How to Get a Ghana Visa: Step-by-Step Guide for Overlanders

We were among the last travelers able to apply for a Ghana visa using the hybrid application process. At the time, applicants had to complete the visa application online, book an appointment, and then visit the embassy in person to submit their documents and receive the visa sticker in their passport.

Just one day after we submitted our application, Ghana switched to an e-Visa-only system. When we arrived for our embassy appointment, the staff weren’t even sure they could still honor our application under the old process. Fortunately, they decided to process it, but only because we were among the final applicants who had already started the previous system.

At the time, we were traveling through Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Although the application process has since moved online, we believe the new e-Visa system is either identical or very similar to the process we completed. To help make things easier, we’ve put together this step-by-step guide based on our own successful application.

Everything in this guide comes directly from our experience. We’ve included screenshots from our application, the exact documents we submitted, and the process we followed to successfully obtain our Ghana visa. There are six steps in total, so while the application isn’t particularly difficult, it does require some preparation and attention to detail.

If you’ve already read one of our other visa guides, you’re probably familiar with the documents you’ll need and how to prepare before starting your application. Since this information is the same across many of our visa articles, feel free to skip the next two sections and jump straight to How to Start the Ghana Visa Application Online.

Before You Start Your Application

One thing that has saved me a lot of time when applying for visas online is preparing everything before I even open the application form.

My process is simple: I create a dedicated folder containing scanned copies of every required document, already resized, properly formatted, and clearly named. That way, when I’m completing the application, I can quickly find the information I need and upload each document without wasting time searching through files.

Having the correct documents ready beforehand is extremely important. If a file is saved in the wrong format, exceeds the size limit, or doesn’t meet the application requirements, it may fail to upload or delay the processing of your visa.

From my experience applying for these visas, PDF files often caused upload issues on government websites. To avoid problems, I converted all of my documents to JPG format before starting the application, which made the upload process much smoother.

Passport Photo Requirements

Before starting your application, make sure your passport photo meets all the required specifications.

What Documents Do You Need?

We based ourselves in Abidjan, Ivory Coast while applying for several West African visas. One thing we quickly noticed was that most visa applications require many of the same supporting documents. To stay organized, I keep a dedicated folder for each country, but the core documents inside are usually identical.

Having these files prepared in advance makes the application process much faster and helps avoid last-minute stress when uploading documents.

For our Ghana visa application, we prepared the following:

• Passport photo – Recent, good-quality photo with a white background. I resized ours to 480 × 640 px in JPEG format (maximum file size: 78 KB).
• Passport scan – Color scans of the passport profile page and the opposite page.
• Carnet de Passage en Douane – A scan of the front page, the importation counterfoil stamped and signed by the country where we were currently located (Ivory Coast in our case), and the corresponding exportation voucher.
• Vehicle insurance (Carte Brune) – Valid West African vehicle insurance.
• Yellow Fever vaccination certificate – Color copy of our Yellow Fever card.
• Vehicle registration (Carte Grise) – A copy of our vehicle registration document.
• Current country visa and entry stamp – For us, this was our Ivory Coast visa and entry stamp, proving our legal presence in the country where we were applying.
• Bank statements – Used as proof of sufficient financial funds.
• Accommodation receipts – Our Airbnb receipts from our current country (Abidjan, Ivory Coast), showing the total amount paid, property address, and host contact details.
• Hotel bookings – Booking confirmations for our accommodation in Ghana, including the address and reservation details.
• Cover letter – Explaining our travel plans and purpose of visit.
• Travel itinerary – A summary of our intended route and travel dates. If you’d like to see the travel itinerary template we used for all of our visa applications, click here. It can give you a good idea of the format that worked for us.

Additional Requirement for the Ghana Visa

Unlike the other visas we applied for, the Ghana visa application required us to upload a copy of our signature. We simply signed our names on a blank white sheet of paper, took a clear image of it, and uploaded it as part of the application.

Preparing all of these documents before starting the application saved us a considerable amount of time and made the upload process much smoother. If you’re applying while overlanding, having digital copies of these documents readily available will also help with future visa applications, as many neighboring countries request the same information.

How to Start the Ghana Visa Application Online

To begin your Ghana visa application, go to the official website

Scroll down to the “Apply Now” section and click on it, then create your account.

