Kasumulu Border Post | Customs and Immigration

Very easy going border crossing

- Got through the border with the help of fixer Mackdonad (‪+265 999 94 13 20‬) -> Very much recommended
- Changed money at the border (you might get better rates in the next town)
- did visa on arrival without any issue / bribe (evisa website was not working)
- temporary car import took a while, only when i went into the actual office it was processed immediately

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Exit from 🇹🇿 Tanzania - Kasumulu
Quick & Easy
Immigration- stamp out passport
Customs - stamp out Carnet de Passage
Enter Malawi 🇲🇼
Busy with lots of congested trucks cross over the bridge.
Health check Yellow fever certificate & temp check
Immigration- Stamp passport in
NB - update some countries no longer require visa for entry into Malawi- check on website
Customs- Stamp Carnet de Passage in
Road Tax 20US only except US dollars
15,500 MK Carbon tax local Malawi Kwacha
Car Insurance Prime ( behind post Office) 30,000 MK - one month
Besta is the lady to help you .
ATM - at Malawi side
Also a bank
No need to use the fixers
Allow 2hrs approx for the crossing

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Our experience was the same as boryenek posting below for which we were immensely grateful. must however add that we were "assisted" by a smartly dressed man with a lanyard we thought was Tanz staff and certainly appeared to be deferred to by them. We have crossed 24 borders and never used a fixer. However things turned unpleasant when he handed us insurance we hadn't asked for and asked for a years money saying he had paid it and we owed him. I think this is part of the scam. We stood our ground. Advise being prepared and clear and asking if someone appears helpful !

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From Malawi to Tanzania, no evisa, no CPD.

Malawi : very quick, stamped our passports and canceled our TIP in their system.

Tanzania :
- immigration : visa on arrival with a french and a spanish passports. need nothing : no pictures, no copies, no booking. Just we filled a form, gave 50$ and obtained 90 days visa, single entry. they took our fingerprints and a numeric picture. easy and quick.
- customs : for our car, we paid 25$ by visa for the road tax for 1 month. TIP for free. be patient, because a lot of truck drivers.
-insurance : all fake at the border so we drove to Mbeya without problems and did it for 23500 TZS for 1 month (we created the point in Ioverlander).
- no fixers needed,no money changers : you can pay the road tax by visa and you need 50$ (good state and no before 2017) so better to have it before (in Lilongwe, very easy).
-dont forget to change hour : in Tanzania, it is 1 hour more as in Malawi.
-diesel : much cheaper in Tanzania than in Malawi, so better to fill up in Mbeya with credit card ;-)

easy, no corruption, 2 hours.

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Malawi Tanzania with motorcycle. Visa on Arrival done in 15 minutes (Australian passport) USD $50. Stamping carnet took 20 minutes, no copies of anything required. No road tax. Vodacom sim card available at the official office 2klms from the border, easily done 5k TzS for card, 35k 17gb data. Decent food at small restaurant couple of shops up also.

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Forgot to say got CPD stamped in Tz, despite of getting the C32 form.

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MALAWI to TANZANIA with a motorbike
- Had to fill in exit firm on Malawi side, carnet stamped out (they keep one copy of your road tax). Very quick.
- Tz side immigration quick, had eVisa multiple entry (100usd, received by email 5 days after applying).
Customs took a bit more (less than 49min), they fill info in the computer. They ask for scan/pdf sent to them by whatsapp, of your vehicle's registration, cpd yellow pages, drivers license. Fixers try to "help" you all the time but it's not needed if you still hsve cell phone signal from Malawi (I had, to send the whatsapp documents).
No road tax charged for my motorcycle and I already had COMESA yellow card.
You get 1 month temporary import for your vehicle, on form C32. If you want to renew it, just go to any customs office (so I was told).
Bought new sim card and data bundle outside building. Guy first tried to get 40% more, check for bundle's prices online first.

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Tanz-Malawi Processing Fee:
In addition to the information provided below, we had to pay a processing fee of 20,000 Kwacha, which we hadn't previously been informed about. However, they provided us with a printed document confirming this, and all customs officers (from different offices) confirmed it. (I've added a picture of the document for your convenience).

Money Exchange:
While we did read all the comments, when people approached us to ask for an exchange, we thought it might be convenient to have a small amount of Kwacha. They initially offered 0.46, but we negotiated it up to 0.58, which, according to the Victorian Forex Exchange website, seemed to be a good rate. However, we felt scammed when he claimed we gave 90,000 Kwacha instead of 100,000, which was untrue.

On the Malawian side, we visited FDH Bureau (as seen in the pictures I attached), where a printed document displayed today's rate as 0.65 (while the normal online rate was 0.46 at the time). However, the staff member informed us it was 0.50. We asked him to double-check, and he confirmed it was indeed 0.65. As we were exchanging more than 1,000,000 Kwacha, he consulted with his boss and agreed to give us a rate of 0.70.

They had a counting machine, which made us feel more confident in the transaction compared to dealing with individuals on the street.

Long story, short:
- Do not use street vendors, not even for small amounts; it's unnecessary.
- Visit FDH Bureau (within walking distance from Malawian customs) and negotiate there. Check the online exchange rate before finalizing your exchange.

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Tanzania to Malawi
All went smooth, no need for a fixer, just follow the instructions from other posts (skip all the covid stuff of course). Have your evisa and some dollars ready for the Malawi side and you should be fine. We went to Prime Insurance from another post for 3rd party insurance (25000mk for a month).

When the lady from Malawi immigration disappeared with our passports and visa, we used the time to stamp our CDP and pay road tax in the same building. So when we came back, our passports were already stamped and ready to go :)

Less than 3h all in all, very helpful people. We arrived quite early in the morning when there were no lines at all, later it started to get more crowded.

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Excellent & honest customs agent Alex. call him before & WhatsApp images of your registration so he can assist. He will save you a minimum of 2 hours. highly recommended. can assist bothTz + Malawi sides. +255757389412

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Tanz to Malawi, without EVISA, with CPD, with COMESA insurance.

