Isongole/Mbilima border | Customs and Immigration

A very confusing one.
The Tanzanian officer forgot to stamp my passport, I had to remind her.
The lady on the Malawi side asked for a Covid vaccination certificate, and I had to convince her, that Malawi doesn't require it anymore. She insisted, then I said, that the only country in the world requiring a negative Covid test is Turkmenistan. She said: "Are you serious?" I said: "Yes"
Then it was all right.

The border personal said, I as a Swedish citizen need a visa for Malawi. I said, no, I can visit Malawi visafree for 30 days. In the end I got an entry stamp for 21 days.

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We crossed from Malawi to Tanzania. At the customs in Chitipa we were warned that the road is in a horrible state and half of it was really bad. Deep puddles, really muddy and even a stuck truck that nearly blocked the whole road. But with 4x4 we managed to get to the border in 2 hours.
The Malawi side was really relaxed, just a stamp in the passport, a stamp in the Carnet and a look at our Yellow Fever vaccine by Health and we were done.
Then we got back on a tarred road over to Tanzania and got only an entry stamp at immigration. They can’t issue a visa on arrival there and sent us to Tunduma for it. The customs lady also wasn’t able to do anything and after hearing that we have to go to Tunduma for the visa anyway she just said to go there for customs as well.

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We crossed from Malawi to Tanzania by bicycle.

The road from Chitipa to the border is a standard dirt road without any steep climbs - it’s an easy ride in dry season. They’re working on paving it but it looks like completion is still a long way off.

Leaving Malawi was relaxed and easy. Entering Tanzania (building on the left after bridge) they required proof of vaccinations - they particularly want to see proof of your Yellow Fever vaccination, but they asked to see them all - including Covid. They also took our temperature. Border is open 7am - 7pm.

We completed our Tanzanian E-visa applications online ($100 for my partner - a US citizen and $50 for me, a UK citizen) and brought printed copies with us. Unfortunately they weren’t able to process our visas here and instead we were told we needed to cycle to Tunduma, 60km to the west. We were allowed to cross the border into Tanzania today and do the cycle to collect the visa the next day. On arrival at the Tunduma border crossing (hot and sweaty after the big climb!) we were told there was no reason for us to be there and that we had entered perfectly correctly in Isongole, so it’s worth double checking if you are told the same at Isongole. For what it’s worth the road from Isongole to Tunduma is an excellent paved road - brand new with extra wide shoulders and almost no traffic until close to Tunduma.

One thing to note - there are no money changers at this border and no ATMs nearby (Chitipa, Malawi and Mpemba, Tanzania are the closest). The border guard offered to cycle with us to a hotel 11km away where he said he could help us get a good rate for our Kwacha. We declined and found someone in Isongole (via the Kapenja Guesthouse) who was able to change our Kwacha to Shillings… for a truly terrible, terrible rate.

For those going in the opposite direction and entering Malawi - you can get around 65% more Kwacha by buying it with US$ on the established black market. If you use ATMs to withdraw Kwacha in Malawi you will get it at the official rate and will therefore be paying far more for everything. We wish we’d found this out earlier!

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Crossed from Tanzania into Malawi on bicycles. We had our e-visas in electronic format which was enough. The whole process was relatively painless but quite slow, it took 90 minutes in total, about 30/60 split between leaving Tz and entering Mw.
As mentioned before, they don't have the visa stickers here so we got a temporary permit to go to Chitipa (35km/4hrs down a bad, bumpy, muddy, sandy, flooded dirt road) and do the full formalities there, which took another hour. At Chitipa border they initially wanted us to go into town to get our visas printed, but we managed to get them done there by transferring them to the computer via cable.
Biggest piece of advice - get your Malawi e-visa organised well in advance (a week or more) so you can get it printed in advance. Will save you time and faff.

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Crossed from Tanzania to Malawi.
Very easy exit from TZ: stamp out at immigration in first building, hand in TIP or stamp carnet in second building. The customs agent had to be called from town for me to stamp the carnet, which added some time, but that may have been because it was a Sunday.
Entry to Malawi was pretty easy too. Since there aren't any agents here able to issue visas, they really want you cross with a visa from the embassy. Not having one wasn't a problem though, they issued me a 2 day temporary permit to allow me to cross to Chitipa to do the customs and immigration paperwork. Also needed to have a chat with the police department, which was more social than official. Friendly, easygoing staff throughout.

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Isongole (tanzania) / Mbilima (malawi ) border crossing. I crossed from Malawi to Tanzania. Small buildings in the right before the bridge is malawi immigration and customs. I had left my malawi TIP for motorbike at the MRA in Chitipa but they had phoned ahead.
On tanzania side the first building on left is customs. get your free TIP here. The guy wanted a photocopy of my passport and vehicle logbook (necessary). he also wanted a photocopy of my malawi TIP (not necessary but wouldn't do the TIP without it so I had to whatsapp the mra guy in chitipa and get a photo sent to my phone . long story short don't surrender your TIP in Chitipa and maybe keep a photocopy of it too.
Second building on the left is immigration.
I had to drive to tunduma immigration to pay the visa fee because they had no receipts. luckily I was going to tunduma anyway
Road from chitipa 35km good dirt road, ask at the MRA on the way to zambia border I chitipa for directions. Basically go past the chitipa mra for 500m and turn right then follow signs to Kameme . then ask in Kameme sec school for road to isongole.
Isongole to tunduma road dirt being upgraded to tarmac

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