Next, select “Sign Up” and enter your full name, email address, and password (make sure to confirm your password). Once done, click “Register”.

After signing up, you may need to confirm your account via email before you can log in.

Once logged in, click on “Click for New Visa”.

For country of residence, we selected Ivory Coast, as that was our location at the time of applying.

You’ll then be shown an important information page. Read it carefully and tick the box confirming that you have read and understood the terms and conditions before continuing.

Click “Proceed with Visa Application” to start the process.

Step 1: Visa information and personal details

You are now inside the main application process. Step 1 requires you to enter your visa information and personal details.

One important question is Question 33, which asks:
“Please enter the value in West African CFA franc without symbols (e.g. CFA1,000.00 should be entered as…)”

Here, you must enter the equivalent amount in CFA based on your bank statement.

Contact information section

Under Contact Information, we filled it out as follows:

• Applicant name: our full name
• Address line / Street name / Apartment: we used our current Airbnb address
• Reference / Hotel in Ghana: left blank
• Mailing address: same as Airbnb address

For Host in Ghana, we selected “Organization” and entered the hotel details in Ghana.

Under Sponsor of trip, we ticked “Sponsor is the same as applicant” and used our own details, including our current Airbnb address in Abidjan.

For Employer in Ghana, we left all fields blank.

Step 5: Uploading required documents

Next is the document upload section. You simply click “Attach File” under each category and upload the corresponding document.

Here’s exactly what we submitted:

• Invitation letter / confirmed hotel booking: we uploaded our Booking.com confirmed hotel reservation in Accra
• Valid Ghana ID of host (passport or Ghana Card): we uploaded our bank statement instead
• Applicant’s signature: we uploaded a photo of a signed white paper with our signature
• Hotel reservation: we uploaded our travel itinerary
• Other documents: we uploaded our Carnet de Passages

Adding a second applicant

Since there were two of us applying, I completed Brett’s application separately by clicking “Add Another Applicant” and repeating the same process.

Step 6: Review your Ghana visa application

In Step 6, you are asked to carefully review your entire visa application before submitting it. This is your final chance to check that all details, documents, and information are correct.

Payment process

After reviewing, you move on to the payment stage.

In our case, the total cost was:

• 80,000 CFA total for both applications
• + 80,000 CFA express fee (also total for both applications)

We paid everything in cash directly at the embassy at the time. However, it’s important to note that the process has since changed, and applicants are now expected to complete payment online as part of the e-visa system.

Downloading your application documents

Once our applications were submitted, I could access both files under the “Group Visa Application” section.

From there, the system generated several important documents that we had to download, print, and bring with us to the appointment. These included:

• Application form
• Checklist
• Appointment details
• Address label
• Third-party authorization letter

Our processing time (real example)

Our entire Ghana visa application process took 1 week and 1 day, even though we paid for the express service.

Here’s how it unfolded for reference:

• Thursday: submitted our online application
• Tuesday: attended our embassy appointment (next available slot)
• At the appointment, we submitted all the documents we had previously uploaded online
• We paid the visa fees in cash
• Friday: our visa stickers were ready for collection

Even with the express fee, this timeline shows that processing times can still vary slightly depending on appointment availability.

Our visa was issued as a single-entry visa with a validity period of 90 days. The validity began on the arrival date we specified in our application, so be sure to choose your intended entry date carefully.

Final thoughts

That was our complete Ghana visa application process. Hopefully, the new e-visa system is more efficient and faster than the hybrid process we went through, making it easier for travelers and overlanders to enter the country.

If you’re planning to visit Ghana, we hope this guide helps make the application process a little less intimidating and a lot more straightforward.

For us, all the paperwork was well worth it. Ghana turned out to be one of the friendliest countries we’ve visited during our overland journey through Africa—ranking just behind Morocco and Ivory Coast in terms of the warm welcome we received from locals. From the moment we crossed the border, we were met with genuine kindness, friendly conversations, and countless smiles along the way.

We hope your experience is just as memorable. Safe travels, and enjoy exploring the incredibly friendly country of Ghana!

We’ve written step-by-step guides and detailed border crossing articles for every country we’ve traveled through on this overland journey. If you’re looking for practical information, visit our How-To Guides or Border Crossings with a Vehicle pages to find all the articles and prepare for your own trip.