Maldives Visa Requirements: Free 30-Day Visa on Arrival and IMUGA

The Maldives operates one of the most open visa policies in the world. Every foreign visitor, whatever their passport, receives a tourist visa on arrival at no charge, valid for 30 days from the date of entry, and there is no list of visa-required countries to check. The visa is a stamp in your passport given by the immigration officer at Velana International Airport, or at Gan International Airport in Addu for the few international flights there, after they check your documents.

The single nationality-based restriction is for Israeli passport holders, who have been refused entry since 15 April 2025. Dual nationals can enter on their other passport. Holders of travel documents without a machine-readable zone are not admitted, and Maldives Immigration states that passports with an extended validity, such as a handwritten or stamped extension, are not accepted. Indian, Chinese, Russian, European, American and Gulf visitors, the largest markets, all enter on the same rules.

The visa is for tourism only. Business meetings, conferences, journalism, and any paid work need a different visa arranged in advance, and volunteering on a local island can count as work. For employment there is a work visa sponsored by a Maldivian employer, and there is no dedicated digital nomad visa; remote workers stay on the tourist visa and its extensions.

Officers can ask for each of these, and airlines check most of them at check-in, so have them on your phone and ideally on paper too:

• Passport: machine-readable, with at least one month’s validity according to Maldives Immigration. Many airlines and older official guidance ask for six months, so travel with six months to be safe.
• Return or onward ticket: a confirmed flight out of the Maldives within your permitted stay. A complete itinerary does not by itself guarantee entry.
• Confirmed, prepaid accommodation: a booking at a registered tourist resort, hotel, guesthouse or liveaboard for your stay, or a sponsorship approved by Maldives Immigration if you are visiting family or friends. Airbnb-style stays in unregistered flats do not qualify.
• Sufficient funds: immigration requires “sufficient funds to cover the stay” without naming a figure. A card and a recent bank statement or banking app balance are usually enough; for long stays on a local island carry evidence you can pay.
• IMUGA declaration: filed within 96 hours before arrival, shown at the immigration desk.
• Yellow fever certificate: required only if you arrive from, or have recently transited, a country with a risk of yellow fever. Children under one are exempt.

If you have booked a resort, carry its confirmation including the transfer details: resort representatives meet you in the arrivals hall, but immigration may ask where you are staying first. Guesthouse travellers should have the guesthouse name, island and phone number at hand.

IMUGA is the Maldives’ online border system, and its traveller declaration replaced the paper arrival card. You submit it free at imuga.immigration.gov.mv within 96 hours (four days) before your arrival, with your passport details, flight, accommodation, health declaration and customs declaration. Each traveller needs their own declaration, including children and infants, though a parent can fill them in one after another. You receive a QR code by email; present it at immigration, and airlines may ask to see it at check-in.

A second declaration is required for departure, also within 96 hours before your flight out. Resorts and guesthouses often remind you or help guests complete it, but it is your responsibility. If you change flights or accommodation after submitting, use the edit option on the portal rather than starting again. The form takes about 10 minutes per person, and lookalike sites that charge $30 or more for “processing” are not official.

You can extend the 30-day tourist visa while you are in the Maldives, and since 23 April 2026 the process is fully online. Log in to the IMUGA portal, enter your passport number or upload the photo page, add a passport-size photo taken within the last 12 months, update your accommodation details if you have moved, and submit; Maldives Immigration aims to process applications within 48 hours. Apply well before your current 30 days end, because the extension depends on showing continued confirmed accommodation, an onward ticket and funds for the extra period.

Extensions have traditionally allowed a total stay of up to 90 days from first arrival, and a fee is charged; check the current fee and maximum on the portal when you apply, as neither is published on the main tourist visa page. Leaving the country and returning on a fresh 30-day visa is possible, but frequent re-entries attract questions about the purpose of your stay.

Overstaying is an immigration offence. Overstayers can be fined, held until they leave, and deported, and a record may affect future entry. If a cancelled flight or illness will push you past your permitted date, contact Maldives Immigration or apply for an extension before the date passes; your resort or guesthouse can help.

Maldives customs is strict, and the X-ray at arrivals catches people out more often than immigration does. Banned imports include alcohol of any kind, pork and pork products, pornography, idols and objects for worship of religions other than Islam, narcotics, firearms, and dangerous or explosive items. Duty-free alcohol bought on your flight or at a transit airport is confiscated; customs may hold it for collection when you leave, but do not count on that. E-cigarettes and vapes have been subject to tightening rules, so check before packing one.

Drug laws are severe, with long prison sentences for possession, and there is no tolerance for small amounts. Prescription medicines are fine in reasonable quantities in their original packaging with a copy of the prescription; controlled medicines such as strong painkillers or ADHD medication may need advance approval, so check with the Maldives Food and Drug Authority before travelling.

The visa does not limit where you go, but the law treats resort islands and inhabited islands differently. Alcohol is sold only on resort islands, liveaboards and a few licensed hotels such as the one on the airport island; bringing it to a local island is illegal. On inhabited islands such as Maafushi, Thulusdhoo or Fulidhoo, swimwear is allowed only on the signposted tourist “bikini beach”, and elsewhere visitors should cover shoulders and knees. Nude and topless sunbathing is banned everywhere, including in resorts. Public displays of affection are frowned on in villages and in Malé.

Children follow the same rules as adults: their own passport, their own 30-day visa on arrival and their own IMUGA declaration, which a parent completes. The yellow fever rule applies from the age of one. Maldives Immigration does not publish a requirement for a consent letter when a child travels with one parent, but airlines and your home country’s exit rules may require one, so carry it if you are travelling without the other parent. Resorts register every guest, including infants, for the green tax, which is waived under two.

Almost all visitors arrive at Velana International Airport near Malé; a small number arrive at Gan in Addu City, and cruise and yacht passengers clear immigration at their first port of call, usually Malé, with the ship or an agent handling paperwork. Queues at Velana can take 30 to 60 minutes when several long-haul flights land together in the late morning.

On departure, arrive at the airport at least three hours before an international flight if you are coming from a resort by seaplane or domestic flight, since the resort sets transfer times; from Malé or Hulhumalé, two to three hours is enough. Our getting around guide explains how seaplane timings shape your first and last days, and the costs guide covers the taxes added to every booking.

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