Tanzania - Zambia | Customs and Immigration

TZ->ZM

German passports and CdP took us 2h without a fixer. Very unorganized border for east african standards but manageable without fixer. Ask the person in charge always for the next step and you will come through easily:

1. Pay 10.000 TSh council levy on a small both next to the roundabout at TZ side
2. Drive to the immigration building on the sambian side and get the passport stamped out and in (tz and zm immigration counters are next to each other.
3. A bit tricky to find: Head back approx 200m to the one stop border building on the TZ side, which all the people use for the direction ZM->TZ. Inside this building there is the TZ customs which stamps out your carnet.
4. Go back to the building where you got your passports stamped. within this building go to customs show them your carnet and get the carbon tax calculation
5. go to the ATM right next to the zambian exit gate and get some cash (free of charge for visa)
6. go to the cashier in the same building like customes and pay carbon tax (we paid 363Kw for a 3.2l diesel engine)
7. with the receipt go back to customs and get cdp stamped
8. go upstairs 1st floor above customs and pay $20 road tax in cash.
9. drive out through the gate to Zambia

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Went from Tanzania to Zambia. Having done a lot of borders in Africa I felt that this one is a mess, and we used a fixer called Brite, a smartly dressed polite older chap, to navigate around all of the offices. Took us 3 hours.

The lorries are plentiful and a pain but the layout on this side of the OSBP is shockingly bad.

There is an ATM in the border area but it didn't work with our UK cards. There are 2 or 3 ATMs on the Zambian side, along the left of the road you can walk to. Plenty of changers to get the USD you require.

If you do this border keep your spirits up and you'll get through.

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This One-Stop border is for those leaving Zambia and entering Tanzania.

We entered Tanzania on bikes via Isongole but were told to come to Tunduma to process our visas(we had sorted these online in advance). It transpired we didn’t actually need to come, but the process was simple- no queues and nice border guards. The hardest part was finding this building as we went to the other side first. The entire border area is super hectic with lots of traffic, touts, and car importers everywhere. Security guard commented on my exposed knees as a female, so maybe best to wear long pants.

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ATM did not work and the ones in town were empty. Do not rely on getting cash from a machine. First time we took a fixer and made it in 2,5 hours.

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Crossing from Tanzania into Zambia by bicycle, we had no problems..only took us about an hour, didn’t even scan bags or bikes. Visa free (we are German and South African) which was awesome!

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As below. Good to know that the border is open 24/7.
And there is an ATM in the building! So don’t worry about changing cash. Took us 3 hours to cross. They inspected the car with 4 people for 30 minutes, didn’t find anything but beware. We did this for a transit to Chitipa, Malawi. The road directly from Zambia into Malawi is too bad in the rainy season.

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First they made an rapid test, 25$ pp. They didn’t checked our PCR test from Sambia.
Health Department/Custom Tanzania and Immigration for Tanzania and Sambia in the same building. They accept the CdP.
You can pay the fees for VISA and TIP by credit card. ATM inside.

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Confusing border crossing with car fumigation, tests etc. Great description of the procedure below. We used Robert (see more recommendations from the Zambian side) and he was great help for 20$, the same amount would have gone into bribes easily. We paid nothing extra but opted not to fumigate the car. For visas: make sure that you have crisp 50$ bills only! Otherwise they send you to the bank (or prepare to fight for your right). The correct building for Zam-Tan crossing in the pic.

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Zambia to Tanzania:

Use this building for one stop border coming from Zambia. Nice and clean without too many people around.

1. go to the entrance and check in at Port Health. They will send yiu upstairs to the laboratory.

Here you organise for Car Fumigation (USD$15) and rapid test (USD$25 pp). They also check your Covid Certificate (not thouroughly).

They will then issue you with a Covid Certificate for travel.

2. Go to the immigration counters and get your passports stamped out of Zambia then into Tanzania (one long counter).

3. Then need to go behind the immigration counters to Customs. Very very busy with the truck agents.

We used an agent as well so not 100% on the process to get your TIP (note Tanzania with still charge a TIP fee even if you have a carne??) but something to this effect.

a. Fill in TIP application form.

b. attach a copy of your passport, driver license and vehicle registration and submit to the customs officer.

c. Customs Officer will organise vehicle inspection. Note Tanzania have banned all plastic packaging.

d. Once the inspection is done return to the office and get your bill for importation (USD$5) this needs to be paid by Bank Deposit, there is a bank in the building.

e. Return to customs with the deposit slip and collect import permit.

4. Exit the border and at the circle turn right. Pay council levy at the office.

5. Organise 3rd party insurance. Note try have COMESA, can easily be done in Lusaka. Tunduma town is extremely busy and hard to get proper priced, authentic 3rd Party Insurance.

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Actually you must stamp out the Carnet de Passage from Tanzania in this Building.

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