Visa requirements for citizens of the Central African Republic

Citizens of the Central African Republic need a Schengen visa, which covers all member states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, the Central African Republic and 10 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

5 countries ask holders of the passport of the Central African Republic for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter the Central African Republic without one: Equatorial Guinea, Israel, Liberia, Niger and United Arab Emirates.

The reverse holds for 38 countries: holders of the passport of the Central African Republic get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for the Central African Republic (Bangladesh, Barbados, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Comoros and 33 others).

100 countries ask holders of the passport of the Central African Republic for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 6 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in the Central African Republic.

94 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in the Central African Republic, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for the Central African Republic, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Cameroon (13), Nigeria (6), DR Congo (4) and the Republic of the Congo (2).

The United States refused 43% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of the Central African Republic in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 125 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 71 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the passport of the Central African Republic

By continent, the passport of the Central African Republic is visa-free in 12 countries in Africa, 5 countries in the Americas, 3 countries in Asia and 1 country in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for citizens of the Central African Republic are allowed in Barbados (90 days), Burkina Faso (90 days), Benin (90 days), the Republic of the Congo (90 days), Ivory Coast (90 days) and Cameroon (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Citizens of the Central African Republic can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia and 20 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how citizens of the Central African Republic enter Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bolivia and 43 others. Suriname asks instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

The Central African Republic’s neighbours

Chad, Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo admit citizens of the Central African Republic without a visa. For the other neighbours, the rules are: Sudan (visa required), DR Congo (e-Visa for up to 7 days) and South Sudan (e-Visa for up to 90 days).

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Chadian passport ranks 162nd (51 destinations), the Cameroonian passport ranks 173rd (47 destinations), the passport of the Republic of the Congo ranks 173rd (47 destinations), the passport of DR Congo ranks 181st (42 destinations) and the South Sudanese passport ranks 181st (42 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 14 can enter visa-free, 1 get a visa on arrival and 183 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for the Central African Republic.