Originally Posted by
Erasmus
An additional question: it sounds from the above that ACC has official "in transit" facilities, or are you required to officially enter Ghana---thereby requiring a (transit) visa? If the latter, does anyone know if Ghana has multiple-entry transit visas, or if you need one for each connection (we'll be transiting ACC in both directions of our round trip).
Finally, should we mis-connect and be forced to overnight, are there facilities for on-arrival visas, or would we be better served by getting a tourist visa just in case?
(Timatic seems to imply we don't need visas for airport transfers, and on-arrival transfer visas for overnight hotel stays are available for US$20, but I've read conflicting info on the web that these are no longer available. Anyone with first hand knowledge is much appreciated.)
a) ACC absolutely does support international transits without need for visa. As mentioned earlier, there are a fair number of passengers who connect from regional to longhaul flights at Accra.
b) Visa-on-arrival is available for $20 (Transit) or $100 (Visit) if you want to go landside. A transit visa is valid for upto 72 hrs and requires that your previous and next ticketed points are in different countries (eg. LOS-ACC-LOS does not count, but ROB-ACC-AMS would be ok). For a Visit Visa you need to either have prior approval, have a family member who is/was a Ghanaian citizen, or else be sponsored by the airline/other approved sponsor. Depending on the mood of the shift manager, you can sometimes get away with filling in a hotel name as your sponsor without any additional documentation. All payments in US Dollar cash only. Insist on a receipt as they check these at time of departure. ATM and Bureau de Change facilities are available.
c) All visa-on-arrival visas are single entry (these usually aren't actual "visas" - they just stamp your passport and issue you a receipt for the sum collected - the only machine that can print the actual visa labels has been broken since February).