Côte d'Ivoire business visa: documents, fees and routes

Côte d'Ivoire does not run a separate business visa product: the biometric entry visa is issued for different purposes, and the business purpose determines the supporting documents. At an embassy, you choose the business (affaires) category and follow the embassy procedure. Online, the e-visa accepts an invitation letter or accommodation certificate, and SNEDAI's certificate template explicitly includes professional meetings as a purpose of stay.

Business visitors from ECOWAS states and the other exempt countries need no visa. Nationals of all other countries need one, and the government's visa sheet names the many nationalities that may receive it directly from an Ivorian embassy.

For the embassy business category, SNEDAI lists an invitation letter or a mission order, proof that the applicant is a business person, a hotel booking confirmation and proof of means of subsistence. These come on top of the common file: payment receipt, appointment confirmation, signed form, one 5 x 7 cm photo, and a passport valid for six months with a copy of the first three pages.

For the e-visa, the uploads are the passport identity page, a return flight booking and the invitation letter or accommodation certificate, typed, signed, stamped and legalised. Yellow fever vaccination is compulsory for entry. Holders of diplomatic, service or official passports on mission submit a note verbale, the signed form, a 50 x 70 mm photo and the mission order, and pay no fee.

At an embassy the visa costs EUR 50 for any stay of one day to three months, plus a EUR 5 appointment fee and a EUR 3 online commission according to SNEDAI's FAQ. The e-visa costs EUR 73. Neither fee is refunded after a refusal. Embassy files are processed within 48 hours of enrolment; e-visa replies from the DST may take more than 48 working hours.

Embassy route: pay online in euros, book the compulsory appointment, enrol in person, then collect the visa in person with the enrolment receipt. E-visa route: pre-enrol and pay online, wait for the DST approval, then complete biometrics at the Visa aéroport booths in Abidjan, open around the clock, where the visa is printed immediately.

A business visitor who later needs to settle, for example to run a company or take up a job, must apply to ONECI for a resident card before passing three months in the country. ONECI asks traders for a commercial register extract and employees for a work attestation in its official format.