Espungabera | Customs and Immigration

Exit Zimbabwe fast and easy.
Entering Mozambique was also quick. We have a Swiss passport, so we just have to pay USD 10 or Meticais 650 to get the stamp. The staff spoke English 👌
Traveling by bicycle 🚲

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yes, the road after Chipigne is bad but totally doable. workers even start to fill the potholes when we drove by.
border was super easy and quick, everybody very nice. at moz side they also spoke english.

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Moz to Zim, single person from USA with a rental 4x4 SUV.

Moz side: Relatively straight forward process and similar to other Southern Africa borders. On the Moz side they need to see your actual visa paper when exiting. Mine was a half sheet size piece of paper from when I entered moz from eswatini. Without it they starting getting uptight and said I would have needed to pay usd$50 extra before leaving the country. Once I provided that sheet it went smooth. No gate pass was provided like most other borders. While exiting the customs/immigration building the boss asked for a memento he could keep. I just happened to bring post card from my home town in case this situation occurred. He was very happy to get his postcard and it let me slide out the door a bit quicker.

Zim side: I had my online eTIP all filled out which sped things up (I recommend doing this). Even with this, you will need to fill out a small slip of paper with personal info upon arrival. They only needed to see my passport and didn’t require any additional paperwork (surprising since I was in a rented car), no questions about Covid. They asked all the standard questions: where did you come from, where are you going, how long will you be in the country, why are you here, why are you traveling alone, what is the address of a place you are staying while here.

From Zim you get a piece of paper adhered to one of your passport pages as your visa. Convenient.

My visa was usd$30 and my vehicles TIP was usd$50. I received receipts for everything.

At the gate when entering Zim, the Zim military gate guard requested a drink. It could be helpful to have a few cold coca colas on hand while traveling through much of Africa and this border post.

Overall it went pretty smooth. I think it was about 45 minutes total. I was the only one here.

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Went from Zim to MOZ. Zim border very easy and officers very friendly. Takes 15 min.
MOZ immigration head officer do all the work and permanently surch for a reason to explain to you there is something wrong but he will assist you for a small pocket money. (50$) But there are signs against corruption. We stay in front of this and looked at. Went to our car and wait. After 2 hours waiting he called us and do the visa process. Not paying. Customs and police clearance quickly. All in 3 hours.

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Crossing ZIM-MOZ
most parts of the 40km from Chipinge to the border is very bad tar road; the very last stretch from Mt Selinda Mission is a rough earth track (possibly difficult in rainy times)
ZIM:
Immigration and Customs: easy, quick and friendly
Police: short inspection, clearly looking for poaching staff

MOZ: arrived at 09:40, we were the only customers .. all day and all day next day
Immigration and Customs: very friendly … but very slow. VOA available(US$50 pp, a flyer is hanging up, saying Mt3100) … theoretically … but first due to internet connection problem and then printing problem, we had to overnight in front of the customs building and for a long time it was not sure if we can continue at all. The officers suggested repeatedly we should go back to ZIM and try Machipanda, which we refused.

It was not till 2pm on the second day the printer problem was finally solved and we had our passports back and could continue.
All in all quite nerve racking.

Conclusion: did we just have bad luck or is this ‚printer problem‘ systematic … ?

PS. For the visa application form, the officer asked $1pp … we claimed we did not have small notes and no ZAR either …

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ZIM to MOZ, Swedish passports and Carnet.
Zim side took 10 min, stamped the passports and Carnet. Super friendly and quick. They also cleaned our car while we were getting the passports stamped. Best exit border I’ve ever been to!
Moz side was a mess. Needed a VOA, so they called the boss that drove up from Espungabera. He says you have to call before hand, it is very difficult to give visa etc bla bla bla, short version, they wanted money. Played stupid and said that the official website says it is possible and that friends of ours got a visa a couple of weeks ago. They gave up and started processing the visas. Then the printer wasn’t working, 3 hours later we had the visas. Then they wanted $60 since we were paying in USD instead of meticais. But ended up paying $50 which is the same as 3100 meticais, the official rate.
Stamped the Carnet and got road insurance in 10 min and drive away as quickly as possible.

Everyone was nice and friendly but everyone wants something from you. Still probably a better option than going via Mutare

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Crossed from Moz to Zim by bicycle. Paid 30 usd, no covid test or vaccination certificates asked. Was able to exchange meticais for usd at a fair exchange rate with a guy from Espungabera. Very smooth border crossing.

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Great border, friendly, relaxed, though efficient. Only thing to consider currently (Dec. 2019) when entering from MOZ to ZIM; not easy to get ZIM$ in Chipinge; not possible in Chuko. Most places won‘t exchange USD & payment in any other currency than ZIM$ not possible. Credit card usually won‘t work. So, either organize some ZIM$ / ZIM bonds before you enter or take a small stash of food / drinks with you.

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The best border we have ever crossed! Very relaxed, friendly officers - smooth and easy, thanks to Jonathan and Robert. We wish all borders were like this!

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We went from Zim to Moz. Lovely small border post after the jungle of mount selinda. Took us 30mins in total and we were the only ones there.
No one bothered for support or to sell stg. One of the few borders we could actually enjoy a lot !

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Border Post to Zimbabwe, with customs and immigration, small border post but very friendly

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