Malawi
Lesotho passportEdit check
Visa-free, 30 days
The allowance is per visit: it starts again on your next entry.
Entry and stay only. What this covers
Entry conditions1 to check
- The schedule's SADC/COMESA exemption excludes only members that subject Malawians to a visa requirement. Each of these fifteen issuers is a SADC or COMESA member; none is named in the Department's Category One list of 47 countries requiring a visa in advance, and none is named in the Category Two list of 161 countries eligible for a visa on arrival, so none triggers the 'except for those countries that subject Malawians to a visa requirement' carve-out.
Your stay
Add your arrival date to work out the stay that fits this rule.
Add entry dateSource & evidence Read the original words
Official wording
(b) nationals from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, except for those countries that subject Malawians to a visa requirement; (c) nationals from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries, except for those countries that subject Malawians to a visa requirement;
Aevamo’s reading
This instrument replaces the Second Schedule ('Visa Arrangement') to the Immigration Regulations made under section 40 of the Immigration Act (Cap. 15:03), and that schedule currently imposes the visa requirement on every nationality it does not exempt — it creates the obligation rather than describing one created elsewhere; the Department's Category One and Category Two lists administer the mode (advance vs on-arrival) within it.
The Second Schedule exempts nationals from SADC and COMESA countries from the visa requirement, subject only to the reciprocity carve-out; each of these fifteen issuers is a SADC or COMESA member and none appears in the Department's 2026 Category One or Category Two lists, so the exemption applies to it.
Source details
How the documents behind this regime are dated
The Malawi Gazette Supplement, dated 2nd January, 2026; the Immigration (Amendment) Regulations were made on 18 December 2025. The Corrigendum in the Gazette Supplement of 9th January 2026 (GN 2) corrects the title and citation from '2026' to '2025' without changing the Second Schedule. The Category One and Category Two lists were fetched live on 21 August 2026 from the Department's e-visa portal; the portal's public notice is effective 24th February 2026.
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.