Visa requirements for citizens of Lesotho

Citizens of Lesotho 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, Lesotho and 41 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).

40 countries ask holders of the passport of Lesotho for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter Lesotho without one: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria and 35 others.

The reverse holds for 29 countries: holders of the passport of Lesotho get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Lesotho (Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burundi, Cambodia and 24 others).

88 countries ask holders of the passport of Lesotho for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 3 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Lesotho.

85 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Lesotho, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Lesotho, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in South Africa (40).

The United States refused 38% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Lesotho in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 116 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 80 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the passport of Lesotho

By continent, the passport of Lesotho is visa-free in 17 countries in Africa, 13 countries in the Americas, 7 countries in Asia, 4 countries in Oceania and 1 country in Europe. The longest visa-free stays for citizens of Lesotho are allowed in Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Barbados (180 days), Dominica (180 days), Fiji (120 days), Vanuatu (120 days) and Bangladesh (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Citizens of Lesotho can get a visa at the airport or land border of Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and 16 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how citizens of Lesotho enter Albania, Australia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and 33 others. Israel, Ivory Coast, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, South Korea and Suriname ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Lesotho’s neighbours

South Africa admits citizens of Lesotho without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the South African passport ranks 97th (95 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 81 can enter visa-free and 117 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Lesotho.