Entering Honduras as a Visitor
This replaces the general rule for you
the United Arab Emirates: Honduras Does Not Apply the Regional Visa Category
Another reservation that makes Honduras stricter than the region. Emirati passports are exempt across the CA-4 table; Honduras requires a consular visa of ordinary passports, leaving the diplomatic, official and service columns exempt. Fiji and Haiti carry the identically worded Honduran reservation in the same annex.
Ninety days on arrival and one extension of thirty days, which is as far as the regulation lets a visitor go without changing status. The migration law itself is more generous on its face - it grants ninety days "extendable for as long as is necessary" - and the regulation that implements that sentence caps the extension at a single thirty-day grant. The ninety days are not Honduran days: they are counted across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua together under the CA-4 single-visa arrangement, they begin at the first of the four borders you cross, and they end the moment you leave the region by an outer border. Whether you need a visa at all comes from the country list annexed to the CA-4 manual, not from a Honduran list. Nothing in the entry rules asks a visitor for a police certificate.
At a glance
- Initial stay
- 90 days
- Extension
- One further 30 days
A single grant, from the migration directorate where you are. The law says the ninety days are extendable for as long as necessary; the regulation allows one thirty-day extension.
- Maximum visitor stay
- 120 daysCALC (calculated by us, not published)
Ninety days on arrival plus the one thirty-day extension the regulation allows. No instrument states the total.
- Counted across
- Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua together
- Passport validity
- At least 3 months
Required of non-residents on entry.
- Extension fee
- USD 20 per month
- Land entry fee
- USD 3
Charged to non-Central American foreigners arriving by land.
- Transit
- 3 days, extendable once by 3 days
- Police certificate at the border
- Not asked for
- Overstaying
- A fine of half a minimum wage to three minimum wages
The services-sector minimum wage is the reference. We have not read the minimum wage itself, so no lempira figure is published here.
Figures marked CALC are our arithmetic, not a figure in any instrument. Where the law states a threshold as a multiple of something else, the amount shown is that multiple applied - and it moves when the underlying figure does.
Requirements
- A travel document valid for at least three months if you are not a resident
- A visa, where the CA-4 country list puts your nationality in the consular or consulted category
- Answering the migration officer's questions, and meeting the conditions of the entry permit
- A medical certificate, examination or quarantine only where the health authorities judge it necessary
- No paid or self-employed work, anywhere in the four countries, while you are on a visitor permission
In detail
Ninety days, read twice
Article 20 of the migration law gives a visitor ninety days "extendable for as long as is necessary, in accordance with the Regulation". Read alone it sounds like an open door. The regulation that article points at closes it: article 117 allows one further grant of thirty days after the ninety, and nothing else. So the honest answer is a hundred and twenty days, and the generous-sounding sentence in the law is a delegation rather than a promise. A visitor who wants longer is not asking for another extension; they are asking to change migration status, which is a different application with its own requirements and its own fee.
The clock is regional, not Honduran
Honduras does not count your days by itself. Under the CA-4 arrangement the permission stamped at the first outer border you cross - whether that border is Honduran, Guatemalan, Salvadoran or Nicaraguan - is the permission that governs the whole region, and moving between the four countries does not restart it. The manual is explicit that inner-border posts stamp the entry without writing days on it, precisely so that nobody reads a new crossing as a new ninety days. Leaving the region through an outer border cancels the permission; leaving Honduras for Nicaragua does not. The old traveller's habit of a day trip to a neighbour to refresh a stay does not work here, and the manual has a named instrument against it: a reserve measure that lets an officer cut the days granted to someone who has been living, working or studying in the region without authorisation.
Nothing at the border asks about your record
Article 113 of the regulation is a closed list of four entry requirements, and a criminal-record certificate is not one of them. This is worth saying because it does not run both ways: Costa Rica asks Honduran visitors for a police certificate from the age of eighteen, while Honduras asks arriving visitors for a valid travel document, honest answers, the conditions of the permit, and a medical certificate only if the health authorities call for one. Honduras does ask for a police certificate from the country of origin and of last residence - but of residence applicants, not of visitors.