Exit Tanz is easy, 15 min. Avoid all those crooks of money changers who run after you, there is a perfect way to change money in the Malawi side with the best rates.

Malawi side was long because we didnt have the Evisa. Some travelers told us that they do the Visa on arrival nowadays in Malawi and that we shouldnt bother with Evisa. Well it's not true at all, they DO NOT do that. But one of the immigration officer (his name was Hastinjs or something close enough) was very kind and shared his hospot with us so we could process the Evisa in his office and then he called someone to push through our applications faster. In 3 hours, we had our Visas. We gave him a few Kwachas to pay for internet. Be aware that they want a full blank page on your passeport for the "Visa". Even if its just a stamp that takes only a third of a page, they are not willing to put it on a used page. Because I'm running out of pages, I begged them to do me a favor but the immigration boss told me to comply with their rules or to f*** off. Anyway.

Customs is easy with CPD, we paid road tax (20USD) and Carbon tax (11500 Kwachas) at the bank and then they stamped our CPD.

We got stopped by police 10 km after the border. They asked for our insurance, they were totally fine with our Comesa from Zambia.

Easy and quiet border. Malawi guys are very friendly. No need for an "agent"/fixer. Tell them to leave you alone, they are surprisingly not sticky at all and very polite.

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MAL - TAN
We had to pay the 25USD Road tax for 1 month in Tanzanian shillings. As mentioned the ATM at the Tanzania side still didn’t work, so we had to exchange at the border.
Also, PRINT EVISA, as they want them in paper and are not willing to help with printing (we had to go to the a photocopy shop, which altogether took an hour).

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BRING USD. Don't rely on the nearby ATM on the Tz side. I blindly hoped for taking out money from that ATM to pay for the TZ visa in shillings and got punished for being naive. The ATM wasn't working for 2 days. I spent the night at the border hoping that the next day it would be repaired, but of course it didn't happen. So the next day the immigration allowed me to go to Kyela - 20km away. 10 000 tsh by taxi, 2 000 tsh by bus. When I got money in tsh and got back, immigration decided that they won't accept tsh, only usd.
After all these nerves, they offered me a much higher rate of 2650 tsh-1 usd, so I could pay in tsh for the visa (normally its 2450 tsh - 1usd), which is obviously a scam.
I didn't have any USD, as in Malawi, I would lose 60% of money while withdrawing MKW from ATM and exchanging to USD (black market rate is very different to the official one).

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MALAWI TO TANZANIA
PRINT EVISAS
All very simple Malawi side, may take a little time if you have vehicle. When you get to Tanzania side, you need yellow fever and covid vaccine certificates. They also take your temperature. Then go in and it takes around 2hr for the cars to be processed. You have to walk out of building around 800m to the bank to get shilling out as didn’t have USD. We then got taken to stationary shop (as bank line was too long) to pay road taxes. Back to building to do insurance ($50usd per vehicle). Be carful as the guy helping us initially said 65usd per vehicle for insurance. He then also requested money. We just have him 10,000mwk

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The signs say "one stop border," which is under construction but not in operation jet. You still have to stop on both sides. We had problems paying our e-visa online, we had tried with 3 different cards. In the end, we had to ask a fellow overlander. With his card, it worked, and we received one visa the next day, the other one after 3 days.

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From Tanzania to Malawi by car, CPD and printed evisa.

Easy and straight forward border crossing. 20 min on Tanzanian side, 1h on Malawian side, including little printer issue in the customs office. No need for a fixer, people are helpful and friendly. ATM did not work, make sure you have some cash.

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Tanzania to Malawi on a motorcycle

I lost my Carnet (among all my clothes and laptop) in Tanzania. I got a replacement from ADAC but that did of course not have the correct stamp. Together with comments below this made me very nervous for this crossing. However, it went very smooth.

Getting out of Tanzania was easy, filling the form at immigration and if you want you can skip customs and go. Nobody is checking. However, I decided to go past customs to explain that I lost my Carnet and they need to remove my nike from the system. Friendly people that made no issue of the Carnet. They copied the police report and noted my license plate to remove me from the system and I could go. 10 minutes in total.

At the Malawi side it went also relatively fast. When I came a lot of people (including tourists) were waiting but I was finished before them. Not sure why but this is what I did. Maybe it helps:

I got the visa online, as I did not know at the time of applying when I would enter Malawi or where to stay I left that blank. Instead I added a file explaining how I travel. So on the electronic visa it said I did not know where I would stay. I expected questions but did not get, I don't know if that document reached the border but I did not get questions.

Also, I was not overly friendly. I was correct and firm and did not chit chat with the staff. Also almost rude towards all the people that want to change money or wanting other things from me. Pretending I knew exactly where to go. I did this on purpose as it helped me in the past. But not sure if this helped.

Immigration
After giving the passport to the lady she told to sit and wait. As the noise in the room was terrible (bad speakers) I went out. Talked with the other tourists. They were already waiting a bit and a guy (Mzungu) who traveled this border regularly told me I needed to feed (bribe) the immigration. I was not planning to do so but just in case it would be handy to get some money. So
I went to the ATM and after getting the money I went in to ask for an update. My passport was already stamped. 10 minutes in total.

Customs.
Customs was easy, procedure is written below. When I went to the bank to pay the guy stamped my new Carnet. Because I had to wait at the bank this took 40 minutes.

Insurance.
I read below the issue with insurance. I have the yellow Comesa card and it is valid in Malawi. Still , as of the issues below I was planning to check at the border with a police guy if I can use the yellow card. No need for that as in the customs office there is a list on the wall with all the Comesa countries. So I asked the officer if indeed the yellow card is valid and he confirmed. So I went, ready for a fight with a police guy if they challenge my insurrance.

At the first 2 police posts they just opened the gate for a car and I just followed the cars.
at the 3rd stop (maybe 50 km from the border), I was stopped and asked for insurance, driving license and (for the first time ever) my international driving license. All documents were accepted. Not a question about the yellow card that I got in Rwanda.

Not sure if I was lucky but it all went smooth.

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Tanzania - Malawi
Took us a little over 2hrs in total to pass through both borders (with evisa), 20mins TZ side, over 1.5 Malawi side.

