Visa on Arrival Fees, by Country
Visa on Arrival Fees at a Glance
- Most expensive: Jordan (JOD 40, about $56).
- Free: Maldives (30 days).
- Others: Nepal $50, Egypt $30, Indonesia Rp500,000 (about $30).
Cheapest and most expensive are ranked after converting to US dollars at approximate November 2026 exchange rates; the table shows each country's own currency at face value. See methodology.
Last updated 3 November 2026.
A visa on arrival is one of the few globally comparable "pay at the border" government fees: instead of applying at an embassy in advance, a traveller pays the destination country's own immigration authority a set fee right at the airport or land crossing and is issued the visa on the spot.
This table lists the official fee for a standard single-entry tourist visa on arrival, in each country's own currency, at face value with no FX conversion. Eligibility and the exact rate are usually nationality-dependent — every figure here is the standard rate for the most common eligible nationality group (typically most Western passport holders); check the official source for your own nationality before travelling, since VOA schemes and rates change often.
| Source | ||
|---|---|---|
🇮🇩 Indonesia30-day Visa on Arrival (VOA), paid by cash or card on arrival. | Rp500,000 | [1] |
🇳🇵 Nepal30-day tourist visa on arrival. Shorter (15-day, $30) and longer (90-day, $125) options are also available at the same border points. | $50 | [4] |
🇯🇴 JordanSingle-entry visa valid 3 months, issued at Jordanian airports and most land border crossings (not the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge crossing). | JOD 40 | [3] |
🇪🇬 Egypt30-day single-entry visa on arrival, paid in cash (USD) at approved kiosks before immigration. A $36 digital option (including a $6 service fee) has also been available at Cairo International Airport since 1 August 2026. | $30 | [2] |
🇲🇻 Maldives30-day tourist visa on arrival for nearly all nationalities — no government fee. A separate, free IMUGA traveller declaration is also required before arrival. | Free | [5] |
What's included: the official, government-set fee for a standard single-entry tourist visa on arrival, as confirmed against an official government source. What's excluded: private airport facilitation or concierge fees charged on top by agents, e-visas applied for in advance online (a different product from a visa issued at the border), visa extension fees, multiple-entry surcharges, and nationality-specific exemptions or surcharges beyond the standard rate used here.
On sources: where a country's own immigration portal returned a server error or an unresolvable redirect loop across repeated attempts, the UK Government's own official travel-advice page (gov.uk) was used instead — itself an official government source, and the one that reliably loaded. Each row's source is cited individually below.
Why Cambodia and Tanzania aren't included: both were researched directly — their own immigration and e-visa portals, their UK embassy pages, and the UK Government's travel-advice pages — and none returned a confirmable current fee. Widely-repeated figures exist on travel-blog and visa-agency sites (commonly around $30 for both), but none traces to an official primary source, so both are excluded rather than published as an unverified guess.
Why Thailand isn't included: Thailand's paid visa-on-arrival scheme was replaced by a free visa-exemption scheme for most nationalities from 15 September 2026, confirmed via the UK Government's travel-advice page — it no longer charges a visa-on-arrival fee for the nationalities this table would otherwise cover.
Limits of this comparison. Figures are each country's own currency, face value, with no FX conversion — treat a 'cheapest/most expensive' ranking as directional, not exact, once exchange rates are applied. The one exception is the FAQ below naming the genuine most expensive country once converted to a common currency, done specifically to answer that question honestly rather than leave a face-value comparison across three different currencies (rupiah, US dollars and Jordanian dinar) to speak for itself.
What is the most expensive visa on arrival in the world?
Jordan, at JOD 40 (about $56, using the dinar's long-standing fixed peg of roughly $1.41 per dinar) — the most expensive of the countries in this table once converted to a common currency for a fair comparison. Nepal's 30-day visa is next at $50, then Egypt at $30, then Indonesia's Rp500,000 (around $28–30). Every other figure on this page stays at face value, in each country's own currency, with no conversion — this ranking is the one exception, done specifically to answer this question honestly. See methodology for more.
Which country offers a free visa on arrival?
The Maldives — confirmed via a notice on the Maldives Presidency's own government site warning travellers that no official visa fee exists for tourists, and its 30-day visa on arrival applies to nearly all nationalities. A separate, also-free IMUGA traveller declaration is required before arrival, which is a form, not a fee.
Does the visa-on-arrival fee depend on my nationality?
Yes — eligibility for a visa on arrival, and sometimes the exact fee, is set by each country against specific passport nationalities, not a single universal rate. Every figure in this table is the standard rate for the most common eligible nationality group for that country (typically most Western passport holders); check the destination's own official source for your specific passport before travelling, since rates, exemptions and eligible nationality lists change without much notice.
Does this include e-visas or visa extensions?
No — only a visa issued physically at the border or airport is priced here. An e-visa applied for and paid in advance online is a different product, sometimes priced differently from the same country's on-arrival option (Egypt's digital Cairo-airport option, for example, costs $6 more than its cash-on-arrival fee — see that row's note). Extending a visa after arrival, where possible, is also a separate fee not included here.
Work Visa Fees by Country
Official work-visa fees for taking up employment abroad — a different, longer-stay category from a tourist visa on arrival.
Passport Fees by Country
What your own government charges for the passport you'll need to use any of these visas on arrival.
Police Clearance Certificate Fees by Country
Another document some destination countries require for longer stays beyond a standard tourist visa.
- 1Indonesia travel advice: entry requirements
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), UK Government
States the Indonesia Visa on Arrival (VOA) fee: 500,000 Indonesian rupiah, payable by cash or card. Checked 3 November 2026.
- 2Egypt travel advice: entry requirements
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), UK Government
States the Egypt visa-on-arrival fee: $30 cash (30-day single entry), plus a $36 digital option (incl. a $6 service fee) at Cairo International Airport from 1 August 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
- 3Jordan travel advice: entry requirements
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), UK Government
States the Jordan visa-on-arrival fee: 40 Jordanian dinars (JOD), valid 3 months, issued at airports and most land crossings. Checked 3 November 2026.
- 4Tourist visa fees
Embassy of Nepal, Moscow (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal)
States the tourist visa-on-arrival fee tiers: $30 (15 days), $50 (30 days), $125 (90 days). Checked 3 November 2026.
- 5MATATO warns of fraudulent websites charging visa fees for Maldives entry
Office of the President of the Maldives (presidency.gov.mv)
Government-hosted notice confirming there is no visa fee for tourists entering the Maldives; the 30-day visa-on-arrival duration is confirmed separately via the UK Government's travel-advice page (gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/maldives). Checked 3 November 2026.