Chirundu Border Crossing | Customs and Immigration

Yes this border felt just slightly stressful and chaotic, but we were only there for 1 hour and everyone was professional and friendly, so we really can’t complain!

Procedure generally as has been so well described by Lilli, with a few small changes today…
4. Zambia customs & Interpol were not in the main building. We had to drive on down the hill to the Customs inspection hall to sort out the paperwork for taking the vehicle out of Zambia. Then turn around (easier said than done!) and go back up to the main building to continue with step 5.
5. We did the eTIP and it actually worked as it should - they entered the reference number in the computer and all details came up. Made things much quicker as we didn’t have to provide all that info about the vehicle.
8. This step wasn’t needed as it was completed in combination with step 4!

Only other thing to add is that they should take Visa card payment for the visa fee ($55 for UK passport), road tax and carbon tax ($20 total). Immigration tried the ‘our machine isn’t working’ trick to try and get cash though. Just tell them you have no cash and will wait until the machine is back up!

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Zam to Zim on TIP
No problems at all. From Zambia you drive straight over the bridge to the Zimbabwe side.
The building is on the right and on a hill and you drive the sloping road up to a car park.
1. Health office - measures your temperature
2. Immigration Zambia - stamps out your passport
3. Immigration Zimbabwe - issues Visa if needed, you pay directly at the counter and get a receipt. They also give you the gate pass.
4. Go through a passage at the right to Interpol. Interpol Zambia first - you need a police clearance for your car. Stamp at the back of the gate pass.
Interpol Zimbabwe next in the office next door.
5. The customs office of Zimbabwe is also in that passage in a corner. Go into the office and get your TIP. Needed is car registration book, Passport, TIP from Zambia and Insurance if you have (otherwise you’ll get the insurance right there as well). I did the eTIP, but it was not really needed, the officer asked me all questions again. Get a reference number for the payment of Carbon Tax and Road Access Fee.
6. Go back into the main hall. Straight ahead is the cashier. Here you pay and get a receipt.
7. Bring back the receipt to the customs office and collect your TIP. Get gate pass stamped by customs.
8. Drive down from the main building slightly to the left to a customs hall. This is the Zambia Custom. There is a shed with a tiny office at the corner of that open hall. Here you hand in your Zambian TIP, write into the exit book and off you go.

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Zambia - Zimbabwe, Dutch passport travelling with a carnet. The information below is correct and helpful. One stop border, quite organised. Just wanted to add that we parked down at the parking lot and went straight up to the building where immigration / customs is. health check, Immigration exit, customs exit, immigration entry (get a gate pass here). Then, to the hallway next to the main hall to the office to arrange roadtax and carbon tax and they also stamped out the carnet. Go to the cashier to pay roadtax and carbontax and go back to pick up carnet. We didnt had to go to the customs desk as they arranged everything at the office. They said this is enough, no TIP because of the Carnet. Drive to exit, extra check of immigration and customs and that was it. 1.5 hour. A lot of fixers around, but you really don't need them. People at the counters are very helpful if you have a question.

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Border is quite well organized, almost one stop border. if you go from Zambia to Zimbabwe don't stop on Zambian side of the bridge, but drive to the other side. There, this is the procedure:
1)Drive your car past immigration down to a hangar type building with a blue roof. Here you show your TIP and Road Tax Certificate (RTSA document).
2. You drive back and go to immigration building. there the procedure is counter clockwise
3. check vaccination certificate first office on the right
4. immigration exit Zambia
5 immigration entry Zimbabwe: $30 for single entry, $45 for double, dutch passport
6)Cashier, pay for carbon tax ($10) and road tax ($10) and if you don't have Comesa pay for insurance ($30)
7) If you are driving personal vehicle go into a hallway on the right where you get the TIP
IMPORTANT FOR RENTAL VEHICLE
Somehow Zimbabwe has some stupid ruling that a rental vehicle is company owned, so a commercial vehicle. To cross the border you need Commercial Vehicle Guarantee (CVG). There is no official price for this and the only way is to go through one of the agents at the border. We asked customs and they confirmed it is the only way and that they can charge anything between $5 and $100. For us he started at $90, but after a long negotiation we got it down to $20. Bargain hard and fierce!!!
8. Bring all your documents to customs to receive the TIP.
9. Go to the exit gate to have your documents checked and you are ready to leave.

