Do South Africans need a visa for Maldives?

Visa on arrivalfor South African passports

South Africans get a free tourist visa when they land in the Maldives. You must have a prepaid, confirmed booking and fill in an online declaration first.

StayUsually 30 days

Tourist visa on arrivalFree

Difficulty 1 of 5

Last checkedChecked17 Oct 2026

What you need

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Machine-readable passport with at least 1 month’s validity left
Prepaid, confirmed booking at a registered resort, hotel or guesthouse
Confirmed return ticket
IMUGA declaration for each traveller
Enough money for your stay

How to do it

Book and pay for registered accommodation.
Submit the IMUGA declaration in the 96 hours before you land.
Show your booking and return ticket at immigration.

Official site:

Maldives Immigration: tourist visa

IMUGA traveller declaration: Free. Submit it up to 96 hours before you arrive; every traveller needs their own.

Airlines decide whether you can board using a database called Timatic. Before you fly, check your route on the IATA Travel Centre.

What it costs in rand

Item	Cost
Tourist visa on arrival	Free
IMUGA traveller declaration	Free

Rand amounts use the exchange rate on 9 October 2026 (R16.53 to the US dollar, R18.50 to the euro, R21.87 to the pound) and are rounded. Work out your whole trip in the budget calculator.

Common problems and fixes

Turned away without a prepaid booking

Pay for your first nights before you fly and carry the confirmation.

A fake declaration site

IMUGA is free. Use only the official immigration portal.

Plan your trip

Best timeDecember to April

MoneyRufiyaa (MVR); US dollars widely accepted

Three trip ideas

A local island

Guesthouses on islands like Maafushi keep costs down.

A resort splurge

One or two nights over water.

Snorkelling

Reef, turtle and manta trips.

Good to know

Resorts are reached by speedboat or seaplane, which can cost a lot.

Book

Flights Places to stay Tours and activities

Sources and checks

Checked17 Oct 2026

Checked on 17 Oct 2026 against the official government or embassy page, plus at least one independent source.

officialTourist visa on arrival · Maldives Immigration · no date shown
dataPassport Index Data (visa matrix for 199 passports, updated 17 Feb 2026) · imorte, continuing the dataset by Ilya Ilyankou (MIT licence) · published 17 Feb 2026

How we check: our method and every source we use.

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