Acacia trees in the Saharan dunes, Mauritania

Who needs a visa for Mauritania?

Sub-Saharan Africa · Nouakchott

Photo: Wilson McMakin / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Of 198 nationalities, 9 enter Mauritania with no paperwork at all. The rest: 189 must be approved before they travel.

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

What do you need?

Who needs what

Visa free 9

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

eVisa (electronic visa) 188

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.

Visa required 1

You must apply and be approved before you travel. Airlines will refuse to board you without it.

About Mauritania

Region
Western Africa
Capital
Nouakchott
Population
5,315,065 2025 · 125th of 197
Size
1,030,700 km² 28th largest of 199
Density
5 per km²
Language
Arabic
Currency
Mauritanian ouguiya MRU
Borders
Algeria Mali Senegal

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.