The Umayyad Mosque above the old city of Damascus, Syria

Who needs a visa for Syria?

Western Asia · Damascus

Photo: Bernard Gagnon / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Of 198 nationalities, 9 enter Syria with no paperwork at all. The rest: 16 can get a visa at the border, 171 must be approved before they travel and 2 cannot travel there.

We have not found a Syria government portal we can link to with confidence, so we link to none — a lookalike is worse than nothing. Apply through Syria'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) 171

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 on arrival 16

Issued at the border rather than beforehand. Bring the fee in cash in the currency the border post accepts. It is a permission, not a guarantee.

No admission 2

A government policy, not a paperwork problem. No agent or service can work around it.

About Syria

Region
Western Asia
Capital
Damascus
Population
25,620,427 2025 · 57th of 197
Size
185,180 km² 87th largest of 199
Density
138 per km²
Language
Arabic
Currency
Syrian pound SYP
Borders
Iraq Israel Jordan Lebanon Türkiye

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.