Whole procedure personal vehicle - estimate around 1,5 hours
Rental - Reserve 2,5 hours

Additional information
- Get cash before crossing, no ATM to get dollars. In front of ShopRite Chirundu Zambia you will find reliable money changers
- Get groceries and fuel in Zambia if you are heading to Mana Pools, no options to stock up along the way.

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NOTE: KAZA Visa not valid here. Only for entry in the Vic Falls area.

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From Zambia to Zimbabwe.
The 2 immigration offices are in the same building.
Very easy to cross. 40 minutes in total (crossing by foot).
They looked very quickly at our vaccination paper.
It took 5 minutes to go out of Zambia.
Then you have to go to different people office to get your Zimbabwe visa but everything is going fast, any corruption.

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2 Euro passports traveling Zambia to Zim in a big rig.

Procedure is as described, cross bridge before stopping, don't stop Zambia side at all. Pass all the trucks and park with the cars. The one stop is logically laid out.

1. Zambia immigration desk for stamp out.
2. Zim immigration for visa (they will direct you how to pay)
3. Walk back to the gate you drove in to get carnet stamped out.
4. Go back to the one stop, turn right at the door and head straight for the corner office. Here you will get carnet stamped in and pay for road tax and carbon tax.
Then you are done. Drive out the gate, keep all your receipts as one is the gate pass.

If you are heading to mana pools you need a permit so turn LEFT at the gate and go to the old bridge. The building just before is the Zim national parks office.

REGARDING MONEY AND FUEL
Ensure you have enough USD cash for your whole trip. Try and pay by card wherever possible if USD is demanded. Fuel is available but long queues at stations. Cross with a full tank so you can make it to Karoi and Chinhoyi. If the queue is long park up and talk to the manager, if paying USD then you can negotiate a rate below the black market rate but above 'official rate' and convert your dollars to bonds. Check online for both rates. You should pay less than 1 USD per litre this way. Don't push to the front of the queue unless you have agreed this with the manager. Try and get some bonds for tolls towards Harare.

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Both country offices in same building. When coming from Zim on Zam side, and visa versa. So either way you cross the bridge first. Only slight hassle was getting the Carnet stamped exiting Zim. Took about 2 hours all together... which isn’t bad.

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From Zambia to Zimbabwe. We did everything in the Zimbabwe side office.
Exit stamp of Zambia took us 4 hours.

Problem, We got the kaza visa in Kuzungula 15 days ago for both countries. With this visa you are allowed to remain in both countries for 30 days. Crossing as many times you want between them. But in one of our crossings in to Zambia they put in the stamp 3days from the stamp, so when we went to get out 8 days after, they said that we overstayed our visa for 5 days, when at least we had 15 days of the kaza visa. So remember always to check the stamp. We didn't pay the penalty but took us 4 hours of arguing. Avoid problems. Apart from this everything is fast and no problems.

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The Zimbabwe-Zambia joint border control is in fact on the Zambian side. Leaving Zimbabwe and entering Zambia looks as follows :

Zimbabwe side:
- stamp out at immigration
- stamp out the carnet
- stamp out the car at the Interpol

Zambia side
- single-entry visa for $50, but also our KAZA visa was accepted
- stamp in the carnet, free
- interpol check of the car, free
- carbon emissions tax, 275 kwacha
- road toll, $20,
- community tax, 30 kwacha

Insurance at the ZSIC General Insurance 103 kwacha, no Comesa here for foreign registered car.

At the exit one has to fill in a registry and a guy had a look into the car checking that no other person is inside and so.

All the payments only in cash. There is an ATM and it is possible to change money, rand. It took about 1,5-2 hours to sort out everything.

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Leaving Zambia all procedures done on Zimbabwe side. Stamped out in 30 seconds. To enter needed to pay 55 USD for single entry visa as UK citizen. Fast and effortless. Whole border under 30 minutes.

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