Visa requirements for Mauritanian citizens

Mauritanian citizens 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, Mauritania and 8 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).

1 country asks holders of the Mauritanian passport for a visa beforehand, although its own citizens enter Mauritania without one: Libya.

The reverse holds for 44 countries: holders of the Mauritanian passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Mauritania (Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi and 39 others).

97 countries ask holders of the Mauritanian passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 17 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Mauritania.

80 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Mauritania, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Mauritania, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Senegal (6), Morocco (4) and Spain (2).

The United States refused 68% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Mauritania in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 178 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 18 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Schengen consulates in Mauritania refused 37% of short-stay visa applications in 2025 (all Schengen consulates worldwide: 15%). Among the 74 countries where they received at least 10,000 applications, that is the 14th highest rate. The figure counts every nationality applying there, not only citizens.

Visa-free travel with the Mauritanian passport

By continent, the Mauritanian passport is visa-free in 15 countries in Africa, 6 countries in Asia, 4 countries in the Americas and 1 country in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Mauritanian citizens are allowed in Barbados (180 days), Burkina Faso (90 days), Benin (90 days), Ivory Coast (90 days), Algeria (90 days) and the Gambia (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Mauritanian citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana and 19 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Mauritanian citizens enter Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bolivia and 42 others. Suriname asks instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Mauritania’s neighbours

Senegal, Algeria and Mali admit Mauritanian citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Senegalese passport ranks 146th (57 destinations), the Algerian passport ranks 153rd (55 destinations) and the Malian passport ranks 162nd (51 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 9 can enter visa-free, 188 need an e-Visa and 1 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Mauritania.