Honduras Immigration

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Facts about Honduras Immigration:

Honduras Immigration has a state of the art system that is actually live at its four international airports and all of its border crossings. This means that the government of Honduras knows who is in the country and when they arrived or departed. The system, a “gift” from the USA Homeland Security Department is meant to help the USA figure out who is coming into the region, where they are coming from and what citizenship they have. It has a complete biometric file of each person who entered the country. It achieves this by fingerprinting you and taking an actual photo of you.

Citizens from North America, as well as most of Europe do not require a Visa to enter Honduras. However there are many countries that do. The Ministry of Foreign Relations of Honduras has a full list of countries that do require a Visa to visit Honduras. I encourage you to make check the list in advance!

Normally, the Honduras immigration authorities  will give you a 90 day permit to stay in the country. If you are planning to stay longer, you can get a 30 day extension in the immigration offices in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula or La Ceiba. There is a $20 USA dollar cost for this extension, but keep in mind that you can only get one extension!  After this, you will be need to leave the country for at least 72 hours (3 days) before you can return back. In the old days, because of the CA4 treaty, you were had to leave the CA4 territory. This meant that if you where in Honduras you had to travel to either Belize, Mexico or Costa Rica.

This treaty is on standby at the time, and may be put back in place at any time. We will keep you up to date when it does. In the meantime, you can travel to Guatemala, El Salvador or Nicaragua to exit Honduras for three days and then come back. Keep in mind that if you exit to one of the CA4 treaty countries, you will only get 30 days upon reentering the country. You will still have the option of obtaining an additional 30 days permit through the local immigration offices.

If you overstay past your authorized time, you will surely be caught by Honduras immigration authorities as you depart the country. You will then need to pay a fine before you can board your flight out of the country. If this is the case, make sure you have the necessary cash to pay your fine, as you will miss your flight if you don’t! If you happen to loose your passport in Honduras, you will need to file a police report and notify immigration before you can get a passport replacement at your local embassy,

Honduras Immigration Office in La Ceiba

The immigration office in La Ceiba is at the Uniplaza mall. This is behind Diunsa and across the street from the D’antony Hospital. This office is open Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. Note that this is also a passport office here, so there are usually long lines. Make sure you ask tell the people you are coming to the “extranjeria” office, there are usually very few people there, and all of them are foreigners!

Honduras immigration  Office in San Pedro Sula

The immigration offices in San Pedro Sula are in the Rivera y Compania building. This is downtown on the corner of 3rd Street and 6th Ave SO. The office is in the heart of downtown San Pedro Sula. This is two blocks up from the Municipality building on Central Park and one to the left. The office issues passports to Hondurans, and therefore is usually busy.

Make sure that you let the staff know that you are going to “extranjeria”. This way they will direct you to the immigration officers that deal with foreigners.  This same officer deals with the legal foreign residents in Honduras.  Office hours are 8:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. and me best advice is to arrive early! The entrance to the building is actually on 3rd street. Although the area is safe, there could be pick pockets around. Keep your money close to you, do not wear jewelry and take only your necessary documents.

Honduras Immigration Office in Utila.

The Honduras immigration office in Utila Is located adjacent to the Municipal dock. The office is officially open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m till 5:00 p.m. with a lunch break. The break may vary from day to day. You can take care of all your immigration needs here. If you are arriving to Utila from abroad by sea, keep in mind that you will need to visit the immigration office here to get your entry stamp to Honduras. This way you will be legally in the country. The office may be open on weekends, so feel free to stop by and check on weekends! You can get your 30 day extension right here, on the island. This means you do not need to travel to La Ceiba or San Pedro Sula.

Honduras Immigration Office in Tela.

Thanks to the fact that Tela is Port, it also has an immigration office. The office is open Monday through Friday and is in downtown Tela. Find it across the street from the Hotel Ejecutivo in Tela.