The Izalco volcano, El Salvador

Who needs a visa for El Salvador?

Latin America and the Caribbean · San Salvador

Photo: PABLO NUÑEZ / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Of 198 nationalities, 88 enter El Salvador with no paperwork at all. The rest: 110 must be approved before they travel.

We have not found a El Salvador government portal we can link to with confidence, so we link to none — a lookalike is worse than nothing. Apply through El Salvador's own immigration service or its embassy.

What do you need?

Who needs what

Visa free 88

Nothing to apply for and nothing to pay before you travel.

eVisa (electronic visa) 110

A real visa application, made online instead of at an embassy. It is assessed, it takes days rather than minutes, and it can be refused.

About El Salvador

Region
Central America
Capital
San Salvador
Population
6,365,503 2025 · 112th of 197
Size
21,041 km² 149th largest of 199
Density
303 per km²
Language
Spanish
Currency
United States dollar USD
Borders
Guatemala Honduras

Capital, area, languages and currency from the open country dataset, pulled 21 September 2026. Population from the World Bank, series updated 13 July 2026. Density is calculated from the two figures above.