Immigration officer tried to get $20 because we couldn't select a land border on the evisa website. In the end, we paid 5000 kwacha. TIP process was very smooth, just took a while.

There's an ATM at the border so you can get kwacha there for the TIP fees.

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Be on the look out for a vehicle insurance agent who would do anything to get his hands on your passport. If you refuse he will cuss at you and try to make you look foolish in front of the people. If you still refuse he will claim to be a sangoma who will put a spell on you. Stand your ground.

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MAL-TAN Malawi without problems, all in one room. Short form for immigration and they made a copy of the carnet. You find booths for changing Kwacha to Shiling, if they have the cash.
Tan border without problems, just took time. Tey are still constructing something, probably the banks get their own structures. For crossing you enter the new main building - from behind. They check temperature and enter passport data in their system. Immigration was quick even though we needed visa. Two forms to fill and 50US each in fees.
Carnet data go manually in their system and need to be verified via a slow connection. You have to pay road tax 25US outside the border (next to the ATM trucks) and go back inside. Hawkers offer changing money, Kwacha, Dollar, whatever. Pre-registered airtel sim cards are available, "agents" wear blue shirts. You also get insurance if needed, 1 month for 50US, no COMESA.

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We did the border from Tanzania to Malawi today. Took all in al 6h Tanzania was easy going and we were done in 30 min.
Malawi Side was a different Story… we had applied 4 working days before for the visa… it was not done as we arrived. They had to call the visa headquarters to push our visa through (3h due to lunchtime). Visa needed to be printed! no printer at the border was working, so we had to go to the village (Malawi) next to the border to print.

Carnet was stamped no problem. We had to pay 20$ for road tax and 11500 Kracher for Carbon tax (2495cc engine). Why we had to pay in two currency’s is still a mystery. We changed TSS at a store next to the border that got recommended by the customs guy for a good rate.

It is important to buy 3rd party insurance next to the border, the police is waiting 10km after the border and checks for insurance, they will not accept Comesa or international insurances… we managed to talk our way out of a fine, but took us 1h and we had to go back to the border to buy insurance. Check the point in IOVERLANDER (Prime Insurance)

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TZN - MLW (Jan 2023, read this!)
Most difficult border post on our whole East African bicycle journey...
1. one of our fellows got ripped of changing money. one of the guys offering their service next to TZN border post followed us until the area between both border posts, offering normal exchange rate. He made some tricks and stole around 60000 TSH, while having protection of some of his guys. Just don't change money on this side of the border. Do it in front of the MLW border post. It's legal.
2. They wanted us to fulfil the following health criteria: cholera vaccination due to current cholera outbreak (although officially not required); yellow fever vaccination (although officially only required if entering from WHO yellow fever risk country, to which Tanzania doesn't belong); electronically verificable covid vaccination card. The latter was the biggest problem, because they don't accept international or European certificates, but only the Malawi one. The guy there told us that indeed you can't even get this online, but only in a Malawi health center. He eventually just wanted to make us pay 100$ for a PCR test, which we refused. Then he wanted the local PCR price (50$), which we refused again. Then he wanted to be bribed (something little for me), which we refused. Finally he just let us go, although some of us didn't even had the other vaccinations.. Just keep on discussing.
3. Although officially stated by ministry for foreign affairs that most tourist countries (e.g. US, France, Germany..) are visa free now to support tourism in Malawi, this apparently is not the case yet. The boss of the border post told us in his chic AC-cooled office that they still need time. Although they Malawi embassy officially confirmed to me (and I've heard it from other travellers) that you'll get Visa on Arrival at the border, this boss told me they don't have such things. So we would have to apply for e-Visa. Two working days. It's Sunday. We did so and paid online. He called his colleague in Lilongwe who went to his office and after two hours the e-visa was granted.. And we could enter
4. Good thing is in MLW that you get a way better exchange rate on the black market than official ATM rate. and that's even legal. officially 1$ is 1050 Kwh, meanwhile black market exchange is 1350 Kwh. As we didn't have a lot of USD left, we brought TSh for change. Official rate: 2300 TSh for 1000 Kwh. We got 1600 TSh for 1000 Kwh. So pretty good deal.
The whole procedure was maybe 4 hours?

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TZ to MLW
Read what aisling201 wrote. No need for PCR anymore and no corruption at health check. On Malawi side at customs there is a list of price for carbon tax on the wall up to 1500cc only 4,000 kwacha make sure he put the correct amount on the form. When you go to the bank, employee will help you fill the deposit form because they must write account numbers it's OK. The ATM worked. I asked an officer at the barrier when I finished to help me change my Tanzanian shilling and got a good rate (tzsh / 1.6 = mkw). Be careful if you have no third party insurance in Malawi the fine is 50,000 kw.

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Malawi --> Tanzania
Quite smooth bordercrossing, in two hours we were trough.
Malawi: Stamp passport at immigration and Carnet at customs out. They wanted to check the roadtax document we paid when entering Malawi.
Tanzania: Registrer at gate, then when entering building first a healthcheck for Yellow Fever/Covid vaccination (wanted the QR code of our international covid vaccination) and temperature check. Then fill in the form for entering and get visa at immigration desk (visa on arrival no problem). Prices are as noted below. Then customs who stamped in the carnet and arranges the roadtax/TIP. The price as below for 30 days, you can also choose 90 days for double price. But was told we could also extend later if we stay longer than 30 days, so we opted for that.
No need anymore for copies of driver licence etc. He makes a picture of it with his phone 😉. Roadtax/Tip had to be paid in shilling at a bank a few hundred meters away (to the right, up the hill). As said, they close early (and don't forget the time change with Malawi). Also you can get your first shilling here from the mobile ATM so no need to change cash at the border if you don't want to. Then return, get the carnet back and receipt for roadtax and you are good to go. Small check of the roadtax/TIP document before leaving the gate. No need at all for a fixer, but they try quite persistent though. Possible to get a pre-registered SIM card after the border.