Who needs a visa is decided regionally
The list of nationalities that need a visa for Honduras is not a Honduran publication. It is Annex I of the CA-4 manual, a single table of one hundred and ninety countries sorted into three categories: exempt, consular visa, and consulted visa, which needs prior authorisation from the migration directorate. Honduras keeps reservations against that common table and they are written into the table's own observations column, which is why a nationality can be in one category for the region and another for Honduras alone. The table also carries concessions: a holder of a valid United States, Canadian or Schengen visa is treated one category more favourably than their nationality would be.
Country-level policy
Every procedure in the Honduran migration law and its regulation is addressed to the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, under the Secretaría de Gobernación y Justicia. Neither name is current: migration control is now exercised through the Instituto Nacional de Migración under the Secretaría de Gobernación, Justicia y Descentralización, as a 2025 ministerial instrument recites. That would be a cosmetic problem if the new institute published requirement sheets. It does not. Its site was relaunched on 30 September 2026 and its alien affairs page lists the kinds of procedure it handles without stating a single requirement for any of them. The 2003 law and its 2004 regulation are therefore the only public statement of what Honduras asks.
The currency of Honduras is the lempira, and almost nothing in its migration law is stated in lempiras. The income thresholds are in United States dollars, the investment threshold is in dollars, the guarantee deposit is in dollars, and the whole fee schedule of the regulation - residences, naturalisations, permits, passports, extensions, the land entry fee - is in dollars with a single lempira line at the end for certificates. The law allows payment in the equivalent in national currency, so the dollar is the unit of account rather than the means of payment. The practical effect is that these figures do not quietly erode with the exchange rate, which is why thresholds set in 2003 are still the thresholds today.
What applies to you
the United Arab Emirates: Honduras Does Not Apply the Regional Visa Category
Another reservation that makes Honduras stricter than the region. Emirati passports are exempt across the CA-4 table; Honduras requires a consular visa of ordinary passports, leaving the diplomatic, official and service columns exempt. Fiji and Haiti carry the identically worded Honduran reservation in the same annex.
- The regional table puts the United Arab Emirates in category Exempt from visa
- Honduras treats the nationality as Consular visa for ordinary passports
- The concession is Honduran only - the other three CA-4 countries apply the regional category
What the law says
«se les autorizará permanencia en el país hasta por noventa días prorrogables por el tiempo que sea necesario de conformidad a lo establecido en el Reglamento de la presente Ley»Our translation - not official
they shall be authorised to stay in the country for up to ninety days, extendable for as long as is necessary in accordance with the Regulation of this Law
The law delegates the length of the extension to the regulation, and the regulation is narrower than the sentence sounds.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«3. Turistas, misión oficial, visitantes especiales, solicitantes de refugio y de asilo, noventa (90) días.»Our translation - not official
3. Tourists, official mission, special visitors, applicants for refuge and asylum, ninety (90) days.
About this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«En los casos establecidos en los numerales 1 y 3 del artículo anterior y en situaciones debidamente justificadas por la Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería podrá otorgar una única prórroga de treinta (30) días más, después de los noventa (90) días que establece la Ley.»Our translation - not official
In the cases set out in numerals 1 and 3 of the preceding article, and in duly justified situations, the Directorate General of Migration and Alien Affairs may grant a single further extension of thirty (30) days after the ninety (90) days the Law establishes.
This is the cap. One extension, thirty days, and the ninety days of article 20 do not reopen.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«Para ingresar al territorio nacional los extranjeros deberán cumplir con los requisitos siguientes:»Our translation - not official
To enter the national territory foreigners must meet the following requirements:
The closed list that follows has four items - a valid travel document, answering the authorities, meeting the conditions of the entry permit, and a medical certificate where the health authorities require one. A police or criminal-record certificate is not among them.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«En el caso de los extranjeros no residentes el pasaporte deberá tener una vigencia mínima de tres (3) meses.»Our translation - not official
In the case of non-resident foreigners the passport must have at least three (3) months' validity.
