British Indian Ocean Territory
Fiji passportEdit check
Permit, stay set by the visa
Before you travel: entry is by permit from the administering authority, not a visa. See the conditions for who issues it.
How long you may stay is set by your visa.
Entry and stay only. What this covers
Entry conditions4 to check
- A permit issued by the Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory (the BIOT Administration) must be obtained before travelling; the application is made to the BIOT Administration in London, not at an embassy or consular post.
- The FCO guidance states that 'All persons, except those who are connected to the military facility on Diego Garcia, require permits to visit BIOT', so a person connected to the Diego Garcia military facility does not need the ordinary visitor permit.
- As of 31 March 2026 the BIOT Administration paused substantive consideration of new permit applications except in exceptional circumstances and except for permits needed for Diego Garcia military operations or official BIOT Administration business.
- The permit requirement of the Immigration Order 2004 remains in force; the 2025 Immigration (Unlawful Entry) Ordinance expressly provides that nothing in it derogates from the Order.
Source & evidence Read the original words
Official wording
Under the British Indian Ocean Territory (Immigration) Order 2004 '… no person shall enter the Territory or be present there unless he is in possession … of a permit …'. … All persons, except those who are connected to the military facility on Diego Garcia, require permits to visit BIOT.
Aevamo’s reading
It is the administering ministry's own verbatim quotation of section 5(1) of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Immigration) Order 2004, the provision that creates the permit requirement for entry ('no person shall enter the Territory or be present there unless he is in possession of a permit'); the Order's full text is not published online by an official source, and the BIOT Administration's Notice of Exemption Order 2017 and the 2023/2025 gazettes confirm section 5(1) remains the operative rule.
The FCO guidance covers all persons collectively — 'All persons, except those who are connected to the military facility on Diego Garcia, require permits to visit BIOT' — and quotes section 5(1) of the Immigration Order 2004, the provision that makes entry and presence conditional on holding a permit; the Commissioner's 2023 Statement on Process confirms that Order is the Territory's primary immigration law.
Source details
How the documents behind this regime are dated
FCO guidance page (row source) is an archived page captured 15 July 2007 with no internal date; it quotes the Immigration Order 2004 whose section 5(1) permit rule is preserved by the BIOT Administration's Notice of Exemption Order 2017 and the 2023 and 2025 gazettes; the corroborating visa-requirements page states 'Last updated: 24/04/2026 13:35'.
What this answer covers Limits & assumptions
Work and residence rights are separate from this check. This is the entry rule and the length of stay the instrument grants. It is not a decision about you: the officer at the border decides admission, and we do not evaluate the purpose of your trip, your passport's remaining validity, an onward ticket, funds, insurance or health requirements.
Informational planning, not legal or immigration advice. The source is linked so you can check our reading.