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Malawi to Tanzania:
* Arrive early as the bank closes early (was closed at 3:30pm on a weekday), and the ATM trucks drive away, so no other way than the black market changers to get Shilling to pay road fee. We got to the border at 2pm and by the time we had to pay it was too late.
* Make sure to change Malawi money before crossing, on the Tanzania side they give you 1/3 less for it. I tried, but the guy at the change office said he is out of dollars and Tanzania Shillings, only has Euro. So I asked to change to Euro but he said I should change on the other side. I should have insisted.
* Be very careful when changing on the street. They offered me bad exchange rate, but as I walked back towards the Malawi side they suddenly agreed on a very good rate. We counted the money, but he gave me a little less than agreed upon. When I asked for the remainder a whole group of them surrounded me, he pulled the money back out of my hands, and said the deal is off. I grabbed my money from him, but noticed some was missing. So I grabbed again the money he offered, the group got loud and intimidating close and I took off. When I noticed that there too half the money was missing, I realized it all was just a slight of hand and they never really wanted to go through with that exchange. By that time of course they all were gone. Luckily they all know each other so when I came back with the police officer and pointed out some people who had interacted with them, one of them offered to pay me back some of it so the police would go away.

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Malawi to Tanzania.

A bit of a wait to get out TIP stamped out but once that was done and immigration stamped us out we were good to go.

Entering Tz: Easiest border crossing of our overland trip so far! Applied for the Tz visa online (US citizen multiple entry $100)- only got it 7 days later. Having an eVisa helped to move things along at the border. Waited for TIP which took time for two reasons:
1. The lady entering our car reg details used the wrong registration number- she had to start the process from the beginning but was very apologetic which was nice.
2. You have to pay for the TIP electronically…only problem is you cannot pay onsite (not with cash OR card) so they direct you to the mobile Banks on the Tanzanian side- a bit of a walk outside the gate of the border, where you pay and get a receipt. Then you come back to the customs office, get the TIP stamped and you are good to go.

Start brushing up on your Swahili!

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With us it went very smooth and contacted Gaston but he asked 100 dollars per person (plus 50 dollars evisa) whilst we passed without paying anything else than the e-visa.

We applied for the e-visa but after 5 working days it still didn’t come trough, decided to take the guess and go to the border. (Take the bus from Mbeya to Ipinda and get out of the bus at the junction, take a boda boda from there - not far-). Checking out of Tanzania went great, the men let us go trough without getting the stamp so we could come back if we got rejected.

At the malawian side: girl at the immigration office was very kind and sent us to the boss. He was also very kind and cheerful and got our e-visa through manually. Helped us ‘go back, get your stamp’. Getting the stamp in Tanzania was also very easy. Came back to Malawian side, had a problem with printing. Mal. immigration officers tried to help us but in the end we had to go to a post office 20 meters further. He was already closed but wanted to help us, even for free at first (we insisted to pay him), but also very kind and helpful.

After the process was easy and got the stamps in our passport. They did not ask for a pcr nor our vaccination passport.

No money needed since we already paid the visa online.
Contacted the Gaston as mentioned before, he told us we needed to pay 100 dollars per person anyways.
Just wanted to leave a good review since our experience with crossing the border was great and no corruption was involved.

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Tanzania to Malawi
Tanzania border 15 minutes, passport and Carnet stamping.
Malawi border about 2 hours.
Corona vaccine approval, claimed they could not read the code, we had to grease them in 10,000 MK to be signed.
evisa was ok
Custom, stamp the carnet, 20$ road access fee and 15,000 MK carbon tax for 4.5 engine, to be paid in the Bank.
We also did third party insurance for 3 months 35,000 MK

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Tanzania - Malawi
With the help of the earlier recommended Gaston we crossed the border in 3,5 hours . PCR not necessary anymore if you are vaccinated.

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Crossed over from Malawi to Tanzania on motorbikes. South African passports and no Carnet.

Head’s up: You have to have a negative PCR not older than 72 hours to exit Malawi as well. We waited very long on the Malawi side because the one bike’s exit location on the TIP was not correct.

On the Tanzania side everyone was very friendly and a guy helped us through the process even though it’s not really needed. Only paid for insurance (expensive - 118,000 TZS per bike), everything else was free.

Took almost 3 hours in total even though there were no lines.

ATM on Tanzania side was working and we could withdraw money with Visa and Mastercard.

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TZ - Mal

Drive to left of road because of roadworks and building new builds.
[  ] Go through small gate, park on left, walk up the left side to Tan office
[  ] Hand in Tan tip at first desk to stamp out
[  ] Fill in book at the door for leaving Tan
[  ] Go to immigration desk, complete form, and stamp out of Tan. (Photo and fingerprint)

Drive past next gate and over bridge to Malawi Side
[  ] Drive past all trucks until you see a barrier, park next to the on the left hand side
[  ] Go into building by barriers, go straight to tellers and hand in passports and visa
[  ] Little desk next to the door, this is health check for covid tests
[  ] Woman approached us and asked is to follow her to another health check building. Only we were brought there, clearly trying to get money from us
[  ] Walk across roads to little building.
[  ] Have them covid tests and not passport. Tried to say our tests weren't valid its gone 24 hours. We said its 72 hours as per Malawin guidelines.
[  ] We showed times on our phones aswell as it on our test printout. Manually counted pit the hours and showed it's only been 51 hours since sample collected for test. They spoke amongst themselves trying to find a way to catch us. (Bkack woman main I instigator who walked us over there)
[  ] Then asked for vaccine certs hard Copy only, we gave them that.
[  ] They again tried taking amongst themselves to find a way to yet money but eventually just let us go and stamped our tests.
[  ] Walked back to main building and went to immigration again. He then said that health check wasnt done even though they were stamped. He went to double check with them and was happy so kept our passports and visas (for about 45mins)
[  ] TIP and carnet and customs counter next to immigration. File put form for tip, gave photocopies of passport and licence.
[  ] Bill came to $20 usd for road fund and 35,500 kwacha for TIP (15,5000 carbon charge and 20,000 for TIP.
[  ] You go around the back of the building to pay for the TIP and road fund.
[  ] Complete a bank giro/form. 1 box for 20usd, 1 box for 15,500 carbon and 20,000 for tip. Theres a bank in that office where you give the form and cash and TIP is paid for.
[  ] Go back around to main office and give in the receipts for payment. They sort the rest of the paperwork for TIP then.
[  ] There is an ATM with no fees just beyond the gates by the main office(where you park).