About this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«El plazo de permanencia de los extranjero en la región será hasta de noventa (90) días, otorgado en las delegaciones migratorias periféricas y podrá ser prorrogado por una sola vez en la Dirección General de Migración donde se encuentre.»Our translation - not official
The period of stay for foreigners in the region shall be up to ninety (90) days, granted at the outer-border migration posts, and may be extended once only at the Directorate General of Migration where the person is.
The publisher's wording, "de los extranjero", is reproduced as printed.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Una vez que el extranjero abandone el territorio por una delegación migratoria periférica de cualquier Estado Parte, la permanencia otorgada en la región, queda sin validez y efecto.»Our translation - not official
Once the foreigner leaves the territory through an outer-border migration post of any State Party, the stay granted in the region ceases to have validity or effect.
Leaving the region ends the clock. Crossing between the four countries does not.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Los extranjeros no residentes no podrán realizar tareas o actividadeslucrativas por cuenta propia o en relación de dependencia»Our translation - not official
Non-resident foreigners may not carry out gainful tasks or activities, whether self-employed or in an employment relationship
The missing space in "actividadeslucrativas" is in the published text.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«19. Ingreso de extranjeros no centroamericanos por la vía terrestre $ 3.00»Our translation - not official
19. Entry of non-Central American foreigners by land USD 3.00
A Central American arriving by land is not charged. The fee is stated in dollars, as every fee in this schedule is.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«10. Prórrogas de permanencia para extranjeros no residentes por cada mes. $ 20.00»Our translation - not official
10. Extensions of stay for non-resident foreigners, per month. USD 20.00
One of the two lines in this schedule where the extraction keeps the amount beside the item.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«3. Extralimitarse en el tiempo de permanencia autorizado;»Our translation - not official
3. Exceeding the authorised period of stay;
The penalty for every infraction in this article is set in the opening sentence: half a minimum wage to three minimum wages, with the services sector as the reference.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The statement that no police or criminal-record certificate is asked of visitors rests on two readings: article 80 of the migration law and article 113 of its regulation, which are the two places entry requirements are set out, and on the CA-4 manual's own entry-requirements section. It is not a claim that no circular of the migration institute has ever added one.
The CA-4 country list we read is the one annexed to the unified manual. The manual says in terms that the list may be modified by consensus of the four states, and the annex carries no date of last revision, so a nationality near a category boundary should be checked with a Honduran consulate rather than read off this table.
The manual circulates in a Guatemalan copy that carries a second country table at the back. That second table is Guatemala's own list of where Guatemalans need visas to travel, and it is not the CA-4 classification. The two look alike and say different things.
The migration institute relaunched its website on 30 September 2026 and published no requirement sheet for any procedure, so there is currently no agency page stating what is asked at the border. The law and the regulation are the only public statement.
- reportsLey de Migración y Extranjería, Decreto No. 208-2003, La Gaceta
Observatorio de las Migraciones Internacionales en Honduras (OMIH), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
About this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- reportsReglamento de la Ley de Migración y Extranjería
Tribunal Superior de Cuentas de Honduras - biblioteca de leyes
About this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
- reportsManual Regional de Procedimientos Migratorios de la Visa Única Centroamericana CA-4
Observatorio de las Migraciones Internacionales en Honduras (OMIH), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
About this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- administersExtranjería - Instituto Nacional de Migración
Instituto Nacional de Migración (Honduras)
About this source
The body that now runs Honduran migration control, replacing the directorate every instrument still names. Its site was relaunched on 30 September 2026.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for requirements, fees or timescales, because it publishes none: its extranjería page lists ten kinds of procedure and states nothing whatever about any of them. Its only evidential value today is as proof of that absence, and that is the only thing resting on it here.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source