Moving to Sal

Hi Wintaas,

This exact question was asked and answered a couple weeks ago on the forum. I will answer the question once more.

There is no country on Earth that will allow you to fly in on a one-way ticket if you are not a citizen or a legal resident. Cape Verde is no exception. You would be refused entry.

In addition to a return ticket, you also need to have a confirmed reservation for a hotel or a place to stay (AirBNB etc). And you should register for an eVisa and pay the airport tax online, BEFORE you arrive. Otherwise, you will wait in a line to provide the same information and pay the tax in cash. After all of the visitors with eVisas have been processed, they will then allow you to apply on paper. The wait could be an hour or more for a full flight. So register online.

You will be issued a visitor's visa for 30 days. So if you plan to stay for a couple months, you will need to apply for a visa extension AFTER you leave the airport. You go to the police station in downtown Sal (Espargos) to do that.

You can make things much easier by getting a 90-day visa before coming to Cape Verde. Simply contact the Cape Verde embassy or consulate nearest you. The application can be easily done by mail, especially if you live in Europe, Cape Verde has consulates and embassies in several countries in Europe. The good thing about this is that the visa is valid for 1 year (used to be 2 years) and allows you mutiple entries for up to 90 days each visit during the 1 year period.

Finally, I hope you already have been offered a job that starts in September. Recall that the borders are closed and all the hotels are shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. There are no tourists in Cape Verde at the moment and it is not clear when the borders will be reopened for tourism to restart. It could therefore be extremely difficult to find a job unless you already have one. That is of course, unless tourists come flooding back in, the hotels reopen quickly and are short of staff. So you should call the hotels in advance to guage the situation.

Regards,

Angelo

wintaas wrote:

Hey! Me and my friend are moving to Sal in september for a couple of months to work. We were wondering if you need to show a return ticket when we get to the airport or if we only can book a one way ticket there? And is there any other important information we need to know?