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Malawi to Tanzania

At the Tanzanian side you need to show your Covid certificate to the health officer. She/he will probably tell you the QR-code is wrong.

They just try to bribe you. If you have an genuine certificates the QR-code should contact the LT-number which is under the QR-code. The health officer probably will show a fake certificate to "prove" yours is wrong. This fake certificate will contain a QR-code with a name, passportnumber and the text "TESTED NEGATIVE" in it.
Don't believe her. She is showing a fake one. They have only two fake ones. Ask for a third one.

When you have a Tanzanian sim-card you can call or text the “Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau” (PCCB) on number 113. Or tell the health officer you want to do that. Sim-cards can be bought on the streets of the border.

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Crossing from malawi to tanzania on Belgian passports:
-we had to show our pcr test already at immagration malawi side before they would stamp us out.
- customs asked for the roadtax paper that you had to pay for when entering malawi, otherwise we had to pay now at the border.
- tanzanian side: health desk + immigration + customs all in 1 building.
- first health: small desk on your left. they ask for your pcr test, this need to have a working QR-code with the results otherwise they will give you a hard time.
It is mandatory to also take a rapid test at the border. the rapid test is free!!! we know other travellers who had to pay, but the lady was very specific that it is free at landborders, only if you come by plane it is 10$. she had the government rules printed out on het desk.
result rapid test was in after 10min.
- immigration: visa on arrival easy, took only 10min. 50$ for 90days.
- customs: very smooth, Eric helped us really good with the carnet. you pay 20$/month roadtax/tip (even if you have carnet) + 5$ for something else (i forgot for what).

all in all good border crossing with friendly people.

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The location looks a bit chaotic and disorganised as they are in a temporary location. We used fixer 'Gaston (+255756414770) who helped smooth the process. Never used a fixer before but for this border it was worth it for us. Big Eric (customs) knew his stuff and made the carnet and road tax procedure quick and easy. Make sure you have the Tanzania health check filled in online before you arrive.

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Carnet Stamp. Across the immigration office is customs office. Find big Eric, he is very knowledgeable with Carnet. He even shared an internet hotspot so I can download the Malawi Map.

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Customs is just across the immigration window. Find Big Eric as he is very knowledgeable with Carnet process.
Very nice gentleman, even shared his cellphone hotspot so I can download the Malawi Map.

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We just crossed the border TAN to MAL and although the description here is quite clear. We chose to us a fixer (20US), especially since the PCR testing and need for new test at Malawi side worried us. We found Gaston (+255 756 414 770) and this quy helped us well: no need for additional testing, even with evisa the immigration officer saw some problems: Gaston made them disappear. Tell him you came from IOverlander and he will help you get even better.

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*Tanzania to Malawi*
Opening hours 8am-6pm (due to 1hour time difference with Malawi).
1. Check in Tanzania side this side has a red and white picket fence with a guard hut to the left - although they are building a new building (not sure when construction will be complete), this will be on the road to the left, currently you should take the road to the right. Park on the left through this fence and the immigration building has a corrugated roof with face brick (proceed around the left side - as if facing the same way you drove through the picket fence)
2. Stamp out CdP and 2x South African passports.
3. If you have a PCR test within 72 hours stamp out in TZ as mentioned above, otherwise cross to Malawi (we drove/walked on two separate occasions, no issues). It’s a bit of a walk, several hundred metres through many trucks.
4. Suggested to cross in early morning to miss LONG line of trucks to Malawi side (note that there are two lanes - one for trucks and one for tourist vehicles) pass the trucks if you can and park before the Malawian building on your right.
5. For those without a PCR, they may make you retest (gene Xpert, 75-80,000 ZMK or $100 - you might be able to get out of this cost if you speak nicely to the testing agent) testing is done in a container currently painted blue, this takes about an hour depending on how many tests are running as they can only run several tests at a time. Side note: the gene Xpert and rapid tests, according to immigration agents are only for truck drivers, this is true for rapid but untrue for gene Xpert according to their documentation. If you’re prepared to argue or wait it out, you can get through on Gene Xpert but recommend a PCR and you’re in a hurry (you can book a slot at a hospital in TZ via https://pimacovid.moh.go.tz/#/booking)
6. Stamp covid test with MoH Malawi and fill out health declaration form.
7. Complete entry card, stamp passports in (for internationals outside of SADC/EAC, suggest applying/paying for (?) the evisa online to save yourself a world of hassle with corrupt officials!). Check covid tests here (immigration were sticky with our covid tests and wanted palm greasing but we’d done things by the book and were prepared to wait them out).
8. Stamp in CdP with Customs; get road tax instruction to pay $20 for road tax (Landcruiser 2017 4,200cc), this is done at NB bank (you can see the word ‘bank’ through the customs and excise window).
9. The bank can be reached through the door to the left of the customs and excise window (then turn right as you walk into an office of sorts). You can only pay this in USD (no MasterCard/visa/tsh/mkw accepted). Do this ASAP, line to pay can take extremely long.
10. Collect your CdP after presentation of the road tax receipt.
11. Customs authorities document your vehicle in their logbook, they may want to check your vehicle, then open the boom gate for you to proceed.

** Be aware that on the Malawian side of the border, almost everyone wants palm greasing or “something to drink”. This was extortion and something we fundamentally refuse to pay so our border crossing took longer than it should have. However, it gave us time to document it and hopefully this will be useful information for someone else who crosses here as the info about COVID-19 testing was scarce on the gov websites, people we spoke to, etc. so we winged it. 🤣

Also FYI: we heard Airtel SIM cards are the best. If you drive to Korongwa it’s 100mkw vs. substantially more at the border itself.

