Algiers Airport Transit
 

Hi All,

On Jan. 31st I will be transiting at Algiers Airport (ALG).

Arriving at 3.20 PM from Paris on AF, I'll transit to a Qatar Airways flight to Doha which departs at 10.00 PM.

Assuming that I'll have all boarding passes with me as I'll check in on-line, my question is:

Am I able to transit without getting an Algerian VISA? or should I go to the consulate and apply for one?

I'm not aware of the set-up if Algiers airport and not sure if they "force" you to go through immigration upon arrival.

Thanks

I am almost certain you have to go through immigration. Not sure about Visa though.

I myself arrived here today trying to catch mistake fare that I booked while ago with QR. I asked passport control guy if I need to go through them again when transit - he said yes. There is no way to go to transit area. That means you need a visa if you are holding US passport. :(

"Need" a transit visa might be an overstatement. No, there is no dedicated path to the departure lounge for those in transit without a visa. You will be herded to immigration control. Depending upon the agent, you may be escorted back upstairs to departures, or you might have to wait for an airline rep (Swissport?) to come fetch you, or you might be admitted with the understanding that you're headed straight to pre-departure security. What is unlikely (but possible!) is that you'll be returned to Paris. None of this would be considered "standard procedure" so expect delays.

When I asked the embassy if I could obtain a visa, the answer was "No." After all, no visa is needed by the government if you are same-day transiting the airport. How can you need a visa you can't even request?

I hope you share your experience with us. And if someone else stumbles on this thread before travel, consider contacting the Swissport office @ ALG and see if they can provide guidance. I was under the impression that the agents for multiple airlines manage transit situations when they are aware of them...but I don't know.

P.S. Apparently they don't like electronic boarding passes @ immigration, so have paper and better yet have an airline-printed BP. Despite IB saying that e-BP are accepted. Maybe at security?

I have transitted twice, in both cases they wouldn’t escort or may be language barrier as none of the passport control persons spoke English and I don’t speak French. Had to go out check in again to get paper pass and come through back.

Did you have to get a visa in that case?

They don't do visa on arrival so how were you able to do go out and come back inside? According to Expert Flyer, transit without visa is permitted as long as you stay within transit area and have onward travel proof. Something doesn't sound right here...how does Air Algerie handle its own connecting passengers? Surely, they don't push everyone through immigration?

Does anyone have more information on this? There's some good fares ex-ALG right now, and I'm considering doing a turnaround/transit. With a US passport and onward travel same day, it seems like there are reports that you can do this without a visa?

Strange, I was there last year and didn't have an English issue.

Same question here, but I'm bordering on an insane connection time with two separate tickets. I will be in Cairo and could book a flight landing in ALG at 12:25pm attempting to catch a 2:05pm flight from ALG-MAD on Iberia. I will be all carry-on obviously. There aren't any flights that will get me in any sooner than that.

Desperately need insight on this too!

Any update on this? Most people in another thread say that they can stay airside during the transit, but this thread suggests otherwise. Can anyone help?

I'll let you know tomorrow as I'm doing it. Lovely evening on the phone with AA for 4 hours as the return part of my ticket got cancelled because IB isn't flying MAD-ALG anymore. It's not until Dec 18 but somehow AA invalidated by ticket without letting me know. Also can't check-in online so I'll be flying from Cairo to Algiers tomorrow with only my printed itinerary from ALG-MAD in hand.

Oh my gosh, I forgot to update this. I did it last week, easy as pie. You just go down to immigration and tell them you're in transit. They take your passport and come back within a few minutes with the boarding pass and walk you to security and then the lounge. The lounge is AWFUL, FYI. It helps to have a print out of your itinerary to give the immigration person. It is super easy. Interesting about Iberia MAD-ALG, it was operating last week, but perhaps it was ending for the season?

Agree with SkyTeam, UNLESS you have a 5 hour connection like we did. We landed from Cairo today at 12:45 and have a 5:15 connection on Iberia. I was not able to check-in online so instead of breezing through we had to wait almost two hours sitting in the terminal for the agent to come back with our boarding passes, likely waiting on the Iberia desk to open. We probably could have asked to move around or go sit in the restaurant, but given the language barrier (would have been easy had we spoken French) we just sat where they told us to sit and waited. I'm sitting in the lounge now and agree it's bad. Not Jakarta bad but it's got nothing other than slow wifi.

They are clearly VERY familiar with the process. I assume the new terminal will have a secure transit area but as far as an un-official process I can't imagine it being much smoother. I'm sure YMMV if you get a cranky staff member but based on these recent examples just have either your boarding pass or your printed itinerary and you'll be fine. Also, you DO have to fill out the immigration forms, or at least we did. They took our forms but we DID NOT get a stamp.

From the views on approach and from the airport this is a country I'd like to come back and visit.