The eligibility list and the exact fees by nationality are covered elsewhere on this site. What follows is the part those guides usually skip: the actual sequence, from the online application you need to complete before you fly through to the stamp in your passport at Dhaka airport.
Who this applies to
Visa on Arrival is only open to a defined list of nationalities, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Gulf states, Turkey, Russia, and all European countries. If you're not sure where your passport falls, our Visa & Entry guide has the full list, and our visa cost by nationality piece breaks down exactly what each group pays. This guide assumes you're eligible and walks through what actually happens once you are.
Before you fly
Four things need to be true before you land. Your passport has at least six months' validity left and genuinely blank pages, not just unused visa slots. You're holding a printed return or onward ticket, not a screenshot. You can show where you're staying, either a hotel booking or a host's details. And you can demonstrate you have enough money for the trip, commonly cited as a minimum of US$500 in cash or a recent bank statement. None of this gets checked rigorously every time, but an immigration officer can ask for any of it, and not having it is the fastest way to turn a routine arrival into a long conversation.
Register before you fly
Bangladesh has moved Visa on Arrival from a purely walk-up process to one built around an online application you complete before you travel. It's worth doing properly rather than treating it as optional paperwork, since the acknowledgement receipt it produces is what actually gets you through the airport queue quickly.
You'll start by creating an account on the government's VOA portal with an email and password, then verifying that email through an activation link. Once you're logged in, you select the type of Visa on Arrival that matches your trip and work through a form asking for your details exactly as they appear on your passport. The section worth doing carefully is the attachments: a recent, full-frontal photo of yourself and a clear image of your passport's bio page, each under 5MB. Submit the form and you'll get a tracking ID, which lets you check your application's status from the dashboard. Once it's approved, download and print the Acknowledgement Receipt itself, the physical printout rather than a photo of it on your phone, since that's what you'll hand over at the airport.
What happens when you land
After you disembark at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, the signs for Arrivals lead you down toward the Visa on Arrival desk, usually reached by a short staircase or escalator and clearly marked. Your first stop is the Sonali Bank counter, where you pay the visa fee in cash, US dollars or euros only, no cards, and get a receipt. That receipt, along with your printed Acknowledgement Receipt and your passport, goes to the VOA desk itself, where an officer may ask a few questions about your trip: how long you're staying, where, and why. Keep the answer simple and consistent with what you put on your application. Once your passport is stamped, you head through standard immigration, then collect your bags and clear customs. Budget the better part of an hour for the whole sequence, more if several flights have landed close together.
What it costs, and how long it lasts
The fee itself is straightforward: US$50–51 or the euro equivalent, cash only. What varies enormously is what you'd pay for an advance visa instead, and that depends heavily on nationality, covered in full in our breakdown by nationality. Visa on Arrival itself buys you 30 days, single entry. If your trip runs longer, or if you simply run past your 30 days, deliberately or not, what happens next is covered in full in our guide to overstay fines and extensions.
One thing worth knowing before you book flights
Visa on Arrival is a facility, not a guarantee, and Bangladesh has suspended it outright before with only days of public notice, most recently for the entire month around the February 2026 national elections and referendum. It's rare, but it's happened recently enough to take seriously if you're booking travel during a politically sensitive stretch. Checking the VOA portal or your nearest Bangladesh mission in the week before you fly costs nothing, and catches exactly this kind of change before it catches you.
Visa on Arrival requirements and the online application process are accurate as of 2026 and can change without notice, including temporary suspensions during periods of heightened security. Always confirm current status directly with the VOA portal or your nearest Bangladesh mission before booking travel around it.