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We came well prepared to cross from Malawi into TZ. Photocopies, insurance, covid tests etc. The process was relatively efficient through Malawi and TZ immigration. Nobody asked us for our covid tests which we had done in Mzuzu and our passports were stamped before we had received our results for the rapid test (obviously indicating it is just a money making scheme, $25pp). Besides having to walk about 1km to pay at the bank, meaning a cashless border system... for obvious reasons in hidesight, things were pretty smooth. Until the "system stopped working" and made us wait 3hrs, it was so blatant that that "the agents" (the new money makers for the officials) were smirking at us. Once we eventually lost our patience, videod them and told them we were going to report them did the official go behind a door and come back with the paper. We went back to the bank, payed and left soon after

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crossing from Tanzania into Malawi took us 8.5 hrs but we made it!
Tanzania out was easy.
Malawi in was the challenge. We didn't apply for the e-visa because it was still stated at the governments website that our nationalities (german & dutch) can obtain the visa on arrival.
When we got to immigration and asked for the visa on arrival they told us this was not possible since Corona anymore. Soon we were asked into a separate office where the first officer asked for some money for his drinks and the second told us that getting the visa on arrival would be much more costly and we should have done the e-visa application process.
She gave us the price of $120 pp which we obviously refused to pay. We got send out of the office and been called back in multiple times. We've been told we would get them into trouble and there was nothing they could do. It still seemed possible to us so we didn't give up.
Apparently after realizing we wouldn't pay this ridiculously high price they just wanted us to leave, apply for the e-visa, wait 3 days for the approval and come back. We made clear that this wasn't an option. Eventually we got to talk to the boss of the immigration office. He gave us the same speech at first. Later after talking to him again and again, we mentioned desperately that we even wrote to Joseph Mtumodzi Chauwa, National Public Relations Officer (contact was available online on the official website, but not anymore as we just saw) asking for help but didn't receive a response yet.
Suddenly something changed... we were asked to fill out the e-visa application right there and they would make a call. Within half an hour we got the approval. Paid the regular $50 pp online and got our visa issued right after that.
We paid $20 per bike road tax (keep the receipts, they want to see it when leaving the country again).
Just do yourself a favor and get the e-visa approval before getting to the border 😉. However, the system is not reliable and might not always process the payment. Keep trying and rather do it a few days earlier than last minute. The approval will be valid for some time.

Funny enough with all the hustle about our visa they forgot to check our covid-19 tests carefully. We got in just showing the receipts that we took the tests (we were still waiting for the official results by then). Normally you would need to provide one which shouldn't be older than 10 days. Took a picture of the paper stating the latest regulations about it.

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No website says something aboud Covid, but Tanzania want to have a test, too. We didn‘t know that, so we just had the test from Zambia 3 weeks ago. And they let us pass.

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From tz to Malawi.
After contact with the consulate, lodges and post of moh on Facebook we thought Malawi is open for tourists again so lets try..
First a big hassle for a covid test in Mbalizi but eventually we got a certificate and went on to Wings hotel before the border so we have enough time to tackle some issues at the border..

tz out, quick and easy. Took a couple of minutes.
Coming at the Malawian border they said that they are still closed. They don't issue visas at the moment. Eventually the consulate got involved and they couldn't believe that they didn't issue visas. The consulate even tried the immigration hq in Blantyre but after 7 hours trying we stopped.
The only outcome: 'do the application online, it's very easy and you get a very quick respons'.

Back to Tanzania side, they found a solution for are visa (already checkout stamp). They canceled the stamp so we didn't have to pay for a new visa. New TIP for a month though for $25. Very friendly and helpful on the tz side, done in about a hour.

Next day we tried the online application. There are only 3 possible ports of entry, all airports so no landborders! But the guys from immigration at the border told us it will work out.. So we did the whole application and came to the last step, payment. ($50 pp) We tried several credit cards but we got an error every time..

The whole process took us a small week, to bad but we decided to leave Malawi for now.

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Malawi visa single entry since 2020 costs 50 usd pp.
When we were at the border we were asked to pay 75 usd in cash. However we found out only later from south africans living in malawi that from beginning 2020 the government reduced the price from 75 to 50 usd and the people working at the boarder just keep the 25 to themselves.

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TZ to Malawi. I'm doing the tour of Africa with my bicycle. So fast: it took 15mn in total and they didn't check any of my bags (as always ahah).
Paid 75$ (French) and they gave me only 30 days (renewable) visa. Maybe ask for a receipt cause I forgot to ask and they didn't gave me.

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Crossed from Tanzania to Malawi with our Landcruiser. Tanzania all very easy, stamped out passports and CDP in same building. Didn’t have anyone asking us for money to open a barrier.
Got some cash out of the ATM at the border and changed into USD. Make sure to check your notes as they have us 1 2004 note which weouldnt have been accepted in Malawi.
Malawi side easy but very slow. Got our single entry visas ($75 each) - took maybe 15-20 mins for them to process. Then went to get our CDP stamped and pay road access fee. For some reason was still required to fill in TIP form for their admin purposes. They photocopy your passport so you can’t do concurrently with the visa. Then was given an invoice for road access fee ($20) and a newly introduced carbon tax (15,500MKW for vehicles over 3000cc). Then queued to pay at bank and then took back to customs for process to be completed. Easy but SO slow 😂

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You can extend your TIP in Mzuzu long before the expiry date. We were only 8 days in Malawi and extended it from the date of expiry. At first a senior person said it can't be done and you will have to wait untill 2 days before the expiry date but we asked that they try. Explaining that if they make it hard for tourists, we for example will stay for a shorter time because we don't want to go to Blantyre or Lilongwe on a later date to extend. Maudi did the entry on the system. You pay at the bank, get a receipt by the other MRA office and come back to Maudi and it was done. It takes a bit of patience but it can be done. 5000 MK. Also check your TIP information at the border before you pay. We had numerous mistakes. VIN number incorrect, said we are doing business, passport number incorrect, make of vehicle incorrect and and.

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Same experience as below, Tanzania to Malawi. We took a little over an hour for both sides.

The place to pay road tax for Malawi is open 8-18, all days, also sundays and holidays. So that’s probably also the opening hours for the border.

