents from webside (visa on arrival) but they needed only approval letter, not booking reservations, etc.
Here you pay 120 usd for visa. It is multiple entry for 1 month
Then custom but you have to withraw money from atm or buy some on a street because bank don't accept mastercard and visa from Europe. Don't trust fixers about a currency. Ask other guys. There is a lot of them. In this time we got 46.000 kwaha for 100usd. (fixer wanted give us only 34.000)

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Three Germans and one Brit all applied for evisa’s on sme website a week before entry (all had visas within minutes). Nambia was easy. Arrived on Angolan side and I don’t think in 14 countries we’ve had nicer border and customs officials. We didn’t need any onward reservations. You do need pictures of your car front back and sides in colour and a copy of your passport with visa in but if you ask someone will help with that. The system was slow and it took 3 hours to cross, but the border was very quiet, it was an experience but not an unpleasant one. We got 30 days from the point of entry. And a 90 day TIP

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Easy crossing from Angola to Namibia.

Angola side: Stamped passport out, and they took a photo of me. They looked at temporary import document and returned part of it.

Namibia side: Filled in a form and passport stamped in. Filled in another form, and paid 196 NAD road tax for motorcycle. Road tax has increased for all class of vehicles since 1st May 2019 (there's posters on the walls).

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To Angola with e-visa (www.smevisa.gov.ao):
We (Dutch couple) got our e-visa within 5 minutes with good WiFi. At the Angolan border park your car and go to the small building in the middle where customs is sitting behind normal tables without glass or formal costumes. The process was easy with very friendly customs but it took a 2 hours due to the slow system. Customs wants a printed page of the e-visa. We didn’t need a international drivers license, nor reservations of hotels (but had to write down two places of stay) or had to show car insurance. Costs usd 120 p.p. in cash. Visa for 30 days.
Car road Tax: Then we went to the small building on the left next to the gate to Angola. You need to fill in a form and give them a copy of: your passport, passport page with visa, drivers license, car papers and a picture of you car. After filling in the form you go to the bank to pay the fee for the road tax (Toyota landcruiser was 6,800 kwanza). The kind customs helped us with changing 610 n$ for 17,000 kwanza and they even helped us making a copy from the visa page in the passport. They say with this papers the car can stay 90 days in Angola.
We didn’t use a fixer. The border was very quiet.

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Crossing from Namibia to Angola was a horrible experience for me.

Namibian process was easy: stamp on passport from immigration, then stamp on Carnet from customs. At customs, no direct sight of the motorcycle.
After the Namibian border, two fixers followed me to Angolan customs (one of the middle lanes), to "show me the process with the TIP"
Cusoms gave me a form and a paper with the account details, left the helmet with them, parked the motorcycle in front of their booth.
Went to immigrations through the back door courtesy of my fixer, had the passport stamped
Went to the Santa Clara Konica copy center near the roundabout to make copies of the passport, entry stamp, driver's license, Carnet (page with the details), motorcycle registration
Changed 100USD for 35000AOK after negotiating with one of the fixers and showing them the black market rate at http://www.kinguilahoje.com/
Went to a bank next to immigrations exit and paid ~7000AOK for the TIP, got a receipt
Went to customs with the receipt, the copies and the filled form
Received the TIP stapled next to my filled form.

Was able to be on my way.

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Quick update: 30.- us or 200.- namibia dollar.
Pic front, back, side

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Update coming from south: u need to pay a road tax of around 6.500.- Kwanza for Angola. And u need a copy of ur passport, car papers and carnet. They didn’t stamp my carnet. Saying Angola isnt part of the agreement! I hope DRC wont make a problem now

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Easy Border on both Sides, no Bribes. There are three Fuel Stations in Santa Clara on the Angolan Side, Gasoleo (Diesel) was available - good to fill up before crossing the Border. Namibia gave us a 90 Day Visa (free), Road Entry Tax was still 277 ND and Carnet was stamped.

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Dutch citizens without Carnet.
Angola side exit;
Take your passports to get them stamped out, into the first small square building at the left.
Then take your car to the small square building at the right in the back where they will take in the last pages of your TIP and will give you the first page as receipt.

WARNING: Angolan Kwanzas cannot be changed anywhere in Namibia so you should change it at the Angolan side of the border before exiting. The 'high Angolan Kwanza black market rate' is ONLY useful IN Angola! it is not that you get double Namibian$ because of the good black market rate. The rate we had was Nam$ 100 : AKW 2750.

Namibian side entry (open from 8 AM to 6 PM);
Fill out a form and show your yellow fever card at immigration. They will stamp in your tourist visa without problem and without fee.
The roadtax payment is in the same building and is as stated by previous overlanders(see attached photos for pricelist).

At customs the person sitting there at 4.30 PM did not know anything about a TIP, although there was a paper on the window showing 'apply for TIP'. They first told us that our country is not included in their TIP system and that it is stated on the TIP form. However, on the TIP form(see attached picture) there are no countries stated at all. After an hour discussing with the chef in charge and him and his colleague calling around, and after getting our car checked, we received our TIP for free. Friendly people though, let us camp on the parkinglot at the back and showed us a clean toilet to use.

You drive at the left in Namibia!

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Road tax... you can pay cash or card. We paid for each motorcycles 177 N$

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Border crossing is easy. Road fund is different for every vehicle. Motorcycles pay 177 Nad, cars <3500 kg 277 nad cars >3500 kg 579 nad.

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