What you need to enter Bangladesh with a Cuban passport

Authorization system

Visa on arrival (VoA) with prior online registration

The visa on arrival is applied for before travelling on the Bangladesh Police Special Branch portal: you register, upload a photo, the passport bio page and a valid invitation letter, and carry the printed "Acknowledgement Receipt". It covers a maximum of 30 days for tourism, business, investment or government work, and granting it is at the discretion of the immigration officer at the port of entry: it is not a right. The official instruction itself says that, in countries where Bangladesh has an embassy, the visa on arrival is reserved for justified cases — which is why Spanish travellers are usually referred to the Bangladesh Embassy in Madrid.

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Fee

USD 50.00

The visa-on-arrival fee is 50 US dollars (plus processing charges), paid in cash only at the Sonali Bank counter at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal airport before going to the "On-Arrival Visa" desk. A visa applied for in advance at a diplomatic mission follows each country's fee schedule: the U.S. Embassy, for instance, puts the multiple-entry visa issued by Bangladeshi missions there at 160 dollars. For a Spanish passport you need to check the fee schedule of the Bangladesh Embassy in Madrid.

Processing time

Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns that processing times for the visa at the Bangladesh Embassy in Madrid are long and recommends starting well in advance. The visa on arrival, by contrast, is resolved at the airport itself, but it requires prior online registration and is not guaranteed.

Required documents

• A valid passport with at least six months' validity and at least two blank pages.
• A visa obtained in advance at the Bangladesh Embassy in Madrid. The visa on arrival exists, but it is frequently refused to Spanish travellers precisely because there is an embassy in Spain.
• If going for the visa on arrival: an application registered on the Special Branch portal, a full-face photo, a copy of the passport bio page, an invitation letter from the relevant body and the printed "Acknowledgement Receipt", plus the 50 dollars in cash.

Vaccinations

• Yellow fever: the vaccination certificate is compulsory for anyone arriving from an infected area. Arriving directly from Spain it is not required.
• Not entry requirements, but typhoid, hepatitis and rabies vaccinations are recommended. There is a high risk of dengue: Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs cites 575 deaths in 2024.

Health insurance

Not mandatory for this destination.

Transit rules

The visa on arrival covers a maximum of 30 days and is single entry; an extension of another 30 days can be requested at the Department of Immigration and Passports in Agargaon (Dhaka), but do not take it for granted. The Special Branch portal also covers a transit visa within the same system. Security warnings from Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: risk of terrorist attack, violence at demonstrations and large gatherings, and areas advised against in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the border with Myanmar and St Martin's Island.

Customs limits

Cash

You may enter with any amount of foreign currency, but above 10,000 US dollars or the equivalent you must fill in the FMJ form and declare it to customs, according to the Hazrat Shahjalal airport authority. Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs puts the threshold at 5,000 dollars, so the prudent course is to declare from that figure. Important on departure: the Bangladeshi taka cannot be converted back into foreign currency when leaving the country.

Alcohol

A foreign passport holder may bring in up to one litre of alcoholic drinks. Bangladeshi passport holders may bring none: customs seizes any alcohol they carry.

Tobacco

A maximum of one carton or 200 cigarettes for personal use. Anything above that — cigarettes, e-cigarettes or nicotine liquid — is seized by customs.

Overstay penalties

Staying beyond the visa's validity is penalized with a fine settled on departure, at the Department of Immigration and Passports or at the airport itself. After the December 2024 revision, the Bangladeshi press that covered the decision puts the scale at 1,000 taka per day for the first 15 days, 2,000 taka per day between days 16 and 90, and 3,000 taka per day from day 91, with no cap. We could not confirm those amounts against an accessible official text, so we do not present them as definitive; what is clear is that the penalty exists and has risen sharply from the previous 200 taka a day.

Common reasons for denial

• Seeking a visa on arrival when coming from a country where Bangladesh does have an embassy, without justifying the need for the trip: the official instruction reserves that route for travellers from countries with no Bangladeshi representation.
• Not carrying the invitation letter or the acknowledgement receipt of the visa-on-arrival application registered online beforehand.
• A passport with less than six months' validity or without two blank pages.
• Being unable to pay the fee in cash in dollars at the airport bank counter.
• Carrying out professional activities — journalism, humanitarian work — on a visa that does not cover them: they require a specific visa.