Visa requirements for Sierra Leonean citizens

Sierra Leonean 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, Sierra Leone and 51 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).

85 countries ask holders of the Sierra Leonean passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter Sierra Leone without one: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria and 80 others.

The reverse holds for 8 countries: holders of the Sierra Leonean passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Sierra Leone (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Haiti, Maldives, Micronesia and 3 others).

97 countries ask holders of the Sierra Leonean passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 12 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Sierra Leone.

85 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Sierra Leone, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Sierra Leone, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Ghana (6), Senegal (5), Mali (5) and Ivory Coast (3).

The United States refused 71% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Sierra Leone in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 184 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 12 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Sierra Leonean passport

By continent, the Sierra Leonean passport is visa-free in 23 countries in Africa, 9 countries in the Americas, 4 countries in Oceania and 3 countries in Asia. The longest visa-free stays for Sierra Leonean citizens are allowed in Barbados (180 days), Dominica (180 days), Fiji (120 days), Vanuatu (120 days), Bangladesh (90 days) and Benin (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Sierra Leonean citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Iran, Macau and 12 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Sierra Leonean citizens enter Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cameroon and 35 others. Saint Kitts and Nevis and Suriname ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Sierra Leone’s neighbours

Liberia and Guinea admit Sierra Leonean citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Guinean passport ranks 156th (54 destinations) and the Liberian passport ranks 170th (48 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 15 can enter visa-free, 121 get a visa on arrival and 62 need an e-Visa for Sierra Leone.