The Government of Ireland is recommending against all non-essential international travel until further notice. This includes Malawi. The full Travel Advice is available here.

International flights to and from Malawi have resumed. A negative COVID-19 test is required for entry and exit, taken within the previous 72 hours. 

We strongly encourage Irish citizens remaining in Malawi to register your contact details on Citizens’ Registration, which allows us to contact you with updated information. 

Public access to the Embassy is by appointment only. To contact us, please use our Contact Us form. For emergency consular assistance outside working hours, contact +265 888 207 543.

Passports

The Passport Service is open for online renewal applications from Malawi, but have paused processing as Ireland is at Level 5 of the National Framework for Living with COVID-19. There will be an update after 5 April. Visit Passport Online to renew your passport. First-time passport applications and paper-based renewals remain suspended until further notice.

Visas

As of 1 June, we are now accepting all long stay visa and preclearance applications.

Please note, however, that for successful applications, unless your application meets the priority/emergency criteria, a visa or preclearance approval letter will not issue until such time as public health restrictions have been lifted. For further information on the priority and emergency criteria, please see the website of Immigration Service Delivery.

We would draw your attention to the fact that COVID-19 restrictions are severely affecting visa processing times. Priority and emergency applications may take several weeks to be processed. Once a decision has been made on your application, you will be contacted directly. In order to ensure that resources can be used to best effect, we ask that you do not contact the Embassy to seek updates on your application.

It remains the position that we are not accepting short stay visa applications, unless the application meets the priority/ emergency criteria.

These measures are designed to support our public health restrictions on movement, including into and out of Ireland. The strong advice is that everyone, regardless of their nationality, visa/preclearance status, or the origin of travel, who cannot provide proof of an essential purpose to travel to or within Ireland, should not travel to Ireland.

The situation will continue to be reviewed in consultation with the relevant authorities in the coming weeks.

For further details or if you believe that your application should be considered as an emergency case, please use the Contact Us form.

Useful Links

The Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade information page on Coronavirus

Information on the Coronavirus from the Health Service Executive of Ireland

Malawi Ministry of Health Updates

Embassy of Ireland Social Media
Twitter @IrlEmbMalawi