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$100 USD visa for US Citizens, not $50. just be advised if this applies to you. was a surprise to me.

Regarding local council, I just drove past and waved while they told me to stop. customs insists that the tax does not have to be paid for vehicles on a Carnet or TIP.

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Malawi to Tanzania. Boarder was open today as the protest were cancelled.
Left Malawi very quickly and easily. Someone had a very brief look in the car for souvenirs but that only took 1 minute.
Entering Tanzania was easy and quick, compared to what we had read from other people’s reviews.
We paid $50 each for the visa, which was done in ten minutes.
For the road tax, we needed photo copies of the car registration documents, passport and driving license. All which we already had and we did this whilst waiting for our visas.
After this, we walked to the bank and paid $5 for 1x week of road tax.
Whilst at immigration we asked about the locals boom gate ( as we had read many people saying the locals wouldn’t open it until they paid 10,000 shillings). A couple of minutes later a immigration officer came out and told us that you are NOT to pay this, and that they have warned the locals to stop targeting tourist with this illegal rate. He also told us that if they wouldn’t let us out then we should drive back to he immigration office and they will sort it out for us.
When we left the boom gate was already open and no locals demanded money for driving through the village. The officer told us they are trying to stamp this illegal tourist ‘council tax’ out.
We also got our Comesa (at the shop next to the juice bar) and paid $65 for 7 countries for 3 months.

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Border Crossing Malawi-Tanzania:

When leaving Malawi we were asked to show a receipt for road tax that we were meant to pay upon arrival. However, when coming to Malawi at Muloza border crossing, we were never requested to pay. They let it go, saying that it was the borders fault for not requesting payment.

On Tanzania Side...
We are driving a Ford Ranger with a trailer- the cost for the road tax for 30 days was $45 USD. When directed to the bank to pay, they did not accept dollars (only TZS); after the exchange rate we paid $47 USD.

The whole process (including buying COMESA) took 2 hours.

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We went from Tanzania to Malawi.

Check out from Tanzania was straightforward. No fees, simple.
It was very busy and crowded with big trucks, so the border checkpoint is actually too small. After all paperwork wad done we had to wait for 10 minutes or so before we could squeeze through.

Malawi was a bit more chaotic, but still OK. Paid $50 each for visa on arrival. $20 for Carnet dP stamps. Plus some money plus a soda for the man who helped us getting the Carnet stamped.

Total time spent from Tanzania to Malawi was 2.5 hours.

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Malawi into Tansania. fast check out in on Malawi side.
very friendly and fast Service on Tansania Side. they like to have copy of passport and driving License. 50dollar Visa.
No roadtax for Motorbike. with Carnet de Passage.
I didn't had to pay the 10000 at the gate. nobody asked for this Fee.

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Crossing with my motorbike from Tanzania to Malawi.
Tanzanian side all pretty straightforward. Malawi side took over one hour to do the TIP paperwork. Had to pay $20 for the road tax + 10000MWK ($15) for "processing fees".
Visa is $75.

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UK and French passport holders travelling from Malawi to Tanzania in our 10 tonne Leyland Daf camper.

Visa is 50 USD (must pay in USD cash or change money at unfavourable rate). Multiple entry visa only available for USA passports but single entry visa allows one to return if you stay within east Africa visa area (Burundi, Rwanda,Uganda,Kenya) and return within 90 days.

1 month road tax is 25 USD but MUST be paid in shillings. There is a NMB cashpoint that accepts visa and MasterCard near the north gate (up the hill).

If you get out cash get an extra 10,000 shillings for a local racket (see other warning on map).

We crossed on a Sunday (not busy) but a lot of waiting is involved, allow 2 hours.

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As previously stated and no changes.

We paid $50 for a three month visa, which allows us to enter Kenya and back again under the same visa and presume other neighbouring countries.

In all it took us 2 hours to cross from Malawi to Tanzania. All straight forward.

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all the officials were very friendly and efficient. had to pay the visas in USD and the $25 road tax in TSh. we went to the bank across the road to get TSh.

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crossed the border from Malawi to Tanzania.
Malawian border open til 18:00 and tanzanian til 19:30 (because of the time diffrences tanzania closes just half hour after malawian).
no problomes in malawian side.
visa to tanzania 50$ for 3 months,we can enter couples of times if it from the neiborhood countries.
road tax - 5$ for a week or 25$ per month-pay with shilings.need to bring copy of the passport and car license.
there is money exchange between Malawi to Tanzania.
didn't ask for inshurence.

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Exiting Tanzania - Entering Malawi
Tanzania side - it took us 15 minutes - no problem at all!
Malawi Side: 75 USD for visa (expiry date is not filled, so I don’t know if 1 or 3 months 😄😄); Very nice customs officer filled out all the forms and give us a receipt to pay the RAF (road access fee) at the bank counter (our Unimog was classified as a ‚small vehicle‘ so we only had to pay 20 USD - only payable in USD - they won’t accept Dollar Notes equal or older than the 2009 series); standing in line to pay the RAF took us around 45 minutes.
There is also a Money Exchange Bureau - good for us after we had to pay a 170 USD fine in Tanzania (never miss the weight bridge with vehicles above 3,5 t - even if they wave you through! 😬)

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Exiting Malawi to Tanzania with two bikes

Malawi exit: quite easy. Fill in exit paper, stamp out passport, stamp out carnets. Quite quick (20min).

