Visa requirements for Salvadoran citizens

Salvadoran citizens can enter all 29 Schengen states without a visa, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole area.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, El Salvador and 69 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).

19 countries ask holders of the Salvadoran passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter El Salvador without one: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brunei and 14 others.

The reverse holds for 47 countries: holders of the Salvadoran passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for El Salvador (Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Cambodia and 42 others).

37 countries ask holders of the Salvadoran passport 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 El Salvador.

31 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in El Salvador, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for El Salvador, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Mexico (5), Cuba (4) and Guatemala (3).

The United States refused 58% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of El Salvador in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 159 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 37 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Salvadoran passport

By continent, the Salvadoran passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 23 countries in the Americas, 10 countries in Asia, 2 countries in Oceania and 1 country in Africa. The longest visa-free stays for Salvadoran citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Peru (180 days), Andorra (90 days), the United Arab Emirates (90 days), Albania (90 days) and Argentina (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Salvadoran citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 25 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Salvadoran citizens enter Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia and 38 others. Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Saint Kitts and Nevis, South Korea and Suriname ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

El Salvador’s neighbours

Guatemala and Honduras admit Salvadoran citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Guatemalan passport ranks 79th (115 destinations) and the Honduran passport ranks 79th (115 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 88 can enter visa-free and 110 need an e-Visa for El Salvador.