Namibia’s online visa portal was down for over a week after failing to be restored following planned maintenance. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security originally announced a temporary outage between 15h00 and 17h00 on May 19 but undisclosed disruptions extended the downtime to around seven days until May 27.
In conversation with Tourism Update, while the portal remained offline, Ian Coffee, COO of Envoy Global, an immigration service provider based in Namibia, signalled a recurring issue with the platform. “This is not the first time it’s happened. It’s at least once or twice a month.”
Zadrean Fredericks, consultant at Abroadscope, an immigration services provider, said: “We have received reports of travellers becoming hesitant to proceed with Namibian travel plans due to these persistent portal issues. The portal being offline is having significant impact on the Namibia e-visa market. We are seeing a great deal of frustration from travellers who are currently unable to secure the necessary visa.”
Coffee expects the impact will only be felt in the coming weeks. “Our turnaround time for visa processing is about 10 to 15 days so people don’t usually plan too far in advance.” Namibia is currently in its peak season for tourist arrivals so he anticipates significant financial losses as a result of the disruptions.
The visa-on-arrival (VoA) system, rolled out in 2025, also faced significant disruptions with inconsistencies and processing delays at ports of entry. It is the only alternative to the online portal.
Increased use of the VoA system will ultimately contribute to congestion at airports as higher traveller volumes lead to slower processing times, Coffee pointed out.
However, some countries are not eligible for the VoA. “Those individuals would have to wait for the portal to come online,” said Coffee.
He pointed to immature infrastructure as a potential cause: “We have to take into consideration that the platform is only a year and two months old. Website overload or system crashes are problems faced across all sectors and in all countries in Africa currently.”
Coffee, in his capacity, will assist the travel trade industry: anyone negatively impacted by the outage from May 19-16, 2026, can contact him for advice, free of charge over the next 30 days after publication of this article, via email or at +264 81 227 7478.
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