But then suddenly two persons from some "malawian wildlife association" asking us if we bought souvenirs and wanted to check our luggage on the bikes for "wildlife"; they showed us their badges. Not sure what they were looking for, rather quite annoying that they unpacked our carefully packed luggage. Took 30 min in total (15 min to repack everything)

Tanzania entry:
First you have to fill in the register at health check ( office desk on left when entering) and show your yellow fever certificates. You have to fill in arrival forms and with the forms you then proceed to immigration counter behind to stamp passport (we had the visas already from before). Very friendly staff. Then proceed to customs in the centre. Extreme unhelpful staff there. There was a "connection problem" so they didn't/couldn't stamp our carnets. The connection problem was only solved after 2 hours of waiting but when we gave the carnets, suddenly now we had to give copies from driving license and passport. Apparently you can do it at one of the shops there but we asked the officer from immigration office who was so nice to copy for us. Returning back to customs, they started with one of the carnets but then suddenly disappeared for lunch to come back after 1 hour to finish finally the carnets. I also got a TIP (seems to me as double work but anyway).
Eventually at the end some good news: as motorcycle no roadtax :-)
Total time: 3 hours
Ps. Changing time zone with one hour at border Malawi-tanzania

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Existing Malawi to Tansania, Namibian Passport holders traveling in an 10 ton Overlander.
Exiting was easy, WARNING, they wanted to surch the truck for suveniers, but didn't, climbing into the van was to much of a challenges as we didn't take out the leader.
Entering Tansania, they wanted to see our Yellow Fever carts,we got our passports stamped, got the TIP and Roadfund (one document), U$ 25,00, TS 57000.00.
Bought Comesa for 6 months for 6 countries for U$ 200.00.( after negotiation )
All in all, s very pleased boarder crossings.

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We did Tanzania to Malawi in a Saturday.
Three motorbikes with cdp and comesa.
Exit totaly easy and fast. Immigration and Customs in the same hall.
On Malawi side also immigration and customs at the same place. The police refused to issue a transit visa (50 USD). On border posts are only normal visa (75 USD) available, for a transit visa you have to go to the embassy (???).
All discussions were senseless, in the end we paid 75,-.
The rest was very easy and friendly.
In addition we had to pay 20 USD per motorbike RAF (Road Access Fee, doesnt matter if car or bike). The recipe for the RAF took most of the all in all 1.5 hours.

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Leaving Tanzania, entering Malawi.

Very unfriendly/unhelful staff on Malawi side. Process was slow.

Originally refused transit visa (7 days $50) and said we must pay $75. We said fine and asked for a letter stating this so we could research/talk to immigration after....they then back-tracked and gave us a transit visa for $50.

Car TIP
$20 USD +
10,000 MK (approx $14 USD) only payable in MK.

Currency exchange on Malawi side, also lots of black-market people offering rates.

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Two pieces not noted:
A) The Tanzanian visa (we hold US passports) were $100for multiple entry, good for one year. TZ Immigration said we could be country for 3 months at a time, but that “we could leave and come right back for another 3 months.” I’m not sure about the last bit, but 1 year of validity was pretty clear.
B) We were approached by someone claiming to be an insurance salesman when we reached the Malawi side.(leaving Malawi for Tanzania). I thought to get rid of him by asking for a price on 7 months of COMESA Insurance. He stuck around, pointing us to the next step, even though we figured it out on our own, all the way through exiting Malawi and entering Tanzania. He shepherded us to get copies for the road tax and to go to the bank to pay said road tax. We then negotiated him down on COMESA insurance, showing him this post, and he agreed to our price ($35 per month for vehicle and trailer). He also made sure we were checked out of the Tanzanian gate before he up and left, never once asking for money. He was really nice, and we were prepared to give him a little as he was helpful in getting the copies and tax paid at the bank, but he left before we could get it out. He was also wearing a name tag, as were all the other runners for this insurance company, with the company name on it. The stamp on our Yellow Card says National Insurance Company, but the name badge he had said something different.

Everything else was as noted below. All in all, al long, but ultimately pleasant experience.

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Everything as stated by CMSMJ.

Leaving Malawi:
Filled out Exit form, Passports got stamped, Carnet got stamped. Friendly, no Money. Took us 10 Minutes.

Entering Tanzania:
Registered at Entrance Gate, filled out Visa Application. We also had to pay 50 USD for a 90 Day Single Entry Visa (German Passport). Multiple Entry Visa was 100 USD. Got our TIP for free after handing over the Copies and paying the Road Tax at the Bank. We only took 7 Days Road Tax wich costs 5 USD. They told us we can then extend it easily at any Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) at any City (up to one Month for additionally 20 USD). We also bought a COMESA Yellow Card Car Insurance (see other Checkin). Friendly People. Took us 1,5 Hours in total.

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3-month multiple-entry visa is $50 for most nationals, $100 for US citizens. The road tax had to be paid in shilling.

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Dutch citizens without a Carnet de Passage.

1) Exiting Malawi:
Fill out an exit form and stamped out easily. They take in your T.I.P when exiting.

2) Entering Tanzania:
Write your name in an administrative book.
3) Fill out an entrance form and get stamped in.
A single entry 90 days visa costs USD50,- pp only payable in USD.

4) Whilst waiting you can arrange your T.I.P for FREE. Have a copy of your driving license, car registration papers and passport ready to hand over. They'll check your car and you pay the USD25.-for the "Road Tax" at the bank across the street(it has an ATM next to it where you can take out TZS400 000,- max. excl. TZS8 000,- ATM fee). After the payment you collect your T.I.P

5) COMESA insurance after exiting. Enter the 'M-Pesa G8 Pub' and take the alley at the left side of the building until you hit 'Samosa Barber Shop' painted on the wall. Take the door at the left and you will see a man behind his desk in the corner.
He asked USD80,- for the COMESA.
We showed him the Ioverlander message of the COMESA for TZS160 000,- (USD70.-) in Dar.

After 2 min we were able to get the COMESA for USD60,- (TZS 130.000.-). 3 months covering Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe(probably still a rip off).

Point 1 to 5 took us 2 hours.

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Second posting here was a mistake, sorry! Can't work out how to delete it.

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Entering Tanzania from Malawi.
Paid 25$ pp for 3 month single entry visa.
Plus 25$ road tax for the car (Toyota landcruiser)
Nice and friendly, just had to wait half an hour for an agent for paying road tax)
The road tax is per month of stay, up to 3 months.

We got a TIP rather than use the carnet.
Have photocopies of your passport, car registration papers and drivers' licence ready to save the hassle of going to the shops outside.

We crossed on a Sunday and it's nice and quiet and relaxed. Apparently on weekdays it's a different story.

There's an ATM here, just behind the insurance office (at the gate going towards malawi on the left hand side)

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